Nominal Classification in the North West Amazon: Issues in Areal Diffusion and Typological Characterization

Abstract

Nominal classification systems are quite widespread in Amazonia. However, their existence was generally unknown to typologists prior to the late 1980s. For example, the works of Denny (1976), Greenberg (1977), Allan (1977), and Dixon (1986) are essentially silent about South America. Perhaps the earliest systematic descriptions that used terms like “classifier” or “noun classification” are Gomez-Imbert (1982) and Payne (1986), though the raw morphological material of Amazonian classification systems was certainly reflected in a variety of earlier works (e.g., Hart 1963, who referred to “shape morphemes” in the Peruvian language Amarakaeri; Key 1967 on Cayuvava of Bolivia; Peeke 1973 on Waorani of Ecuador; and Landaburu 1979 on Andoke of Colombia). 1 Payne (1987), followed by Derbyshire and Payne (1990), provided a first overview of North West Amazonian nominal classification systems. A number of descriptions have been published since (e.g., Barnes 1990, Aikhenvald 1994; 1996, Aikhenvald and Green 1998, Seifart 2002, and Weber 2002), but many systems of the region remain unor underdescribed. 2 The papers in this volume explore nominal classification in languages spoken in the North West Amazon, where the Putumayo, Caqueta, and Vaupes river basins approach the Amazon River and where the borders of Colombia, Brazil, and Peru meet (see figure 1). The languages come from the Witotoan, Peba-Yaguan, Arawak, and Eastern Tucanoan families. 3