What do oranges and hammers have in common? The classifier ‘round’ in Wa’ikhana and other East Tukano languages

Abstract

Eastern Tukanoan languages are known for their developed nominal classification systems. Wa’ikhana (Piratapuyo) is in this sense a typical member of the family, since it has an open system with a big number of classes and with class markers which exercise derivational and agreement functions. Among all the Wa’ikhana inanimate classes, the class ‘round’ stands out for its semantic and morphosyntactic features. It is one of the most (if not the most) extensive class, which includes round objects as well as objects of a less prototypical shape. Its markers in non-plural number have the biggest number of allomorphs, whereas allomorphy of classifiers is not typical for this language. Besides, the class ‘round’ has a distinct plural marker, another feature absent for most classifiers. Comparison between Wa’ikhana and other related languages demonstrates that these peculiarities are shared by many of Eastern Tukanoan languages. Thus, the present paper aims to describe the class ‘round’ in Wa’ikhana and other languages of the family and to show common features as well as features that distinguish Wa’ikhana.