Tundra Nenets inflection

by Tapani Salminen

Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 227

Publications of the Databank for Endangered Finno-Ugrian Languages 2

Helsinki 1997

155 p.

ISBN 952-5150-02-X

• Abstract
• Corrigenda

This study deals with the morphology of the Tundra Nenets language, spoken in Arctic Russia and north-western Siberia. It aims at a comprehensive description of Tundra Nenets inflection. The model of description is the so-called realizational, or non-morphemic one, and arguments are presented in favour of the adoption of this particular model. The general approach is, however, language-specific as well as synchronic.

Central problems in inflectional morphology involve its relationship with derivation, the status of morphophonology, and the interaction between inflection, lexicon, and syntax. It is argued that morphology must be recognized as an independent component of grammar, which incorporates morphophonology. Derivation and inflection are seen as basically united, although they can be distinguished by specifically morphological criteria.

The description of inflection covers the two major word classes, verbs and nouns, as well as the minor classes, i.e. personal pronouns and various groups of adverbs and postpositions. Special emphasis is placed on a rule format which would capture the relevant generalizations in a simple, readable manner. To meet the requirements of such a morphologically and morphophonologically complex language as Tundra Nenets, the rule system makes extensive use of the concepts of default and referral.

Corrigenda

there should be

b.	nom.sg	abs.	myaq	nyah
		poss. 1sg	myaqm°	nyam°
		poss. 2sg	myaql°	nyal°
		poss. 3sg	myata	nyanta

On pages 94 and 112 it is claimed that the preterite occurs only in connection with four moods. It has turned out that to these moods should be added a fifth one, the imperfective approximative. Consequently, the number of mood and tense combinations rises to twenty-one, which causes changes in the relevant figures on page 96. In fact, there is a correct reference to the imperfective approximative preterite on page 98.

The other mistakes are less fatal:

	IS	SHOULD BE
on page 36 in table 3	vowels plain	plain vowels
on page 39 line 2	normally occurrence only	normally occurs only
on page 51 line 5	contructs	constructs
on page 53 last line	nya°ni[h]	nya°nyi[h]
on page 54 line 14	*nyíngku núq	*nyingku núq
on page 55 line 3	and {ngko} which is attached	and {hxo} which is attached
on page 61 line 21	the comparative {rka}	the comparative {rxa}
on page 67 line 15	for certain vowel stem nouns, namely monosyllabic e~i- and	for certain vowel stem words, namely monosyllabic e~i-stem words and
on page 70 last line	On the hand	On the other hand
on page 72 line 16	tí-pæ°rtya	tí-bæ°rtya
on page 80 second line of 6.2.1	Their difference between	The difference between
on page 83 line 8	belongs to type	belongs to type (iii)
on page 83 line 16	other than habitive verbs	other than habitive and future verbs
on page 90 line 15	the intransitive lax°nø-	the intransitive løx°nø-
on page 106 9th line after (15)	imp. subj.2du to°dih	imp. subj.2du to°dyih
on page 107 in (18)	tæw°ngax°yudømta	imp. subj.2du tæw°ngax°yud°mta
on page 120 second line after (1)	t-stem	d-stem
on page 120 7th line after (1)	there is alos	there is also
on page 141 line 10	me- Vtr. 'to salt'	serota- Vtr. 'to salt'
on page 141 three times and page 142 twice	yabc°bø- Vtr. 'to bake' dur.	yabc°bøngko- Vtr. 'to bake' dur. fut.
on page 15	Castrén & Lehtisalo (1940), Lehtisalo (1947, 1960)	Castrén & Lehtisalo (1940, 1960), Lehtisalo (1947)
on page 151	[Lehtisalo, T.] 1960	Castrén, M. A. & Lehtisalo, T. 1960
on page 152 at Tereshchenko 1947	Leningrad: Prosveshchenie	Leningrad: Uchpedgiz
on page 152 at Zwicky 1989	216-36	216--236

The word meaning 'garbage' is given as nyox°l on pages 35, 73 and 146 but the current transcription of the word is nyoxol; this change is based on the comment of my opponent professor Helimski. It is also possible that the rare word given as lax°b on page 71 would better be laxøb°, as suggested by professor Helimski, which would reduce the number of b-stem nouns to three, but the former transcription is still retained in the morphological dictionary. The word given as suyu 'calf' on pages 87 and 121 should be súyu instead. The word given as syaqni° 'of the time' on page 138 should be syaq°ni°; in the morphological dictionary, this word was transcribed as sya°qni°, which was later found to be incorrect as well.