Арауанский язык: Классы существительных, влияние португальского и особенности ударения.

Arauan language spoken in Brazil
The two classes in the other system of noun classes are called ka class and non ka class, because the ka class nouns cause certain other words to signal agreement with the prefix ka The semantic basis for assigning different nouns to these two classes is slightly less opaque than for gender: no abstract nouns are in the ka class, and whether a concrete noun is in the ka class roughly corresponds to whether its referent is large and flat, with certain semantic categories admitting other generalizations. A verb must take the prefix ka if a particular argument is a ka class noun; if the verb is in an intransitive clause that argument is the subject, whereas if it is in a transitive clause that argument is the object. Aside from verb argument agreement, noun class agreement also occurs for modifying stative verbs, possessed nouns, and certain adjectives. This system of classifying nouns is eroding in the face of contact with Portuguese, with the agreement prefix often being left off of verbs in rapid speech.

There are some portions of the Paumarí language that have been irreversibly changed by Portuguese influence. For example, Paumarí use Portuguese narrative words such as dai ("from there") and então ("then") often in their speech. Also, Paumarí have difficulty expressing equality/inequality within their own language. At the time of the 1964 SIL arrival, they used the Portuguese word mais ("more") in conjunction with adjectives to compare things and the researchers could not find anything in native Paumarí tongue that served the same function in their language. Often, root duplication serves as a way for the Paumarí to express that something is less like or becoming or trending towards another thing. This is an odd use of reduplication, as in many other languages, reduplication serves to strengthen the word; make it more immediate or intense. For adjectives, often the suffix –ki will be added to tag the word as descriptive. Reduplication of adjective roots denotes less of the description.

Dan Everett of the University of North Dakota has extensively studied the accent/stress system of the Paumarí and has claimed that the Paumarí’s accent system violates some of the most basic theories put forward by linguists with regards to stress systems. Paumarí has iambic feet, which means the accent tends towards the right, or latter, portion of the word or syllable set, and they are not weight sensitive. Everett theorizes that stress placement and syllables in the Paumarí language are more exclusive from one another than many modern theories believe. Two types of accents are distinguished in Paumarí, primary stress and secondary stress. Primary stress is characterized by a sharp increase in intensity (volume) and by somewhat higher pitch, although the latter is difficult for non speakers to distinguish and was found by digital analysis of sound wave of native speakers. Secondary stress in Paumarí is characterized by a slight increase in intensity and often an increase in syllable duration. The final syllable of a word always has one of the two of these and therefore is always somewhat stressed. The stress system starts at the final syllable and works its way to the left, or the beginning of the word, skipping every other syllable. In disyllabic words, the primary stress is placed on the final syllable. In polysyllabic words, the primary stress is assigned to the antepenult (third from last) syllable, and the last syllable is assigned secondary stress. If the polysyllabic word is five syllables or more, every odd syllable (leftward) from the antepenult syllable is also assigned secondary stress. Therefore, regardless of how many syllables a word has, the primary stress is always on the last or antepenult syllable. The beginning syllable for a word will only have primary stress if it is a three syllable word, and will have secondary stress only if it contains an odd number (5, 7, 9, etc.) of syllables.