The abessive case of the Permic languages

The 14th International Morphology MeetingMay 13-16

Budapest, Hungary

Arja HamariDepartment of Finnish,

Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies

University of Helsinki, Finland

Study material:

• Komi:– Komi mu (Oct. 1st, 2008 - Sept. 30th, 2009)– Vojvyv kodzuv (1/1997 - 5/1997)

• Udmurt:– Udmurt duńńe (Jan. 1st - Dec. 31st 2007)

Janhunen (1982: 31):

"[--] Other suffixes in PU could also have had case-like uses: it is difficult to distinguish a case ending from certain types of derivative morphemes. For instance, a caritive in *-ktå/-ktä (used as a case form in Finnic) existed in PU, but whether it was a case form or a derivational formation remains unclear."

Itkonen (1992: 223):

In Finno-Permic languages:

• *Cta ~ *Ctä + nominal ending *ma ~ *mä> the successors usually adnominal (e.g. Komi -töm ~ Udmurt -tem)

• *Cta ~ *Ctä + lative case ending *k> the successors usually adverbial(e.g. Komi -tög ~ Udmurt -teg)

The abessive case in nouns

• the affirmative equivalents in Komi:– the instrumental case in -ön:

karandaš-ön'with a pencil'karandaš-tög 'without a pencil'

– the comitative case in -köd:

Tol'a-köd 'with Tol'a'Tol'a-tög 'without Tol'a'

The abessive case in nouns

• the affirmative equivalents in Udmurt– the instrumental case in -(j)en:

karandaš-en 'with a pencil'karandaš-tek 'without a pencil'

Ondi-jen 'with Ondi'Ondi-tek 'without Ondi'

The abessive case in nounsThe possessive declension (Bartens 2000: 110-112):

• Komi gort 'home'sg.1. gort-öj-tögpl.1. gort-tög-nymsg.2. gort-tög-yd pl.2. gort-tög-nydsg.3. gort-tög-ys pl.3. gort-tög-nys

• Udmurt gurt 'village'sg.1. gurt-e-tek pl.1. gurt-my-teksg.2. gurt-ed-tek pl.2. gurt-ty-teksg.3. gurt-ez-tekpl.3. gurt-sy-tek

The abessive case in nouns

• morphological characteristics:– in both languages: can be attached to common

nouns, proper nouns, pronouns

– furthermore, in Udmurt:• can be attached to the adverb kema 'for a long time'• can be attached to the negative indefinite pronoun

nomyr 'nothing'

The abessive case in nouns

The abessive case in nouns

• Syntactic characteristics:– in both languages: the case forms function as

adverbials– in the Udora dialect of Komi: the case forms

function both as adverbials and as attributes

Examples:

Examples:

The abessive case in nouns

• in both languages: modifiers to the abessive forms– adjective– possessor in nominative or in genitive– negative indefinite pronoun– participle

Examples:

The abessive case in verbs• the suffix is attached straight into the verbal stem in both

languages

• the affirmative equivalents in Komi:– the affirmative gerund in -ig- and -ömön

voślavny śylig 'to stride singing' ~ voślavny śylömön 'to stride singing'><voślavny śyvtög 'to stride without singing'

The abessive case in verbs

• the affirmative equivalents in Udmurt:– the affirmative gerund in -sa

uža-sa 'working; by working'><uža-tek 'without working'

The abessive case in verbs

• Syntactic characteristics of the negative gerunds– free adverbials– complements to verbs meaning 'be', 'leave', 'stay'– attributes for deverbal nouns

Examples:

Examples:

Examples:

The changes of the case system in Proto-Permian

• Baker (1985: 137-153):– phonological processes– secretion– semantic shifts– adaptation of nonflectional elements– case-compounding

• was anything preserved from the older system?– the abessive case

What was the reason for the preservation of the suffix-final consonant of the abessive?

• Uotila (1933: 132) and, accordingly, Baker (1985: 137):– the postposing of the possessive suffix with respect

to abessive case ending in the possessive declension

• cf. modern Komi: gort-tög-yd home-ABE-POSS.2SG'without your home'

What was the reason for the preservation of the suffix-final consonant of the abessive?

What was the reason for the preservation of the suffix-final consonant of the abessive?

• Cypanov (1997: 161-162):

– the structural similarity of the Komi abessive suffix in -tög and the derivational caritive suffix in -töm

– the deletion of the suffix-final consonants would have led to the merger of the suffixes

What was the reason for the preservation of the functions of the abessive case?

• haphazard?• the character of the case ending as an

element of negation?– Givón (1979: 121-122): diachronic conservatism of

negation as opposed to affirmation– cf. the negative participles of Komi and Udmurt

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