Carib affixes in Garifuna

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Information and examples are from Taylor (1954; 1956; 1959; 1977), Taylor and Hoff (1980), Hoff (1986), de Pury (2001; 2005), and Escure (2004:45–46) and Escure (2012). See also Grant (2010).

1 possessive person-marker prefix

  • i- ‘first singular possessor’, e.g. iuaku ‘my drink’, iúti ‘my share (of food etc.)’ (Taylor 1956:39)

1 collective (plural) suffix

  • -gu ‘collective, plural’, e.g. níbirigu ‘my younger siblings’, numégegu ‘my (personal) belongings’, nibą́iagu ‘my grandchildren’, tibegu ‘her people’ (Taylor 1959:190–191)

Note that Escure (2004:45–46) discusses a number of further affixes of putative Carib origin, in particular a nominalizing suffix -un(i), and a large number of evidential particles (or suffixes) of which she discusses in particular -ti (hearsay), -na (uncertainty), and -me (deductive). However, no corresponding elements have been identified in Carib (Kalin’a, Galibi), the source language for Cariban material in Garifuna. For the evidential particles, Escure (2004:45–46) cites similar-looking forms from Hixkaryana as source forms (Derbyshire 1999:53), but Hixkaryana is from a different branch of the Cariban family. Additionally, the Garifuna evidential particles are only attested in Escure’s (2004:45–46) material, and not mentioned by other sources. For the nominalizing suffix, Lokono/Arawak (the Arawakan language most closely related to Garifuna) -n (Pet 2011:22–24 and passim), seems a likely cognate, which means the form would be native.