Thursday, November 27, 2014

1st person/2nd person subject object combinations in Timucua

The verbal prefixes of Timucua seem to follow the following template:

(object agr)-(applicative)-(subject agr)-VERB ROOT

The agreement prefixes are

  • ni-  1st person
  • chi- 2nd person
The same prefixes are used for both subject and object agreement.  They are not in the same agreement slot because the applicative na- prefix follows the object agreement and precedes the subject agreement.

However, there is an apparent restriction that there cannot be an overt object prefix and an overt subject prefix at the same time.  If there is a 1st or 2nd person object, 1st or 2nd person subject agreement is shown by

  • a suffix on the verb, or
  • a prefix on a separate verb


Examples:
1612 Cat, f78r-78v
1612 Cat, f70v
1612 Cat, f55v
Conf F vi

1612 Cat, f65v





The following examples have 2nd person subject and 1st person object.
'What do you say about us?" Conf, f22v-23r

1612 Cat, f20v







The following (most excellent) example shows both combinations -- note that in each one the object is shown by preverbal agreement and the subject by postverbal:

Conf, f28v -29

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Six poisonous snakes in Timucua

The following text comes from the 1627 Timucua Catecismo (f30r-32r), discussing what happened on the 6th day of creation:




It is hard to figure out what Timucua word might correspond to what kind of snake.  The Spanish text is not very specific, and seems to use serpientes, culebras, and vĂ­poras as synonyms.  (I know that there are actually differences in the technical application in Spanish, but I don't see much evidence of differences in the colonial Spanish text.)

When discussing the snake that persuaded Eve to eat the apple, the Timucua uses iyolaribe or yyolaribe as equivalent to 'serpiente', and Pareja's Arte (f53) has an example of yoraba, translated as 'vipora' or 'culebra'.

But it is intriguing that in the Timucua, three of the venomous snakes begin with iyola, while three (fecheni, elatubasa, utimala) do not.  Also that there are now six kinds of venomous snakes in Florida:
https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology/fl-snakes/venomous-snakes/