Vowels

Adapted from Kroeker (2001)^[3]

Consonants

Adapted from Kroeker (2001)^[3] and Lowe (1999)^[13]

[m] is shown in parentheses because according to Kroeker (2001),^[3] it appears only in loanwords or following the diphthong /au/. In addition to the segments shown above, Nambikwara also has [bm], which appears following the diphthong /ãu/, [ŋ], which appears before a velar stop and after a nasal vowel, [gŋ], which appears before a velar stop and after an oral vowel, and [r], which is an allophone of /l/ that appears following front vowels.^[3] Kroeker notes the existence of the voiced alveolar implosive /ɗ/, but argues that it is falling out of use.

Tones

Southern Nambikwara is a tonal language with three tones: a falling tone marked with a superscript "1," a rising tone marked "2," and a low tone marked "3."^[14] Examples:

• ˈhot³su² 'monkey'
• ˈḛ³rhʔu² 'cashew'
• ˈʔwḭ̃¹su² 'toad'

Verbs

Nambikwara has main verbs and subordinate verbs. Main verbs contain suffixes that indicate mood (indicative or imperative), person-number, and aspect. Indicative main verbs have additional suffixes which indicate tense-evidentiality.^[15]

Indicative Main Verbs

Indicative main verbs in Nambikwara are either declarative or dubitative. Declarative sentences are used when the speaker does not doubt the information being given, and dubitative sentences are used when there is some doubt about the information being given.^[15] Indicative verbs are inflected to represent subject person, subject number, speaker number, aspect, and tense in the following ways:

Adapted from Lowe (1999).^[15]

As indicated in the table, there are three subject persons in Nambikwara. The first person subject and the third person subject can either be singular or non-singular (which covers both dual and plural counts), whereas the second person subject can be counted as singular, dual, or plural. Additionally, a distinction is made between the inclusive and exclusive forms of first-person non-singular subjects.^[15]

Unlike English, Nambikwara also distinguishes between three different levels of past: recent past, mid past, and remote past. Furthermore, they are also inflected to represent evidentiality: whether the statement was based on observational, inferential, quotative, and what Lowe refers to as “internal support newness”. Observational statements are based on what the speaker has seen, inferential statements are based on one might assume from observing a simultaneous action or a set of actions that may resulted from a previous one, quotative statements are based on what the speakers has heard from another person or people, and internal support statements are based on their “gut feelings”.^[15] The following table displays the suffixes used for indicative verbs:

Adapted from Lowe (1999).^[15]

In the following example sentences (1) and (2) from Lowe (1999),^[15] one can see how the use of a specific suffix helps the hearer distinguish whether the statement being given is observational or quotative:

Imperative Main Verbs

Imperative main verbs in Nambikwara contain suffixes to reflect speaker number (singular, plural), subject person-number (singular, dual, plural), and aspect (perfective, imperfective). Imperative verbs are further divided into three positive verb forms and one negative verb form. The positive verb forms are used to describe “an action to be done in the immediate future, […] and an action to be done in the more distant future”.^[15]

Pronouns

Nambikwara has seven different kinds of pronouns: personal, possessive, indefinite, demonstrative, reflexive, reciprocal, and interrogative.^[3]

The table above shows the personal pronouns in Nambikwara as described by Lowe. The category of personal pronouns is divided into suffix and free pronouns; suffix pronouns are further divided into subject pronouns, object pronouns, and copula pronouns.^[15] Personal pronouns mark for person and number. Additionally, third person singular pronouns mark for gender (feminine or masculine), and 1st person non-singular distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive (Ibid). 2nd person pronouns distinguish between singular, dual and plural, while first and third person only mark singular or non-singular number.^[15]

Possessive pronouns in Nambikwara mark person but not number or gender. They attach to the noun that they possess as prefixes.^[3] The possessive pronouns, according to Kroeker, are as follows:^[3]

tʔa² – First person possessive

wʔa² – Second person possessive

a² – Third person possessive

tʔa²wã¹ - First and second person possessive

There are two indefinite pronouns, both of which are free.^[3] The two forms are ĩ2l3te2a2, which glosses to “anyone”, and ã1thũn3te2a2, which glosses to “someone” (Ibid). The demonstrative pronoun is –ai2li2, and it attaches to the noun as a suffix.^[3] Kroeker (2001)^[3] provides this example:

The reflexive and reciprocal pronouns each have one form, which are –nha1 and -nyhuh1, respectively.^[3] Here is an example of the reflexive pronoun from Kroeker (2001):^[3]

Finally, interrogative pronouns are free and appear at the beginning of an interrogative sentence.^[3] The interrogative pronouns, as reported by Kroeker,^[3] are shown below:

Nouns

Noun roots in Nambikwara typically end in a vowel or the consonant n, t, or h. Classifiers indicating things such as the shape of the referent are suffixed to the root. Some examples include the property of being stick-like (kat3) or powder-like (nũn3). Definiteness (indefinite, definite, or conditional) and causality are also reflected by the use of suffixes. Definite nouns also use additional suffixes to indicate “demonstrativeness, spatio-temporality, evidentiality, and causality”.^[15] Sources of evidentiality inflected in definite nouns include observational, inferential, and quotative. However, Lowe (1999)^[15] states that there are few corpus examples of the simultaneous use of time and evidentiality suffixes in definite nouns. In the following sentence examples from Lowe (1999),^[15] one can see how suffixes are used to distinguish between a bone-like manioc root that was seen recently, and one that was seen in the past:

Subject and Object Marking

Nambikwara does not distinguish between subject and object forms in noun stems in both transitive and intransitive sentences and uses an active-stative system for case marking. However, when it is necessary to mention the subject of a sentence, personal pronoun free forms can be used. This only occurs when “a new participant is introduced, or when there would be too much confusion if [it] were omitted”.^[3] Nambikwara also makes use of different subject and object suffixes that must “refer anaphorically to the real person/object that is either alluded to or given overtly in the subject/object of the clause” and are divided into first, second, and third person.^[3] Additionally, some suffixes will be further divided into dual and combined forms or plural and combined forms, but only one of those forms can be affixed to a verb. According to Kroeker (2001), the dual form is used following singular forms, and the plural form is also used following singular forms. The following tables (adapted from Kroeker 2001) lists the personal pronoun free forms and bound object and subject suffixes that can be used in Nambikwara.

The following sentences are taken from Kroeker (2001) and show the different uses of the multiple forms of “you” and “us” in the object position:

One important thing to note on subject suffix marking is that the suffix -sĩn¹ must always be used “when someone is spokesperson for a group in conveying information”.^[3] This is because although they are speaking on their own, they are acting on behalf of the interests of a larger group.

Tense and Evidentiality

In Nambikwara, verbs are divided into two major types: indicative and imperative^[15] Indicative verbs are obligatorily marked for tense.^[15] Nambikwara distinguishes between five tenses: remote past, mid past, recent past, present, and future^[15][3] Remote past is used to refer to any event that occurred before the speaker’s life time, while mid past is used when discussing an event that happened after the speaker was born but before the day of the utterance, and recent past is used when talking about an event that occurred on the same day as the utterance.^[3] Present tense is used when discussing an event that is currently happening, and the future tense is used when discussing any event that has not yet begun happening.^[3] Tense is indicated by a suffix attaching to the verb, with the exception of the present tense, which is unmarked^[3][15]

Verbs inflected for any tense other than the future must also be marked for evidentiality.^[15] There are two types of evidentiality suffixes: verification markers and orientation markers.^[3] Both types are realized differently depending on the tense with which they are used, and neither of them occur with the future tense.^[3] There are two types of verification suffixes: individual, which indicates that only the speaker witnessed or heard about the event, and collective, which indicates that both the speaker and the addressee(s) saw or heard about the event.^[3] Orientation suffixes indicate the source of the information, and are divided into four types.^[3] Observation suffixes indicate that the speaker witnessed the event that they are describing occur.^[3] Deductive or inferential suffixes suggest that the speaker did not witness the event, but inferred that it happened based on evidence that they did observe.^[3][15] Customary suffixes indicate that the speaker believes the event happened because things always happen that way.^[3][15] Finally, narration or quotative suffixes indicate that the speaker obtained this information from someone else, and is now quoting or paraphrasing.^[3][15] As Lowe (1999) notes, sometimes speakers employ the present tense and the verification suffix that indicates that both the speaker and addressee witnessed the event when describing past events that neither party witnessed. This is a story telling device, used to make the event that the speaker is describing sound more interesting and believable.^[15]

Neither Kroeker (2001) nor Lowe (1999) provide a complete list of the tense and evidentiality markers of Nambikwara. According to both, the future tense marker is –tu¹, though Kroeker (2001) asserts that when the verb is negated, the future marker becomes –lho³. Lowe (1999) also gives the following chart, which shows some verbal evidentiality and tense suffixes for verbs that convey new information.

Nambikwara has two aspects: the perfective, -la², and the imperfective, -wa².^[3] Which aspect suffix attaches to the verb depends on the tense of the verb. The perfective suffix attaches to verbs whose tense is one of three past tenses, the negative future tense, and if the verb is a stative in any form other than the first person present.^[3] The imperfective suffix attaches to verbs that are marked with the present tense, positive future tense, or that are statives in the first person and present tense.^[3]

When a sentence in Nambikwara contains a subordinate clause, the verb of the subordinate clause is not marked for tense or evidentiality.^[15][3] If the tense and evidentiality of the subordinate verb is the same as it is for the main verb, these markers simply attach to the main verb and are left out of the subordinate clause.^[3] When the subordinate verb does not take tense or evidentiality markers unless this is required to avoid ambiguity.^[3]

Auxiliary verbs in Nambikwara appear following the main verb. When a construction contains an auxiliary verb, the tense and evidentiality suffixes will attach to the auxiliary verb instead of to the main verb.^[3] In cases where the person or tense changes from the main verb to the auxiliary verb, the construction must be rephrased.^[3]

In interrogative and imperative sentences, the tense markers are replaced by question markers and a different complex of suffixes, respectively.^[3] Nambikwara has four types of imperative verbs: three positive imperatives, and one negative.^[15] The three positive imperatives distinguish between two types of future; one type of positive imperative indicates that the action is to be performed in the immediate future, while the other two suggest that the event must be performed in the more distant future.^[15]

In Nambikwara, verb phrases are conjoined by replacing the tense and evidentiality suffixes on the verbs with a coordination suffix (namely, -i²), and moving the suffix string indicating tense and evidentiality to the end of the coordination, so that it applies to both conjuncts.^[3][15] Lowe (1999) provides this example:

Tense in Nambikwara impacts parts of speech aside from verbs. Adverbs with a temporal stem, for instance must be marked with a temporal suffix that matches the tense of the corresponding verb.^[3]

English Nambikwara

Blood Tihayauswu

Bone Susu

Breast Nunki

Death Yalu

Dog Wayali

Ear Nenen

Eye Yena

Fire Han'ieairawa

Full Nek'ih

Hand Hiki

Hear Insanewih

Horn Ne'tau

I T'aili

Knee Sukw'alaulen

Leaf Waihnanaitanta

Louse Kanihne

Name I'nli

New Wununtsunala

Night Kan'ahti

Nose Wanen

One Kanaki

See Inn

Skin Wannlu

Star Hikata

Sun Uxenaki

Tongue Yo'helu

Tooth Wi

Tree Hisakat

Two Hali

Water Innyaus'nu

Who Nannuwa

You Wannina