The Timucua Language: A Text-Based Reference Grammar

The Timucua Language is a comprehensive reference grammar of Timucua, the Native language of much of northern Florida during the Spanish colonial period. Though the Timucua language is no longer spoken, written Timucua was extensively used as a medium of Franciscan evangelism in the seventeenth century; indeed, the Timucua catechisms from 1612 are the earliest written records in any Native language of the land that is now the United States. Two secular letters in the language also survive from that period. As a whole, the Timucua written corpus gives us incomparable insight into the Indigenous culture and history of early Florida. This grammar is based on a thorough study of the extant printed and handwritten documents and on careful philological and comparative analysis of the corpus. Because the content of printed Timucua material often varies considerably from the Spanish text printed in parallel with it, careful study of Timucua grammar enables linguists, anthropologists, and historians to begin to read these critical texts in Florida and southeastern U.S. history.  

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Part 1. Historical background and literature overview 1 About the language 1.1 History 1.2 Dialectal variation 1.3 Previous research and genetic affiliations 2 The corpus and citation conventions 3 Interpreting the corpus 3.1 Documents written by native speakers 3.2 Pareja’s Arte 3.3 Orthographic and lexical diversity 3.3.1 Lexical choice 3.3.2 Labialization 3.3.2.1 Variation in the postposition beta 3.3.2.2 Variation in the irrealis suffix -haue 4 Grammar overview 4.1 Phonological typology 4.2 Morphological typology 4.3 Word order and simple verb inflection 4.4 Simple nouns and noun phrases 4.5 Simple postpositional phrases 4.6 More complex verb agreement 4.7 Linking clauses together 4.8 Question particles and question words 4.9 Typological classification Part 2 Phonology 5 Phonological inventory and orthography 5.1 Consonants 5.1.1 The interpretation of in Timucua 5.1.2 Bilabial glide [w] 5.1.3 /hw/ 5.1.4 Labiodental or bilabial fricatives 5.1.5 Velar nasal 5.1.6 /r/ as a tap 5.1.7 Lack of geminate consonants 5.1.8 Spellings in loanwords 5.2 Vowels 5.2.1 Vowel quality 5.2.2 Vowel length 5.2.3 Vowel nasalization 5.2.4 Diphthongs 5.3 Syllables 5.4 Words with +vowel sequences 5.5 Distributional skewing 5.6 Stress 5.6.1 Pareja’s description of stress 5.6.2 Accent marking in the corpus 5.6.2.1 Penult stress before -te ‘contrastive’ 5.6.2.2 Penult stress before -co ‘alternative’ 5.6.2.3 Penultimate stress before -ta participial 6 Major phonological and morphophonological processes 6.1 Vowel coalescence and deletion 6.1.1 Vowel coalescence and prefixes 6.1.2 Vowel-deleting suffixes 6.1.3 Vowel deletion in compounds 6.1.4 Vowel syncope before -ta and -te 6.2 Round vowel harmony in roots 6.2.1 Height harmony in round vowels 6.2.1.1 Suffixes that show vowel harmony 6.2.1.2 Suffixes that do not show vowel harmony 6.3 Vowel lowering 6.3.1 Lowering after labial consonants 6.3.2 Lowering before -la ‘declarative’ 6.3.2.1 Lowering in verb roots 6.3.3 Lowering in other environments 6.4 Front vowel lowering 6.4.1 Lowering of -i final affixes 6.5 Voicing after nasals 6.6 Reduplication 6.6.1 Full reduplication 6.6.2 Partial reduplication 6.7 Phonology of loanwords Part 3. Morphosyntax 7 Nouns 7.1 Derivational processes 7.1.1 Agent nominalization with -siba 7.1.1.1 Introduction 7.1.1.2 The relationship of -siba ‘agent nominalization’ and -si ‘benefactive’ 7.1.2 Nominalizations with -te . . . ma 7.1.2.1 Introduction 7.1.2.2 Semantics of nominalizations with -te . . . ma 7.1.3 Nominalizations with -no 7.2 Compounds 7.2.1 Head-final N+N compounds 7.2.2 Head-initial N+Adj compounds 7.2.3 Head-final N+V compounds 7.2.4 Noun+-nimi ‘all’ 7.2.5 Other multiword expressions 7.3 Nominal inflectional morphology 7.3.1 Nominal inflectional suffix order 7.3.2 Possessive suffixes 7.3.2.1 First singular possessor -na 7.3.2.2 Second singular possessor -ye 7.3.2.3 Third possessor -mi 7.3.2.4 Alternate third possessor -miti ~ -mitota 7.3.2.5 First plural -mile and -nica 7.3.2.6 Second plural -yaqe 7.3.2.7 Respected second or third possessor -mitono 7.3.2.8 Rare possessive suffix -nchu 7.3.3 Noun plural 7.3.4 Nominal inflection of borrowed words 7.4 Lack of grammatical gender 8 Adjectives 9 Noun phrases 9.1 Order in noun phrases 9.2 Affixes attached to noun phrases 9.2.1 Predeterminers 9.2.1.1 Indefinite predeterminers -lete ~ -leta and -nco 9.2.1.2 -lehe ‘or’ 9.2.1.3 Reflexive/emphatic -coco 9.2.2 Determiners 9.2.2.1 -michu ‘previous mention’ 9.2.2.2 -co alternative 9.2.2.3 -leqe ‘additive focus’ 9.2.3 Postdeterminers 9.2.3.1 Oblique affix -qua 9.2.3.2 Contrastive focus marker -te 9.2.3.3 Topic marker -no 9.2.4 Frequent combinations 9.2.4.1 Topic marking with -mano 9.2.4.2 Coordination with -mate 9.2.5 Mysteries 9.2.5.1 letani 9.2.5.2 qe 9.3 Prenominal determiners 9.3.1 Introduction 9.3.2 acu 9.3.3 caqi and naqi 9.3.4 Far demonstratives oqe and qeqi 9.4 Possession 9.4.1 Attributive possession 9.4.2 Lack of genitive case 9.4.3 Predicative possession 9.5 Definiteness 9.5.1 Definite and indefinite morphology 9.5.2 Cooccurrence of definite and indefinite morphology 9.5.3 Definite marking and possessives 9.5.4 Definite marking and proper nouns 10 Pronouns and other anaphoric elements 10.1 Personal pronouns 10.1.1 First- and second-person pronouns 10.1.2 Third-person pronouns 10.2 Demonstrative pronouns 10.3 Indefinite pronouns 10.4 Pro-verbs 11 Numbers and quantifiers 11.1 Quantifiers and other indicators of plurality 11.1.1 Alleged plurals 11.1.2 Collective nouns 11.1.3 Universal quantifiers and their equivalents 11.1.4 Each 11.2 Numbers 11.2.1 Cardinal numbers 11.2.2 Ordinal numbers 11.2.3 Verbal properties of numbers 12 Adverbs 12.1 Temporal adverbs 12.2 Discourse adverbs 12.3 Manner adverbs 12.4 Manner modification via reduplication 13 Postpositions and their equivalents 13.1 ofueno ‘over’, ‘concerning’, ‘after’ 13.2 beta ‘oblique’ 13.3 toro ‘without’ 13.4 emoqua ‘against’, ‘in front of’ 13.5 Other postposition-like words 14 Verbs: Morpheme order, derivation, suppletion, and incorporation 14.1 Verb structure and morpheme order 14.2 Deriving verbs 14.3 Verbal suppletion 14.4 Semiproductive derivation 14.4.1 Derived verbs with -timo 14.4.2 Derived verbs with -qua 14.4.3 Derived verbs with -chi 14.5 Incorporation 14.5.1 Identifying incorporation 14.5.2 Incorporation of the complement of the copula 14.5.3 Verbs with incorporation of cume ‘heart’ 14.5.4 Incorporation of ano 14.5.5 Incorporated interrogatives 14.5.6 Alternation with nonincorporated structures 14.6 Incorporation of verbs 15 Verb agreement 15.1 Introduction 15.2 Agreement with third-person arguments 15.3 Ergative and absolutive agreement paradigms 15.3.1 Intransitive agreement 15.3.2 Transitives in default or unmarked tense 15.3.3 Interrogative agreement shift 15.3.4 Tense-based agreement shift 15.3.5 Allomorphic alternation in agreement 15.3.5.1 The form of the first ergative suffix -n 15.3.5.2 An apparent alternative first ergative suffix -na 15.3.5.3 Against an alternative with -la as first singular ergative 15.3.5.4 Alternations for second person 15.3.6 Transitives with applied arguments 15.4 Controversial issues 15.4.1 Arguments for the accusative-ergative split 15.4.2 Postposed second person: ergative vs. absolutive 15.4.3 Ergative agreement: preceded by default tense vs. participial suffix 15.5 Unresolved issues 15.5.1 Ergative agreement in intransitives 15.5.2 Ergative-absolutive alternation in reciprocals 16 Valency increase: Causatives and applicatives 16.1 Causatives 16.1.1 Regular causatives 16.1.2 Causatives and quantifiers 16.1.3 “Frozen” causatives 16.1.4 Causative morphology with irregular semantics 16.2 Applicatives 16.2.1 The na- “locative-instrumental” applicative 16.2.2 The -si “benefactive-malefactive” applicative 17 Valency reduction: Reflexives, passives, and indefinites 17.1 Reflexives and reciprocals 17.2 The passive morpheme 17.2.1 Common active-passive contrasts 17.2.2 Morpheme order and the passive 17.3 Passive clauses 17.3.1 Expression of agent 17.3.2 Scope of passive over preceding -ta marked clause 17.4 Honorific passive 17.4.1 Intransitive verbs in honorific passive 17.4.2 Transitive verbs in honorific passive 17.5 Indefinite subject clauses 18 Verbal left periphery 18.1 ta= ‘away’, ‘at a distance’, ‘back’ 18.2 ca= ‘thus’, ‘in this way’, ‘here’ 18.3 Honorific particle ano 18.4 Preverbal particles 18.5 Proclitics, prefixes, or particles? 19 Tense, aspect, and mood 19.1 Tense, aspect, and modality morphology 19.1.1 Unmarked tense 19.1.2 Default tense -te 19.1.3 Durative tense -nte 19.1.4 Past tense -bi 19.1.5 Prior tense -bile 19.1.6 Potential -he 19.1.7 Irrealis -haue 19.1.8 Certain future -hate 19.1.9 Counterfactual -hena ~ -henacu ~ -hela 19.1.10 Remote tense -chu 19.1.11 Optative =hante 19.1.12 Other possible tam suffixes 19.1.12.1 Verbal suffix -co ~ -cono ~ -sicono 19.1.12.2 Verbal suffix -bini 19.2 Modality constructions 19.2.1 Necessity and obligation 19.2.2 Possibility (epistemic and dynamic modality) 20 Evidentiality, illocutionary force, and discourse status 20.1 Evidential -laqe 20.2 Declarative -la 20.3 Final suffix -laha ‘emphatic’ 20.4 Final suffix -lecu ‘insult’ 20.5 Final suffix -lechu 20.6 Final suffix -leto 20.7 Final suffix -leqete ‘not at all’ 20.8 Final suffix -nano 20.9 Final suffix -no 20.10 Final suffix -teo ‘angry reply’ 20.11 Counterfactual =lahayo 20.12 Final suffix =tiacu ‘negative assertion’ 21 Negation 21.1 Ordinary verbal negation 21.2 Negation of nonverbal predicates 21.3 Negative commands 21.4 Negative proforms and adverbs 21.5 Expletive negation 22 Light verbs 22.1 Quoso ‘do’ 22.2 Moso ‘do’ 22.3 Puqua ‘do to many’ 22.4 Fa ‘be located’ 22.5 Queni ‘be’ 23 Copular and existential constructions 23.1 Incorporating copula le 23.2 Existentials and possessives Part 4. Functional systems 24 Grammatical relations 24.1 Case marking 24.1.1 -qua ‘oblique case’ 24.2 Possessor raising 25 Pragmatically marked structures 25.1 Questions 25.1.1 Yes/No questions 25.1.2 Verbal interrogative ‘do what’, ‘do how’, ‘do why’, ‘which’ 25.1.3 Wh- questions 25.1.3.1 Nominal interrogatives ‘who’ and ‘what’ 25.1.3.2 Interrogative ‘where’ 25.1.3.3 Interrogative word order 25.2 Imperatives 25.2.1 Positive imperatives 25.2.2 Negative imperatives 25.2.3 Polite alternatives to imperatives 25.2.4 Use of light verbs in imperatives 25.3 Exclamations 25.4 Other special verb constructions 26 Clause combinations 26.1 Complement clauses 26.1.1 Complements with -no 26.1.2 Complements with -nima 26.1.3 Direct speech complements 26.1.4 Switch-reference in desiderative clauses with -siro and -he-ro 26.1.5 Desiderative clauses with -qi 26.1.6 Unmarked desideratives 26.2 Adverbial clauses 26.2.1 Temporal and conditional adjuncts 26.2.1.1 ‘When’ clauses with -nima 26.2.1.2 ‘When/If’ clauses with -hanima 26.2.1.3 ‘If’ clauses with -qiti 26.2.1.4 ‘After’ clauses with ofueno 26.2.2 Purpose, consequence, and simultaneous clauses 26.2.2.1 Purpose clauses with -habe-leta 26.2.2.2 Consequence clauses with -tequa 26.2.2.3 Simultaneous clauses with -qua 26.2.3 Concessive clauses ‘but’ and ‘although’ 26.3 Clause chaining and switch reference 26.3.1 Linking clauses together 26.3.2 Clauses linked via -nima ‘when’ 26.3.3 Clauses linked via -ta ‘same-subject sequential and participial’ 26.3.3.1 Introduction 26.3.3.2 Morphological restrictions on verbs linked via -ta 26.3.3.3 Some issues for same-subject analysis of -ta 26.3.4 Clauses linked via -qe ‘different-subject sequential’ 26.3.5 Alternations between same-subject and different-subject 26.4 Discourse clitic =qere 26.5 Putting it all together 26.6 Clauses in discourse 27 Relative clauses 27.1 Tense restrictions in definite relative clauses 27.2 Relative clauses with no overt head 28 Coordination 28.1 Coordination of noun phrases 28.1.1 Conjunctive coordination ‘and’ 28.1.2 Disjunctive coordination ‘or’ 28.2 Coordination of clauses 28.3 The =chiqe clitic Appendix: Morphemes Notes References Index  

About the Author :
George Aaron Broadwell is the Elling Eide Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida. He won the 2023 Victor Golla Prize from the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas and is the author of A Choctaw Reference Grammar (Nebraska, 2006).    

Review :
“This grammar of Timucua is exhaustive, and it is impressive how George Aaron Broadwell has derived the grammar from imperfectly bilingual sources. His extensive database of Timucua texts has helped him greatly in explaining the grammar of this long-extinct language isolate. He does not shy away from the difficulties inherent in working with seventeenth-century material but discusses them in detail.”-Geoffrey D. Kimball, author of Koasati Grammar “Very important to the early history of Florida, this analysis of Timucua will make it possible for others to work on the language and unlock previously inaccessible materials. . . . A remarkable achievement. George Aaron Broadwell has made a thorough search of archival Spanish materials, gathered transcriptions and translations into a database, and-in a process that can be likened to decipherment-has worked out plausible interpretations of the meanings of words and affixes.”-Jack B. Martin, author of A Grammar of Creek (Muskogee)