This week, we worked with Harsha in the linguistics seminar room, Pearson 115. We continued our work with numbers and counting, and moved on to times of day as well. We also discovered an interesting pattern in the -/ta/ suffix (described in our last small group session - see du and duto) when used with numbers. Note, again, that the phonological data below comes mostly from Sam's notes, while the dictionary entries come mostly from Mollies - discrepancies will be noted and checked at a later date.
We began with the numbers 0, 51-59, and 61-69, and later returned to 71-79. All are given below, but note when going back through it that 71-79 is significantly later in the recording.
0 ʃunno
50 60 70
1 ækanno æʃoʈʈi unoʃottor
2 bahanno baʃoʈʈi bahattor
3 tiranno teʃoʈʈi tiattor
4 curanno couʃoʈʈi cuattor
5 pɔnanno pɔeʃoʈʈi pɔcattor
6 chianno cheʃoʈʈi chiattor
7 ʃatanno ʃatʃoʈʈi ʃatattor
8 aʈanno aʈʃoʈʈi aʈattor
9 noʃaʈ noʃɔttor unoaʃe
We then moved on to a variety of expressions about time, beginning with "What time is it?", kɔʈa baje. This is derived from baja "to ring". Several possible example responses to this are given below:
chɔta beje ʃataʃ minit
6-ta having.rung 27 minute - 6:25
tinte beje pãc minit
3-ta having.rung 5 minit - 3:05
carte bajte pãc minit
4-ta will.ring 5 minit - 3:55 "five to four"
Below is additional vocabulary from the examples above and from later in the recording:
baja - to ring
alada-alada - separate
There are a variety of words for times of day, which can be used to better-indicate the time specified (appears to be analogous to the English "6 in the morning" vs. "6 in the evening", as Harsha says there is no direct translation of "AM" or "PM"). These are as follows:
majh ɽatri - midnight
bhoɽ - dawn
ʃɔkal - morning
dupur - noon/afternoon
bikel - evening
ʃondhe/ʃondha - dusk/twilight (the former is more colloquial)
ratri - night
bæla - "time of day" (used for any part of the day)
Bæla can be with ʃɔkal to indicate "late morning", with emphasis on the lateness (e.g. one who sleeps in very late but gets up before noon). An example of its use is below:
ʃɔkal bælae brekfast khelam
morning late breakfast I.ate
To indicate time by the hour, one of these time-of-day words may (optionally) be used before a number from 1-12 (like in [non-military] English, the hours are divided into two sets of 12 rather than a 24-hour clock) with the -/ta/ suffix that was previously found when counting objects. It was previously given as -/to/ (see du and duto), but when seen suffixed to all numbers save 2, 3, and 4, it appears as -/ta/, and Harsha indicated during last week's small group session that it behaved similarly to the definiteness-marking -/ta/ when counting things (it also appears to affect the distribution of objects in the plural - see last session for details); therefore, despite the aforementioned phonological variation, it is here described as underlyingly -/ta/.
Examples of this are given below:
1 AM: rat akta
2 AM: rat duto
3 AM: bhoɽ tinte
4 AM: bhoɽ carte
5 AM: ʃɔkal pãcta
6 AM: ʃɔkal chɔta
***Notes on /ratri/, /rat/, and the locative -/e/***
"Night" is given as ratri and "midnight" as majh ratri ("middle night"); however, note that when giving the phrase "at midnight" Harsha said majh rate. Assuming that this is the -/e/ locative suffix, there is some phonological change occurring here to delete the /ri/. Also note that when giving the hours of the day, as shown above, "night" is /rat/ rather than /ratri/. We did not check to see if /ratri/ would also be acceptable here as we did not notice this until after the elicitation, but it is worth mentioning and following up on.
There are specific words for 1:30 and 2:30 in the afternoon, ɖeɽta and aɽhaiʈa (Mollie has aɽhai - check in recording or with Harsha later) respectively. Harsha notes that the aspiration on the /ɽ/ in aɽhai is often dropped in casual speech, becoming phonologically identical to R2.
There are also words for various quarters of the hour:
ʃoa carta - 6:15 (note the use of carta here rather than carte)
ʃaɽe carta - 6:30
pone ʃatʈa - 6:45
Observation of the behavior of the -/ta/ suffix led to a discussion of counting, referencing the three currently-known forms of "two": dui, du, and duto. The first is given when asking for the number on its own, rather than when counting objects. Du (and the corresponding forms of other numbers) is used, roughly, to count the same kinds of objects, while duto is used for separate kinds of objects (see the "buying drinks" scenario from the last group session with Harsha).
Sam noted that "6 AM" appeared as the "non-counting" form of 6 followed by -/ta/, but without the final /i/, similar to /du/ vs /dui/. Further elicitation showed that when referring to six same-time objects ("six of the same type of drink"), one would say chɔ driŋk, confirming that the final /i/ is dropped when counting. This was found to be true for 9 (noi) as well, but not for 20 (kuri), which ends in the same vowel, or 12 (baro), which ends in a different vowel. This can be seen below:
"1" æk "1 drink" akta driŋk
"2" dui "2 drinks" duto driŋk
"3" tin "3 drinks" tinte driŋŋk
"4" car "4 drinks" carte driŋk
"5" pãc "5 drinks" pãcta driŋk
"6" chɔi "6 drinks" chɔteɔte driŋk
"9" noi "9 drinks" note driŋk
"12" baro "12 drinks" barota driŋk
"20" kuri "20 drinks" kurita driŋk
Both the vowel change in the -/ta/ suffix and the loss of the final /i/ bear further investigation.
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