Plural marking in Huni-Kuin Portuguese: an analysis of the noun phrases

• Autor(a) principal: Christino, Beatriz
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Silva, Amanda de Matos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: letrônica
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/letronica/article/view/25081
• topic: Indigenous Portuguese; Contact varieties; Plural marking.; Português Indígena; Variedades de contato; Marcação de plural.; Português Indígena; Variedades de contato; Marcação de plural.

This work presents the first description of the plural marking in Huni-Kuin Portuguese noun phrases. This linguistic variety is part of the group of varieties known as ‘ethnical’ varieties of Brazilian Portuguese or ‘Indigenous Portuguese’, and corresponds to the second language of the Huni-Kuin people, that inhabits the border region between Brazil and Peru, specifically the indigenous reservations located in the Upper Juruá and in the Purus basin. This people, a Panoan language speaker, consider themselves bilingual and bicultural and, consequently, Huni-Kuin Portuguese mirrors and spreads such identity. Based on theoretical and methodological references of quantitative sociolinguistics applied to an atomistic analysis, we identify general trends in the plural marking in Huni Kuin Portuguese nominal phrases, such as the preponderant role of the morphological class and of the phonic salience. In parallel, we also approach processes that occur with very little frequency, but can be revealing of first language structural transference processes, like plural-marking in the left end of nominal phrases and singular head nouns associated to plural possessive pronouns, which are indeed related to extra-constituent plural possessors.