Friday, July 03, 2026

Relativisation in Mubi and Zerenkel

The remarkable voice system described for Mubi seems to interact with relativisation, but textual data is scarce. In textual examples of subject relativisation, the same suffix shows up that Jungraithmayr describes as forming attributive adjectives; compare:

njótúgìhìtt-ìtsàhíitú
person?M.RELpronounce.IPFV-ADJtruth?
a person who speaks the truth (Jungraithmayr 2013:64, 115)
jórólgìmèed-ít
jackalM.RELdie.PFV-ADJ
a dead jackal / a jackal which has died

Lukas gives phrasal examples where there is clearly no suffix, but are they really relatives?

njóogàŋhúwútàbògòs
personM.DEM.DISTfish[V].IPFVfish.PL
fisherman = a person who catches fish (Lukas 1937:159)

What about when you relativise on a direct object? In the two textual examples found, the subject agreement seems to be from Series III (not I, as I would have expected); but perhaps these verbs take obliques rather than direct objects in Mubi. Thus:

lìgìfány-gát
thingM.RELwant.PFV-2MSg.II/III
the thing that you want [whatever you want] (Jungraithmayr 2013:147)
lìgìwáa-gotwàarógà
thingM.RELcall.PFV-3Pl.IIIgrainDEM.M
this thing that they call grain (Jungraithmayr 2013:139)

The only other Mubic language for which data is available behaves reasonably similarly. In Zerenkel subject relativisation, we see what might be the same attributive suffix in some cases, whose -t is lost in Zerenkel:

rogaguwaan-iweyya
manM.RELcultivate.IPFV-ADJ?field
the man who cultivates the field (Ramat 2017)

although the verb may instead appear with Series I for clause-internal reasons independent of relativisation:

lukdanaummaci
womanF.REL1Sgsee.IPFV3FSg.I
the woman who sees me (Ramat 2017)

In object relativisation, it looks as though we see Series I as expected:

lukdaummana
womanF.RELsee.IPFV1Sg.I
the woman whom I see (Ramat 2017)

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