Punjabi

Tej Bhatia

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136894671
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

First Published in 1993. Punjabi is the language of the Punjab-the land of five rivers--of northern India and Pakistan. Primarily written in three distinct scripts, a unique feature of the language is that, along with Lahanda and the Western Pahari dialects, it is the only modern Indo-European language spoken in South Asia which is tonal in nature. It is recognized as one of the several national languages of India and Pakistan, and approximately forty-five million people speak Punjabi as either a first or second language. This Descriptive Grammar accounts for the linguistic and sociolinguistic properties of Punjabi and Lahanda/Multani. It explores the standard language, giving a comprehensive account of syntax, morphology and phonology. With a descriptive, typological and cognitive examination of the language, this is the most up-to-date, comprehensive and authoritative description of modern Punjabi to date. This volume will be invaluable to students and researchers of linguistic theory and practice.

MORPHOLOGY

2.1 INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY

2.1.1 NOUN INFLECTION

2.1.1.1 Means used to express syntactic and semantic functions of noun phrases

The syntactic and semantic functions of noun phrases can be expressed by case suffixes, postpositions and derivational processes Word order plays a role only in the non-ergative construction where inanimate objects do not distinguish themselves from subjects in terms of case-marking.

Let us observe the paradigms of muNDaa ‘boy’ and kuRii ‘girl’ to examine the role of suffixes and postpositions to convey different cases.

(508)Unmarked masculine: muNDaa ‘boy’(ms)

CASES	NOUN	POSTPOSITION
Direct	muNDaa	∅
Oblique	muNDe	ne(ergative)
		nüü (accusative/dative)
		tõ (instrumental)
		te (locative)
		daa/de/dii/diāā(genitive)
Vocative	õé/ve	muNDiaa

Marked masculine nouns:ending in non-aa, aadmii ‘man’

CASES	NOUN	POSTPOSITION
Direct	aadmii	∅
Oblique	aadmii	ne (ergative)
		nüü (accusative/dative)
		tõ (instrumental)
		te (locative)
		daa/de/dii/diāā (genitive)

Vocative

õé/ve aadmiaa

Unmarked feminine: kuRii ‘girl’ (fs)

CASES	NOUN	POSTPOSITION
Direct	kuRii	∅
Oblique	kuRii	ne (ergative)
		nüü (accusative/dative)
		tõ (instrumental)
		te (locative)
		daa/de/dii/dāā (genitive)

Vocative

nii

kuRie

Marked feminine nouns: ending in non-ii, raat ‘night’

CASES	NOUN	POSTPOSITION
Direct	raat	∅
Dblique	raat	ne (ergative)
		nüü (accusative/dative)
		to (instrumental)
		te (locative)
		daa/de/dii/diāā (genitive)

Vocative

nii

raate

(The vocative markers--óé/ve and nii--precede a noun.) From the above paradigms, it is clear that bound suffixes such as word-final aa and e in muNDaa and muNDe ‘boy’, respectively mark case in Punjabi. Nouns are inflected for number, gender and case. There are two numbers--singular and plural; two genders--masculine and feminine; and three cases--simple, oblique, and vocative. Nouns are declined according to their gender class, and the phonological property of their final segments. The three main patterns of nominal declension in Majhi are as follows:

Pattern I: masculine nouns ending in -aa (like muNDaa ‘boy’, nakshaa ‘map’)

CASE	SINGULAR	PLURAL
Direct	muNDaa ‘boy’	muNDe
Oblique	muNDe	muNDiaa
Vocative	muNDiaa	muNDio
Direct	nakshaa ‘map’	nakshe
Oblique	nakshe	nakshiāā
Vocative	nakshiaa	nakshio

Pattern II: masculine nouns ending in non-aa (like aadmii ‘man’, kàr ‘house’, tòbii ‘washerman’, hatth ‘hand’)

CASE	SINGULAR	PLURAL
Direct	aadmii ‘man’	aadmii
Oblique	aadmii	aadmiiāā
Vocative	aadmiiaa	aadmiio

CASE	SINGULAR	PLURAL
Direct	kàr ‘house’	kàr
Oblique	kàr	kàrā
Vocative	kàraa	kàro
Direct	tóbii ‘washerman’	tòbii
Oblique	tòbii	tòbiiaa
Vocative	tòbiiaa	tdbiiāā
Direct	hatth ‘hand’	hatth
Oblique	hatth	hatthaa
Vocative	hatthaa	hattho

Pattern III: all feminine nouns (like kuRii ‘girl’, gāā ‘cow’, raat ‘night’)

CASE	SINGULAR	PLURAL
Direct	kuRii ‘girl’	kuRiiāā
Oblique	kuRii	kuRiiāā
Vocative	kuRie	kuRiio
Direct	raat ‘night’	raatāā
Oblique	raat	raatā
Vocative	raate	raato

Lahanda, Shahpur Doabi and Pothohari differ from Majhi and exhibit six instead of three patterns of nominal declension.

A list of case-suffixes is given below.

(509)	CASE	SINGULAR	PLURAL
	Direct	-aa/ø	-e/ø/āā
	Oblique	-e/ø	iāā/āā
	Vocative	-iaa/aa/e	-io/-o

Case suffixes bring forth some morphophonemic changes in the stem of a noun. However, morphophonemic change alone cannot denote case relationship. (See section 3.4.1.3 for more on morphophonemic alternations.)

The semantic content of postpositions is essentially similar...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Key to Abbreviations and Symbols
• Introduction
• SYNTAX
• MORPHOLOGY
• PHONOLOGY
• IDEOPHONES AND INTERJECTIONS
• LEXICON
• APPENDICES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX