International Summer School on
Language Documentation and Description

School of Oriental and African Studies, London

22 June - 3 July 2009

The Cariban languages of the Guianas

In this course an introduction is given to the languages of the Guianas (Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana), after which we will focus on some typological features of the Amerindian languages belonging to the Cariban language family. After a general overview of the phonology, morphology, and the major word classes, including transcategorial person marking, we will look at the expression of possession where we will see that the parameters of temporality and control, animacy and inaminacy play an important role. Finally I give an overview of the issues involved in the analysis of the evidentiality systems in the Cariban languages. Most of the Cariban languages have two co-occurring systems of evidentiality, seemingly based on a tense distinction (certainty vs non-certainty in the non-past, and eye-witness vs non-eye-witness and/or reportative in the past). In this class I look at the issues involved in information-source marking, and in the case of the Cariban languages the surface ergative marking that expresses these categories.