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The Language of the Tacana lndians (Bolivia).
477
No rules determining the gender are found in either Tacana or Cavineña.
The Araona, however, use
deca, dexa,
maJe, and
epuna,
female, lo distin–
guish the peculiarities in !he maJe and female animals.
pisini-deca,
roe buck
vey-deca,
cock pigeon
misi-deca,
he-cat
pisini-epuna,
hind
roe
vey-epuna,
dove
misi-epuna,
she-cat
The case re)ations are expressed by means of suffixes.
Singular:
deca,
man
deca-sa,
of
the man
deca-puxi,
lo the man
de.ca,man
Plural:
deca-caana
deca-cuana-sa
deca-cuana-puxi
deca-cuana
Nominative and accusative are recognizable by their respective position
in !he sentence.
The modifying word precedes the governing noun.
Taca na
C a vineña
Tacan a
itsua-tsau
(head-bone)
=
skull
euatsimare-tsau
142 ,
(leg-bone) shinbone
ena-caca,
fruit-juice
barepa iyaua anaquie,
heaven-eartb-maker
adune-xaxa,
fruit-juice (o! Tsontalore palm)
The attributive adjective generally follows !he substantive.
In !he plural
!he suffix
-cuana
appended to the adj ective, as
tsine aida-cuana,
the good days (week-days)
nassa cuabi duseque,
bring the roasted banana
eavi cuasi duseque,
S., bring hot water
ave-xi epuna-cuarza,
married women
mi mique euane nexe ay madamada-cuana pu babe?
Thou thee-of-wife-with-thing-bad-make–
know?
etua saida nexe baque,
eyes-good-with-look
(=
be
merciful)
The foll owing instrumental and sociative occur.
T aca n a
gracia-nexc
t<~:l,
by
grace
vino-nexe,
with
wine
euatse-nexe,
wi th the foot
Cav in e ñ a
mere-tseve,
by work
puwm-tseve,
horribly
Arao na
mi-nae,
with thee
rni-11exe,
with thee
cma-nexe,
wiih
me
animal-nexe,
with the beast
emaxu-cuana-tseve,
with
the defuncts
(dead) ' "'
mia-tseve,
with thee
1 ·' 2
It
would lead to lar if 1 had to soint out here the mistakes in the Cavineña
glossary.
"fé
de Errata" is missing.
"" The guttural (velar ' ) becomes palatalized in the Ouariza dialect.
144
Chu ,
p. 110, syas:
manu-xixi-cuana duxu-su.
This litterally translated means :
totally within (indide), from
du-xu,
among, and the locative suffix
-su,
in;
cf.
em"e-dtt-Xu,
fist
(=
hand-most-inside-interior).