A Carib grammar and dictionary

Courtz, H. (2008)

Doctoral Thesis

This dissertation contains a new detailed description of Carib grammar and the most extensive inventory of Carib lexemes and affixes so far. It is based on the work of previous researchers and a decade of field work carried out by the author, mainly in Galibi, a Carib village in eastern Suriname. The Carib language is spoken by some 7000 people living in Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and Brazil. This book distinguishes four dialects: Venezuelan Carib, Guyanese Carib, western Surinamese Carib, and eastern Surinamese Carib which includes French Guianese and Brazilian Carib. Interesting features of the description are (a) a new phonological analysis, including details on stress and stress patterns, (b) a morphological analysis, including among other things a hitherto undescribed tense/aspect morpheme as well as new explanations of many details, (c) a presentation of five syntactic word units, (d) dozens of pages containing texts with an interlinear morphological analysis and translation, and (e) a dictionary containing information on more than 6500 words. Information about the four dialects has been incorporated in the grammar and dictionary. A new supradialectal orthography is used and suggested as fit for all Carib dialects.

• Amazonian languages
• Carib dialects
• Carib language
• Comparative Cariban linguistics
• Linguistic typology

• All authors: Courtz, H.
• Supervisor: Adelaar, W.F.H.
• Co-supervisor: Meira, S.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2008-01-30
• ISBN (print): 9780978170745
• Court: LEI Universiteit Leiden