In previous articles, we have touched very lightly on the idea that, in a number of languages, one can differentiate between different eras of the past through grammar alone.
In this article, we will explore this concept through the Australian language Diyari, which became extinct in the late 20th century. This language contains 6 forms of the past tense, only one of which does not encode the time period wherein the event took place, though we will only discuss those 5 that do.
These 5 use various Auxiliary Verbs to differentiate between the Past Tenses.
In English there are two, have/has and did. As a rule of thumb, the latter refers to a situation that may have since been undone or reversed, whereas the former refers to a case where the action has not.
In Diyari, there are no direct equivalents to either of these verbs. The verb to have exists as ngamalka, which is the Transitive Conjugation of ngama, which means to sit.
The verb to do, meanwhile, can be translated as nganka. However, this can also mean to make, to work, beard or as the Causative Suffix, among other things.
Naturally, we shall start in the present, and work our way backwards.
1. The Immediate Past: wara
The Immediate Past covers all events that have occurred since sunrise on the day that the person makes their speech utterance. For example:
nganhi wanthirna warayi paya pirnanhi
I have searched for the aeroplane
nganhi is the 1st Person Nominative Singular, which refers exclusively to an Intransitive Subject, one which does not take an object.
wanthirna is the participle form of wanthi, which means to search.
Through the course of this article we will become very familiar with the Participle -rna, which, for our purposes here, is a very approximate equivalent to the English Past Tense Suffix -ed. With one exception, all of the main verbs take this suffix in the presence of a Past Tense auxiliary.
warayi is the Auxiliary Verb for the Immediate Past Tense, and is composed of wara, which means to throw, while -yi is the Present Tense Suffix, which is required for full conjugation.
paya pirnanhi is the Locative Declension of paya pirna, which means aeroplane. Word for word, however, paya means bird, and pirna means big.
Thus, paya pirna can also translate to Big Bird, one of the Internet’s favourite residents of Sesame Street, as shown by the memes.
The Locative Case, expressed via the suffix -nhi, refers to place where a person or object is located. Pronouns, however, typically have their own Locative forms that do not require this suffix.
If one wished to translate the Diyari sentence literally, but keep it as a coherent English sentence, we end up with something approximating this:
I threw a search for the big bird.
Typically, searches are carried out, while it is parties that are thrown. Other than that, if we replaced big bird with aeroplane, then we wind up with the original sentence, but with greater stilisation.
(This was the first result provided by Google Images for the search term „big bird meme“. What you do with this information is at your digression.)
2. The Yesterday Past: wirri
The Yesterday Past covers those events which took place between sunrise on the day of the speech utterance, and sunrise of the previous day. For example:
wilhali kira ngapuli waralha wirriyi
The woman silently threw the boomerang yesterday
wilhali is the Ergative Case Declension of wilha, which means woman. The Ergative Case refers exclusively to the Agent of a Transitive Verb, which requires an object upon which to act.
kira means boomerang, and is here in the Accusative Case, which refers to the Object of a Transitive Verb.
ngapuli is the Ergative inflection of ngapu, which means silent/quiet. The Ergative inflection is added on to show that it applies to the woman doing the throwing, as oppose to the boomerang itself.
Also, here we have an interesting coincidence. In English, most adjectives will take the suffix -ly in order to become adverbs. In Diyari, we also see an adjective taking the suffix -li in a situation where it behaves as an adverb.
Because the Ergative Case does not exist in English, nor separate adverb forms in Diyari, we cannot place the cause for this unusual convergence at the feet of language contact.
waralha is the Future Tense Conjugation of wara, which means to throw. In the presence of the auxiliary verb wirri, the main verb takes the Future Tense Suffix -lha, as oppose to the Participle Suffix -rna, taken in the presence of the other Past Tense auxiliary verbs.
There is probably an interesting explanation for this on a language-evolution level, but for now we will accept this exception.
Last, but by no means least (indeed the reverse), we have wirriyi, which is the Present Tense Conjugation of wirri, which means to enter.
In addition, the Diyari word for yesterday is waldrawirti. This is optional when using the Yesterday Past, but the Yesterday Past is mandatory when waldrawirti appears in a sentence (usually at the very start).
Our semi-literal translation:
The woman entered to throw the boomerang silently
If we were to change the word entered to elected, we would have an entirely valid English sentence. For those unaware, one can say that they elected to do something as a way of saying that one chose to do it, as old-fashioned as it may sound.
(A boomerang exhibit from the South Australian Museum. Weirdly enough, this may be the first blog post about an Australian language that mentions this most quintessential of Australian symbols.)
3. The Recent Past: parra
The Recent Past is used to indicate events that take place up to one or two weeks prior to the moment of speech. For example:
Ngakarni kardi punganhi wata wirrirna parraya
My brother-in-law did not go into the hut (last week)
Ngakarni is the 1st Person Singular Dative, which means something along the lines of to me. In Diyari, these also function along the same lines as the English Possessive Pronouns.
kardi means brother-in-law, or sister’s husband to be exact. Interestingly, there is no distinction in Diyari between the words for husband and wife, both of which are nhuwa, which we can translate as spouse.
This being said, there are circumstances where the difference can be parsed out.
For example, the husband’s brother-in-law is nhuwaya kardi, where as the wife’s brother-in-law is nhuwanhangka kardi.
punganhi is the Locative Case Declension of punga, which means hut. Taken together, the whole word means into the hut.
In Diyari, there is a significant degree of overlap between the Locative Case and the Allative Case, which typically references motion towards an object. Though these sound somewhat similar, the main distinction lies in the fact that the Locative specifies that one has either gone INTO or landed ATOP the location in question, while the Allative (often referred to as the Directional) refers only to movement TOWARDS the location in question.
wata simply means not. There’s nothing else to say here.
wirrirna is the Participle form of wirri, which means to enter. Depending on context, however, it can also mean to be painted and to wear clothing. When combined with the word dityi, meaning sun, it can also mean sunset or west.
parraya is the Past Tense Conjugation of parra, which means to lie down, though it typically refers to inanimate objects, e.g. stones, water and dust. parra is one of two verbs that take the Past Tense Suffix -ya when used as an Auxiliary.
Our semi-literal translation:
My brother-in-law lay down not entering the hut.
This sentence differs from the Diyari in that, by including the Auxiliary Verb, we have given something of an explanation as to why the brother-in-law did not enter the hut.
(In the Kurdish language, the word Dîyarî means gift, present, or souvenir. This is a picture of a coffee house in Gaziantep, Turkey.)
4. The Intermediate Past: wapa
The Intermediate Past is to delineate those events that took place between one or two months preceding the present. For example:
thalara mardawurlu parrarna wapaya mitha muyanhi
A month ago the two rain-making stones were lying on the dry ground.
thalara mardawurlu is a compound noun meaning two rain-making stones. This compound consists of three components. thalara means rain, though it only refers to the noun. The verb for to rain is kurda.
marda means stone, and -wurlu is the Dual Suffix, which refers to the fact that there are only 2 stones. If there were three or more stones, we would use the Plural Suffix -wara.
parrarna is the Participle form of parra, which means to lie, though it only refers to inanimate objects. As a noun, it means hair, and as a Suffix it means there, referring something to a medium distance away. There is also the adjective parraparra, which means hard or energetic.
wapaya is the Past Tense Inflection of wapa, which means to go. This is the second of the two Auxiliaries which use -ya as oppose to -yi.
mitha is the word meaning ground, though it can also mean country or land more generally.
muyanhi, meanwhile, is the Locative Declension of muya, which means dry.
Our word-for-word translation:
The two rain-making stones went lying on the dry ground
Again, we have a sentence that doesn’t really work, though it was the closest that I could get.
(Lake Eyre, also known as Kati Thanda. It lies at the western-most edge of the traditional Diyari territory. At full volume, the lake is as salty as the sea, though for much of the year it dries up, and thus becomes a large salt-plain.
Ownership of the lake, meanwhile, is claimed by the Arabana people, from whom the Aboriginal name originates.)
5. The Distant Past: wanthi
As you can assume, the Distant Past refers to any event that occurs at any point further back in time than any of the previous four. For example:
kupulayitya waparna wanthiyi kilankilaya
The drunkard approached the galah
kupulayitya means drunkard or alcoholic. It is a combination of the words kupula, which means alcohol, and the Habitual Association Suffix -yitya, which roughly translates to the English Suffix -er, or, to be more specific, the „animate being habitually associated with“.
waparna is the Participal form of wapa, which means to go, though in this grammatical context it can also mean to approach.
wanthiyi is the Present Tense Conjugation of wanthi, which means to search for.
kilankilaya is the Allative Case Declension of kilankila, which means galah, which is a variety of bird. The Allative Case is used to indicate movement towards an object or location.
The Allative Case Suffix, as you may have noticed, is identical to the Past Tense Suffix -ya, though in some cases it is identical to the Locative Case Suffix -nhi. Furthermore, in other contexts it is identical to the Locative or Dative Cases.
Typically, Diyari tends towards a verb-final word order, though words that end in the Allative, Locative and other Case Suffixes usually go at the end of the sentence.
Our semi-literal translation:
The alcoholic searched to go to the galah
Here, I have used go to the galah as a translation for waparna kilankilaya, since it is indeed the more literal translation. Personally I prefer to use the term approach.
Although this sentence is highly unlikely to ever pass a native speaker’s lips, stylistically it implies that the drunkard only attempted the action.
(The Galah, Eolophus roseicapilla, which is found in almost every area of mainland Australia. This name is derived from gilaa, which comes from the Gilmaraay language, one of those native to the area surrounding Sydney.)
In conclusion, I hope that this was a fascinating introduction into this facet of linguistics. On the whole, I do not think that it this feature is particularly common across languages (though I may be wrong in this), though I imagine that Conlangers could really take this idea to new places, assuming they have not already done so.
Also, the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that the main verb in each sentence was the previous auxiliary verb (take another look if you don’t believe me.)
Our next article will be another exercise in comparative linguistics. It will concern two languages, each from a different continent, but with names whose similarity approaches that of two identical twins. Until then,
Same Wilf-time!
Same Wilf-channel!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Eyre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyari
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galah
Austin, Peter K. A Grammar of Diyari, South Australia (1981)
Google Images
Languages with Wilf 