A Reference Grammar of the Northern Embera Languages (review)

This is the seventh volume to appear in the series ‘Studies in the languages of Colombia’ published by the SIL. It focuses primarily on what Mortensen refers to as Northern Embera Proper but also discusses throughout the distinctions between this language and Embera-Katío, which together form the Northern Embera (NE) branch of the Chocó family of languages spoken on the Pacific coast of Colombia and in Panama.

This grammar has the same general format as other grammars in this series. The introduction (1–13) gives information about the languages and their place in the family, a little about the culture, a phonological sketch, and a quick typological overview. Following this there are chapters on word classes (15–27), derivational morphology (29–32), the noun phrase (33–46), case (47–57), the verb (59–87), the clause (constituent order and interrogative, imperative, and negative constructions) (89–102), the sentence (vocatives and various adverb-like sentence-level elements linking sentences) (103–11), subordination (113–33), and some discourse and pragmatic issues (135–54). The appendices (155–92) contain two texts, one from each language, and are followed by references.

M has (explicitly) modeled this grammar on Phillip Harms’s (1994) Epena Pedee syntax, which appeared in the same series, and often makes overt comparisons between the NE languages he is discussing and this Southern Embera language. While some of these comparisons are of interest, at other times they seem unnecessarily derivative for a grammatical description, where M explains the system of Epena Pedee only to point out that this system is entirely different in the NE languages.

This grammar is comprehensive in the sense that, as far as it is possible to tell, it mentions all the morphological and syntactic phenomena of the NE languages. However, like all the grammars in this series, it is relatively short (154 pages, excluding the texts), and a more accurate title would be A sketch grammar . . . rather than A reference grammar. . . . To take an example at random, in the discussion of aspect there is a section on progressive aspect (82), where M notes that ‘the equivalent of progressive aspect manifests itself in two different ways’, gives the morphemes and one example sentence for each but no further discussion, no indication of when either of the progressives is used, whether they are only found with present tense, which verbs they can be used with, and so on.

Overall, this volume is a useful contribution to our knowledge of South American languages, for many of which we have no general description at all. It is clearly written, with examples of each phenomenon discussed. It will be of use to those interested in South American languages, particularly the languages of the Chocó family, giving a general view of what the NE languages are like. It will also be of some interest to typologists, with enough information to allow general typological comparison, although if one is interested in the details of use of any particular construction, one quickly finds oneself wishing for more.