This paper focuses on a special 'jungle-at-night' register used by the Murui, a Witotoan group from Northwest Amazonia

Wojtylak, Kasia

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ResearchOnline at James Cook University

‘Taboo in language and discourse’ Workshop Spa, Belgium 30.09-01.10.2017  What are you? A secret ‘jungle-at-night’ register of the Murui people  from Northwest Amazon  Kasia Wojtylak LCRC (JCU) kasia.wojtylak@my.jcu.edu.au  • This paper focuses on a special ‘jungle-at-night’ register used by the Murui, a Witotoan group from Northwest Amazonia.  • Murui people (about 2,000 in total) are located in southern Colombia (Putumayo, Cara-Paraná, and Igara-Paraná rivers) and northern Peru (Ampi Yacú and Napo rivers) (see Map 1 in the Appendix) (see e.g. Aikhenvald 2012).   • Murui is one of the 8 ethnolinguistic groups that form a cultural area called also the ‘People of the Center’ (Echeverri 1997).  • Traditionally, ‘Witoto’ people had numerous types of prohibitions that were subject to linguistic taboo, such as names given at birth and a special avoidance speech style where animals would be ‘renamed’ to ‘trick’ their spirits (Wojtylak 2015). Murui also has a ‘calling from a distance’ register that is conditioned phonologically rather than lexically.   • In addition, Murui has a special register used for talking in the jungle at night, when being away from the safety of people’s own villages (usually when walking in the forest or paddling on the river).  • The jungle at night is seen as dangerous, so in order to avoid the rist of attack from evil beings, it is imperative to employ this register. Failure to do so can result in falling victim to malevolent spirits (and transformed shamans), which can appear as e.g. a jaguar or a snake.  • This register does not have a special name but the Murui refer to it as ‘the way one has to speak if they don’t know what they talk to’. I was told that it is a way to disguise people’s voices so evil beings would not recognize them.  • The ‘jungle-at-night’ register has the following features: • ‘conversations’ are never long; the exchange of information is brief, never extensive, and usually include asking for identity (but not name), where the person is going to, where they are coming from. • speech-like intonation with high pitch - involves a similar conversational and narration patterns but higher by at least half or double of the frequency of normal 2  pitch (no special phonation). Such intonation is iconic; people say that such ‘speech’ resembles the speech of the evil beings. There is no vowel centralization. • frequent use of pauses. • always addressee-oriented (2sg), as in (3) in the Appendix. • frequent use of interjections, as in (1-2), (14-15), (23-24), (26). • Clues for understanding that you are a human: voice, the information one reveals, female/male, etc.  • Even if one’s identity is revealed, one continues using the register as one can never totally be sure who/what one spoke to, or who/what else was listening.  • Cultural implications.   Cara-Paraná river (Amazonas, Colombia, 2013)  References  Aikhenvald, A. Y. (2012). The languages of the Amazon. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Echeverri, J. A. (1997). The people of the center of the world. A study in culture, history and orality in the Colombian Amazon. (PhD dissertation), New School for Social Research, New York. Wojtylak, K. I. (2015). Fruits for Animals: Hunting Avoidance Speech Style in Murui (Witoto, Northwest Amazonia). Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society. University of California at Berkeley, 545-561. Wojtylak, K. I. (forthcoming). A grammar of Murui (Bue), a Witotoan language of Northwest    Amazonia. (PhD dissertation), James Cook University.       3  Appendix - an example of a dialogue exchange  Abbreviations: 1 first person, 2 second person, 3 third person, ANA anaphoric, CLF classifier, DR ‘derivational’, E event, F feminine, FUT future, G generic, INTERJ interjection, LK linker, LOC locative, M masculine, NMLZ nominalization, NSP non-specific, N.S/A non-S/A subject, q1 question word buu ‘who’, Q2 question word nɨɨ ‘which’, pl plural, PR ‘pronominal’, PRED predicate, Pur purposive, S subject of intransitive clause, sg singular, SP specific, Sp Spanish, TOP topical  Context: S is paddling down the river at night. She hears noise in the forest. She stops paddling and listens intensively. She makes a gesture to others not to speak. The silence lasts for a few minutes.  1  S:   ↗↗↗uuuuu!     INTERJ 2  Voice:  ↗↗↗uuuuuu!     INTERJ (silence)  3 S:   ↗↗↗nɨ-ne  ↗↗↗jaai-dɨ-o?PRED    Q2-LOC:NSP go-LK-2sg    ‘Where are you going?’ 4 V:   ↗↗↗afai=dɨne!    upstream=AT.LOC:NSP    ‘Upriver!’ (silence)  5 V:   ↗↗↗nɨ-ne  ↗↗↗jaai-dɨ-o?PRED    Q2-LOC:NSP go-LK-2sg    ‘Where are you going?’ 6 S:   ↗↗↗fuirɨ=dɨne!    downstream=AT.LOC:NSP    ‘Downstream!’  (silence)  7  S:   ↗↗↗[buu  ↗↗↗dɨga]  ↗↗↗jaai-dɨ-o?PRED     Q1  WITH  go-LK-2sg     ‘Who are you going with?’ (8  V:   ↗↗↗da-maS   jaai-dɨ-kue!PRED     one-CLF:DR.M  go-LK-1sg     ‘I’m going alone.’  (silence)   4  9  S:   ↗↗↗bu-e-ñe-ye   ↗↗↗jaai-dɨ-o?PRED      Q1-CLF:G-do-FUT.E.NMLZ  go-LK-2sg      ‘Why (lit. to do what) are you going?’ 10  V:   ↗↗↗maka-ye-naPur     walk-FUT.E.NMLZ-N.S/A.TOP     ‘To walk around.’  (silence)  11  S:   ↗↗↗buu-dɨ-o?PRED      Q1-CLF:G-do-FUT.E.NMLZ     ‘Who are you?’ 12  V:   ↗↗↗[Tercera  ↗↗↗India  ↗↗↗i-ñaiño]-dɨ-kuePRED     Tercera.Sp  India.Sp ANA.NSP-CLF:PR.F-LK-1sg     ‘ I am a Tercera India woman.’ (silence)  13  S:   ↗↗↗buu-dɨ-o?PRED      Q1-CLF:G-do-FUT.E.NMLZ     ‘Who are you?’  (silence)  14  S:   ↗↗↗uuuuu!     INTERJ 15  V:   ↗↗↗uuuuuu!     INTERJ 16  S:   ↗↗↗buu-dɨ-o?PRED      Q1-CLF:G-do-FUT.E.NMLZ     ‘Who are you?’  (silence)  17  V:   ↗↗↗ [Tercera   ↗↗↗India  ↗↗↗i-mɨe]      Tercera.Sp   India.Sp ANA.NSP-CLF:PR.M     ‘ I am a man of Tercera India.’ 18 S:   ↗↗↗nai-no-moLOC   ↗↗↗bu-e?      ANA.SP-CLF:SP.PLACE-LOC  Q1-CLF:G     ‘What is (there)?’ 19 V:   ↗↗↗gairi-dɨ-makɨ!PRED      gather-LK-3pl     ‘They are gathering!’ 20 S:   ↗↗↗nɨ-ne?      Q2-LOC:NSP     ‘Where?’ 5  21 V:   ↗↗↗anane-ko-mo!     communal.roundhouse-CLF:COVER-LOC     ‘In the communal roundhouse!’  (silence)  22  S:   ↗↗↗nɨ-ko-mo?      Q2-CLF:COVER-LOC      ‘In which one?’ (silence)  23  S:   ↗↗↗uuuuu!     INTERJ 24  V:   ↗↗↗oo!     INTERJ (answering the call)  (silence)  25 S:   ↗↗↗i-tɨ-o?PRED      exist-LK-3pl     ‘Are you (there) (lit. do you exist)?’ 26 V:   ↗↗↗jɨɨ!  ↗↗↗i-tɨ-kuePRED     INTERJ   exist-LK-3pl     ‘Yes! I am (lit. I exist).’ 27  S:  ↗↗↗i-tɨ-kaɨPRED      exist-LK-1pl     ‘We are (lit. we exist).’  (Sandriela paddles away, saying: Eulogio izoi naɨa ‘(He) spoke like Eulogio.’)   Map 1. Location of the Murui people in Northwest Amazonia 

What are you? A secret 'jungle-at-night' register of the Murui people form Northwest Amazon

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What are you? A secret 'jungle-at-night' register of the Murui people form Northwest Amazon

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