Joel Sherzer: Sketch of the Kuna language (2003)
I. Introduction
The Kuna Indians are probably best known for their molas, colorful appliqué and
reverse-appliqué blouses made and worn by Kuna women and sold all over the world.
They are one of the largest indigenous groups in the South American tropics, numbering
about 70,000 individuals, the majority of whom inhabit Kuna Yala (formerly known as
San Blas), a string of island villages stretching from near the Canal Zone to the PanamaColombia border, quite close to the jungle mainland, where they farm. Living on the
edge of modern, urban civilization, the Kuna have managed to maintain their cultural
uniqueness through a creative integration of old and new, constantly adapting and
manipulating traditional patterns to make them fit new situations. About 24,000 Kuna
now live in Panama City, a rapidly growing population.
The Kuna language is a member of the Chibchan family, a very broad grouping
which extends from the southern end of the Mayan region in Central America into
northern South America, that is, from Nicaragua to Colombia. It is not closely related
genetically to any other Amerindian language.
With regard to social and cultural organization, the Kuna are also unique, remarkably
different from the other indigenous populations of Panama and neighboring regions. On
the other hand, close and deep analysis of Kuna language, culture, and society, and
especially their interaction and intersection, reveals certain similarities with other native
groups in Central and South America, including some as far away as Brazil.
The Kuna have a rich and dynamic verbal life. Like most tropical forest and lowland
South American Indian societies, the Kuna’s world is permeated by and in fact organized
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by means of their discourse – the mythical chants of chiefs; the histories, legends, and
stories of traditional leaders; the magical chants and secret charms of curing specialists;
the speeches and reports of personal experience of all men and women; and the greetings,
leave-takings, conversations, and joking of everyday life. All of this is oral – spoken,
chanted, sung, shouted, and listened to.
The Kuna are a fourth world people, a minority in a third world country, and this has
implications for their linguistic situation. While one of the most robust of tropical,
lowland languages in Latin America, Kuna is nonetheless a minor, minority, local, and
oral, and therefore, for all these reasons, an endangered language. While Kuna might be
considered to be a vibrant language, in that it has a large number of speakers, and serves
as an important, perhaps the most important, identity marker for the Kuna, it must be
placed alongside other minority and regional languages, especially in the third world,
which are always in danger. In the Kuna case, what is changing and in danger, in addition
to the constant possibility of the language just not being used by a new generation, is
particular areas of vocabulary, semantic organizations, styles, and discourse forms,
genres, processes, and patterns.
II. Pronunciation and orthography
There are five vowels in Kuna, a, e, i, o, u. These can be pronounced either short or
long.
The consonant sounds of Kuna are p, b, t, d, k, g, kw, gw, s, ch, m, n, l, r, w, and y. l,
m, n, and y can be pronounced either short or long. The voiceless consonants, p, t, k, kw,
occur only between vowels in the middle of words. The voiced consonants, b, d, g, gw,
when they occur at the beginnings or ends of words, sound at times almost like their
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voiceless counterparts and in fact in these positions b is pronounced somewhere between
p and b, d somewhere between t and d, g somewhere between k and g, and gw
somewhere between kw and gw.
There is no official Kuna writing system and the language has been written in
different ways by different individuals. There are mainly two orthographies in use today,
and other orthographies are variants of these two. The main difference between the two is
the level of abstraction they represent, especially with regard to intervocalic voiced and
voiceless stops. In the more abstract orthography, the distinction between voiced and
voiceless stops is represented with single versus double letters. Thus p is voiced; pp,
voiceless; t is voiced; tt, voiceless; k is voiced, kk, voiceless; kw is voiced; kkw,
voiceless. In the more concrete (and easier for readers to follow) orthography, letters
which in Spanish and English are used to represent voiced and voiceless stops are used
for Kuna. Thus b is voiced, p, voiceless; d is voiced; t, voiceless; g is voiced; k, voiceless;
gw is voiced, kw, voiceless. In both systems the vowels and the sounds l, m, n, and y,
when long, are written as double letters: aa, ee, ii, oo, uu, ll, mm, nn, and yy. The two
orthographies are easily transferable from one to the other.
In ailla, the deposits by Sherzer are transcribed in the more abstract orthography; the
deposit by Velarde, in a version of the more concrete one.
A complicated issue for the representation of Kuna is the determination of word
boundaries. This issue is discussed in the section on grammar below.
Here are some examples, which also constitute a glossary for some basic elements
and concepts of Kuna life. When the transcription of a Kuna word is the same in the two
orthographies discussed here, it is written only once. When the two transcriptions differ,
both are provided, with the more abtract one first and the more concrete one second.
Notice that k, when followed by a consonant, changes to y (see phonology discussion
below). In the various transcriptions of Kuna, this is sometimes represented as y,
sometimes as i. Notice also that there is a difference between w (a semivowel) and u (a
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vowel). Thus wa “smoke;” ua “fish.” Similarly there is a difference between y and i: ye
“optative suffix;” ie “forget.”
Kuna
English
nuu
dove
tii, dii
water
pookwa, boogwa
quiet
kae, gae
grab, catch
sui
husband
koe, goe
deer, baby
ua
fish
waa
smoke
takke, dake
see
take, dage
come
opa oba
corn
yappa, yapa
don’t feel like
nate, nade
he/she left
satte, sate
no, none, nothing
ome
woman, wife
mimmi
child
korokwa, gorogwa
yellow, ripe
sina
pig
sinna
kingfisher
kwalu, gwalu
sweet potato
kwallu, gwallu
oil, light
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ari
iguana
asu
nose
achu
dog
wisi
know
wakwa, wagwa
grandchild
saila
chief
arkar, argar
chief’s spokesman
nele
seer, shaman
suar ipet, suar ibed
“owner of stick” (native policeman)
ina tulet, ina duled
“medicine man” (medicinal
specialist)
kantule, gandule
ritual specialist at girl’s puberty rites
sappur, sapur
jungle
tanikki, daniki
is coming
warpo, warbo
two oblong objects
warkwen, wargwen
one oblong object
ikar, igar
path, way
soysa
he/she said
pe, be
you
neka, nega
house
neyse
to the house
tummat, dummad
big
pane, bane
tomorrow
kinnit, ginnid
red
tiwar, diwar
river
kati, gadi
much
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pinye, binye
transform
uysa
he/she gave
kwaysa, gwaysa
he/she/it changed
okop, ogob
coconut
wara
tobacco
wala
pole
ina
medicine
inna
chicha
mola
woman’s blouse or cloth panel from
blouse
ommakket neka, ommaked nega
gathering house
tule, dule
person, Kuna person
waka, waga
Panamanian
merki, mergi
North American
ulu
canoe
temar, demar
sea
tiwar, diwar
river
purpa, burba
spirit
kurkin, gurgin
hat, brain
sunmakke, sunmake
speak
namakke, namake
chant, sing
kormakke, gormake
shout
poe, boe
cry, lament
totoe, dodoe
dance
naipe, naybe
snake
kabur, gabur
hot pepper
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nia
devil
suar nuchu
stick doll
karpa, garba
basket
III. Grammatical structure
Kuna is a polysynthetic and agglutinative language, in which many morphemes
combine into single words, and in this is typical of and in some ways paradigmatic of
native American languages, north and south. The question of what constitutes a word and
where word boundaries lie in this as in other unwritten languages is a complicated one.
Phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics do not necessarily provide the
same definitions of word boundaries. In addition, Kuna seems quite clearly to be
undergoing processes of grammaticalization, the development of grammatical forms out
of lexical items, a process which we can observe both diachronically and synchronically.
With regard to the latter, I would argue that the process of grammaticalization must be
central to an adequate description of Kuna grammar. This process is most notably
observable in the verbal complex. It also becomes clear when the Kuna language is
analyzed in relation to discourse.
A. Phonology
Typical Kuna morphemes have the structure CV or CVCV, of one or two syllable
length. The basic characteristic of Kuna morphemes is that most occur in long or short
form, the long form having a final vowel which is deleted in certain linguistic and
discourse contexts. When morphemes come together in a single word, as they often do in
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this polysynthetic language, consonantal changes among neighboring consonants,
following the vowel deletion, also occur. The basic rules are as follows:
1. Vowel deletion: the deletion of he final vowel of stems and affixes.
2. consonant deletion rules: when more than two consonants cluster intervocalically, the
cluster is reduced to two.
a. when a double-stop consonant clusters with another consonant, the double-stop
consonant is reduced to a single-stop consonant.
b. when more than two consonants cluser intervocalically, all but the last two in the
cluster are deleted.
3. consonantal assimilation rules
a. l changes to r before another consonant and at the end of a word before a pause.
b. k changes to y (pronounced y or i) before another consonant other than k.
c. p changes to m before an m.
d. t changes to n before an n
4. single and double consonant readjustment rules
a. p, t, k, kw are pronounced voiced (as if they were b, d, g, gw).
b. pp, tt, kk, kkw are pronounced voiceless (as if they were p, t, k, kw).
c. ss is pronounced ch.
Notice that the rules move from more abstract representations to more concrete ones (see
discussion of orthographies above). Here are two representative examples, with
translations in both English and Spanish:
(1) pal(i) itto(e)-s(a)-sul(i)-mal(a)
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again feel-PAST-NEG-PL
baritochurmala
they didn’t feel anything/no sintieron nada
(2) mas(i) itto(e)-na(e)-mal(a)-mo(k(a))-sunn(a)-o(e)-ye
taste-go-PL-also-truly-FUT-OPT
mas itonamarmosunnoye
let’s go taste my food/vamos a probar mi comida
Note here and elsewhere that morphemes are often very short, typically one and no more
than two syllables, especially after the deletion of the final vowel.
B. Morphosyntax
With regard to syntax, Kuna is basically an SOV language, though other orders occur,
for stylistic purposes. The SOV order is actually both syntactic and morphological, as
when pronouns are incorporated morphologically into a single word, by being prefixed to
the verb:
(3) ome neka takk(e)
woman house see
ome nega take/ome neydake
The woman sees the house/ La mujer ve la casa
(4) an(i) pe takk(e)
I you see
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ambedake
I see you/yo te veo
The personal pronouns, almost clitic like, can be both prefixed and suffixed to various
forms.
(5) tek(i) an(i) penukk(e)-s(a)
well I pay-PAST
degan bennus
Well I paid/pues pagué
Another feature of Kuna morphosyntax worth noting, since it is an aspect of the
grammaticalization process, is the existence of a class of preverbs, which modify the verb
in various ways. These are often (but not always) words of independent meaning, which
take on grammatical meaning in their preverbal context, and have a tendency to be
prefixed.
(6) sunn(a) “can, be able/puede, ser capaz”
an(i) sunn(a) kunn(e)
I can eat
ansungunne
I can eat/ yo puedo comer
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The order of the preverbal and the pronoun can be switched: sunna an gunne.
(7) yer “good, well, bueno, bien”
yer kunn(e)-le(k(e))
yer gullege
good eat-PAS
it tastes good/tiene buen sabor
C. Morphology
Now to morphology and in particular verbal morphology (see also Llerena Villalobos
1987 and Sherzer 1989). The most characteristic feature of Kuna morphology is
suffixation. Most words, especially verbs, which are the core of a Kuna sentence, are
formed by adding several suffixes (and a few prefixes) to the stem. The grammatical
description of the verb thus involves a statement of each of these suffixes, their meanings,
their grouping into classes, their possibilities of order, and their possible cooccurrences.
It is useful to group the verbal suffixes into various grammatical/semantic classes.
These include tense, which is not well developed, and aspect, which is. Subcategories of
aspect are temporal perspective and timing, movement and direction, and position. Other
suffixes indicate number, distribution, modality, and passive. Others mark clause linkage
and subordination, are narrative markers, or derivational markers. These suffixes tend to
be optional, rather than obligatory. They can be viewed as a set of choices that speakers
can draw on in discourse.
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There are certain basic rules of order, selection, and cooccurrence that govern how
these suffixes are strung along. In the first position after the verb stem occur suffixes that
can also themselves stand alone as verbs. These include one of my primary examples of
grammaticalization, the four positionals, which are independent lexical items which can
become verbal suffixes. The suffixes of temporal perspective, and many of the movement
and directional suffixes also occur in first position, as can the passive suffix leke and the
clause connector kala “in order to.” Tense and other temporal perspective suffixes occur
in second position, as do some of the movement and direction suffixes. A combination of
temporal perspective, modality, number, and distributive suffixes occur in third position.
Three of the four clause connectors occur in fourth position. One modality suffix,
meaning “possible,” occurs in fifth position. The narrative suffix sunto occurs in sixth
position. And the optative, emphatic ye occurs in seventh position. There is a tendency
for metacommunicative and line and verse framing words and phrases to become suffixed
in final positional also, another case of grammaticalization.
Given this general statement of the structure of the Kuna verb, it might be imagined
that there are many verbs which contain seven or even more suffixes. But in actual
practice, fewer suffixes are used with each verb than would seem theoretically possible.
The different styles and genres differ in their utilization of the suffix potential and in fact
different constellations of these suffixes are markers of different styles and genres.
This situation leads to interesting relations between and among styles and genres with
regard to the utilization of suffixes. There are suffixes which have a greater frequency
and greater range of meaning in particular styles or genres. In most everyday, colloquial
speech, verbs often occur with one, two, or no suffixes. Verbs in magical-curing chanting
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have at least one and usually two or three suffixes, practically always a positional and the
optative suffix ye. The same is true of the chanting of chiefs, which makes use of a
different but overlapping subset of suffixes from the magical-curing subset. Narration in
formal contexts uses more suffixes per verb than these other styles and genres and
exploits the full potential set more widely.
Let me now illustrate the situation I have been describing with some representative
examples. In addition to illustrating how constellations of suffixes are characteristic of
different styles and genres, these examples also illustrate the process of
grammaticalization in Kuna, which I will discuss further below.
From everyday conversation:
(8) ami(e)-s(a)
get-PAST
amisa
Did (you) get (it)?/¿(Lo) encontraste?
From magical-curing chanting
(9) akku(e)-kwich(i)-ye
reach-POS.standing-OPT
akuegwichiye
Would that (they) be reaching/que estén llegando
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The interesting suffix -ye has an intersecting set of functions: optative mode, quotative,
oral punctuation marker, and poetic line marker.
From chief’s chanting
(10) noni(kki)-mal(a)-ye
come-PL-OPT
nonimarye
would that we came/que viniéramos
From narration within conversation
(11) sok(e)-al(i)-sunto
say-INCEPTIVE-narrative
sokarsundo
At that point he said, or: he began to say/en este momento dijo
Llerena Villalobos (1987) offers a somewhat different interpretation of -al(i) than the one
I present here. He contrasts ali with te, stating that they are both movement suffixes, ali
toward the speaker and te away from the speaker. A possible argument for this is that as
an independent word ali means “return home,” and its use as a verbal suffix may be a
case of grammaticalization. But temporal as well as aspectual (and perhaps discourse)
functions and meanings are involved as well, as the following examples from everyday
conversation demonstrate.
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(12) bia be ome dakali “where did you first see (= meet) your wife?/¿Dónde encontraste
tu mujer?”
(13) gabiali “eyes beginning to close/ojos empezando a cerrarse”
(14) gabite “moment in which one begins to sleep/momento en que uno empieza a dormir
(se durmió)”
(15) gabisa “already slept/ya durmió”
Another interpretation of these contrasting meanings, suggested by Villalobos, is that
they are metaphorical, i.e., that the suffixes, while grammaticalized, can also be used
metaphorically. In particular, when movement suffixes are used with verbs involving
mental or intellectual activities, they seem to result in a metaphorical meaning. Thus
contrast:
(16) madun gunnadapi “he is going along eating a banana/está caminando comiendo un
guineo”
(17) dule gaya durdaynadapi “he is learning Kuna/está en proceso de aprender el idioma
Kuna (literally: going along learning)
in which the suffix -natappi “going along” is used metaphorically (see Llerena
Villalobos: 29, 31-32).
From formal narration of a personal experience
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(18) an(i) panku(e)-s(a)-mal(a)-mo(k(a))-ye
I leave-PAST-PLURAL-also-OPT
ambangusmarmoye/an bangusmarmoye
I left you/les dejé
From formal narration of a traditional folktale
(19) amie(e)-al(i)-ku(a)
look for-INCEPTIVE-when
amiargua
when he began to look for (it)/cuando empezó a buscarlo
To summarize: What I have described here is a situation in which grammar, style, and
discourse overlap and intersect. It is very hard and probably not appropriate to separate
them.
D. Grammaticalization
Within the verbal complex I have just described, there are several classes with regard
to grammaticalization.
1. There are suffixes which are purely grammatical and have no synchronic lexical
equivalents, i.e., the process of grammaticalization is not evident. These include tense
markers, some, but not all temporal perspective aspectual markers, the passive voice
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marker, the distributive marker pali, some but not all movement and direction markers,
and modals, except suli “no.” Note that the causative prefix o- is also in this class in that
it has no lexical equivalent.
2. The distributive suffix moka “also” and the plural suffix mala can occur with both
verbs and nouns, as can the benefactive suffix kal(a), which has slightly different
meanings with nouns and verbs. None of these have lexical equivalents that can stand
alone.
3. The personal pronouns, especially an(i) “I” and pe “you,” which are prefixed, and
many positional, directional, and movement suffixes all have lexical equivalents and are
quite obviously derived from them. Examples are kwichi “in a standing position,” natappi
“going along,” nae “go,” tani “come,” and noni “came.”
4. An interesting class I have not discussed involves a set of line and verse and turn at
talk framing words and phrases, akin to discourse markers. Some of these can be suffixed
to verbs and grammaticalized.
(20) an(i) pe attursa(e)-ma(i)-ma(i) takken
I you rob-POS.lying-POS.lying see
ambeatursamamadaken
we are robbing you see/les estamos robando ve.
(21) kaa sunmakk(e) soke
pepper speak say
kaa sunmaysoge
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The pepper speaks it is said/El ají habla se dice
E. Positional suffixes
A very good example of the Kuna grammaticalization process is the set of positional
suffixes, which when suffixed can lose their positional meaning and take on other,
grammatical meanings. When they are verbal suffixes, their primary meanings are
existence and ongoing state, though the positional meaning can emerge and even be
marked.
(22) yartakk(e)-na(i)
trick-POS.perched
yardaynai
they go about tricking one another/andan engañándose
(23) panama-ki(ne) arpa(e)-mai
panama-in work-POS.lying
banamagi arbamai
he is working in Panama/está trabajando en Panamá
(24) mas(i) kunn(e)-si(i)
food eat-POS.sitting
masgunsi
he is sitting eating/está comiendo sentado
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(25) sunmakk(e)-kwich(i)
speak-POS.standing
sunmakwichi
he is standing speaking/está hablando parado
4. Semantics
Since my goal here is to provide a general typology of the Kuna language, I want to
say a few words about semantics. I begin with a particular feature which Kuna shares
with a number of American Indian languages, including some Chibchan languages and
most Mayan languages, neighbors to the north, form/shape numeral classifiers (Sherzer
1978). These are part of a general semantic/grammatical attention in Kuna to form and
shape, as well as position, movement, and direction. Here are some examples.
(26) es ka-kwen “one (slender) machete/un machete (delgado)”
(27) aswe kwa-kwen “one (round) avocado/un aguacate (redondo)”
(28) tule war-kwen “one (oblong) person/una persona (oblonga)”
Grammaticalization seems to be involved with at least some of these, for example,
wala “oblong, pole-shaped,” which is quite obviously derived from the noun wala “tree,
pole.”
Another aspect of semantics is lexicon. The Kuna lexicon reflects its close relation to
the dense tropical and maritime ecology of San Blas, with literally hundreds of words for
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different types of fish, plants, and birds. Also focused on ecology is the fascinating
vocabulary of reduplicated adjectives, which is used to describe the textures of plants and
trees. Plants and trees are organized in terms of underlying semantic systems, which
involve political economy, curing practices, and ownership.
5. Discourse
I turn now to a final focus on discourse. Kuna discourse, especially traditional, is
remarkable for its diversity. This includes much chanting -- of legends, myths, and
personal experiences by chiefs, of curing and magical chants by medicinal specialists, of
puberty chants by puberty specialists, of playful narratives by their knowers and of
lullabies. Traditional and personal narratives can be either chanted or spoken. Speeches
of all kinds are common. These include reports and political rhetoric. In addition to these
forms and genres of discourse, there are also patterns and processes. These include
grammatical and semantic parallelism, constant quotation of direct discourse,
considerable metacommunication, line and verse framing words and phrases, and dialogic
performances. (For Kuna discourse, see Sherzer 1983, 1990.)
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References
Llerena Villalobos, Rito (1987): Relación y determinación en el predicado de la lengua
Kuna. Bogotá, Colombia: Centro de publicaciones de la Universidad de los Andes.
Sherzer, Joel (1978): Cuna numeral classifiers, in M. A. Jazayery, E. C. Polomé, and W.
Winter (eds.), Linguistic and literary studies in honor of Archibald A. Hill. The Hague:
Mouton, Volume 2, 331-337.
Sherzer, Joel (1983): Kuna ways of speaking: An ethnographic perspective. Austin:
University of Texas press.
Sherzer, Joel (1989): The Kuna verb: A study in the interplay of grammar, discourse, and
style, in: Mary Ritchie Key and Henry Hoenigswald (eds.), General and Amerindian
Ethnolinguistics: In Remembrance of Stanley Newman . Berlin: Mouton, 261-272.
Sherzer, Joel (1990): Verbal art in San Blas: Kuna culture through its discourse. Austin:
University of Texas press.
(This document also appears in Professor Sherzer´s web project www.ailla.org. We
thank him for allowing us to feature it here).
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