AMERINDIA 43: 211-247, 2021
Hortensia ESTRADA RAMÍREZ
Instituto Caro y Cuervo
Jorge Emilio ROSÉS LABRADA
University of Alberta
DOI : https://doi.org/10.56551/XDYQ8951
Abstract: Based on new first-hand fieldwork data and on prior descriptions of the language, this article proposes an in-depth analysis of inflectional verb classes in Sáliba, a Sáliban language spoken in Colombia and Venezuela. In particular, we evaluate the phonological motivation behind the two verb classes already proposed in the literature and further identify a third class that is characterized by the absence of subject marking morphology based on partial paradigms for 242 verb roots. This work not only advances the description of the Sáliba language but also the reconstruction of Proto-Sáliban. Additionally, this article contributes to the growing literature on inflectional classes and to our understanding of this phenomenon cross-linguistically.