Mosetén
Mosetén is a South American indigenous language that is spoken in
the foothills of the Bolivian Andes. It has about 800 speakers and
belongs to the small language family Mosetenan. All Mosetenes also
speak Spanish, the national language of Bolivia - in most cases more
frequently and more proficiently than Mosetén. Therefore it is not
surprising that Mosetén is heavily influenced by Spanish. For example,
it takes over Spanish 'utterance modifiers' such as discourse markers
(1), coordinating conjunctions (2) and adverbial clause markers (3).
In the examples below, the Spanish markers focused on are highlighted:
| 1. |
ö-we |
jij-ti-si' |
osea |
jam-bi' |
| F-DR |
go-DT-L.F |
that.means.E |
NG-yet |
| chhome' |
wën-chhï-' |
Karanawi. |
| also |
move-DC-F.S |
Caranavi |
| '(It is) that one (road) that leads here, that is, back then it
did not lead to Caranavi yet.' |
| 2. |
me'-katyi' |
raej-dye-si' |
yomo-i-'-si' |
wën-jö-i |
| so-EH |
all-B-F |
night(F)-VI-F.S-L.F |
move-DJ-M.S |
| pero |
jam-katyi' |
ji'-naij-ti. |
| but.E |
NG-EH |
CA-see-VD.RE.M.S |
| 'Thus, he came all nights, but was never seen.' |
| 3. |
mö'-khan |
katyi' |
bae'-i-' |
ashta |
ke |
| 3F-IN |
EH |
live-VI-F.S |
until/when.E |
that.E |
| mö'-khan |
nä'-tya-ki-' |
äwä'-mö'. |
| 3F-IN |
born-VD-AN-F.S |
child-3F.SG |
| There she lived, until/when she gave birth to her children.' |
The Spanish forms are sometimes adjusted to the phonology of
Mosetén, such as ashta in (3), which comes from Spanish hasta 'until'. Furthermore, ashta in Mosetén can both mean 'until' or 'when', i.e.
has slightly different functions in Mosetén.