A grammar of Paunaka

Lena Terhart

A grammar of Paunaka

Lena Terhart

Synopsis

This book offers the first detailed grammatical description of Paunaka, an Arawakan language spoken (in 2023) by eight people in the Chiquitania region in the lowlands of Eastern Bolivia.

The grammar builds on material collected during several fieldwork trips between 2009 and 2020 by the team of the Paunaka Documentation Project, which was funded by the ELDP from 2011–2013. This material includes roughly 120 hours of audio and video recordings, which have been archived at ELAR. In 2022, the dissertation on which this book is based received the annual Research Award at the Europa-Universität Flensburg.

The grammar provides a description of the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Paunaka, including numerous comparative remarks to closely related languages. It includes over 1500 examples, most of them accompanied by a brief description of their original linguistic or extralinguistic context.

Statistics

Author Biography

Lena Terhart, Nordfriisk Instituut

Lena Terhart has studied the Paunaka language since 2011 and defended her Ph.D. thesis at the Europa-Universität Flensburg in 2021. She has an interest in lesser-used languages and Amazonian linguistics and has additionally worked on two other Bolivian languages, Baure and Guarayu. A few years ago, she added the North Frisian language to her research field and has since then been working on its sociolinguistics and grammar. Lena is currently employed at the Nordfriisk Instituut in Bräist/Bredstedt, Germany.