Demonstrative and relative constructions in Ju

Abstract

This paper focuses on the various demonstrative and relative constructions attested in the two Ju dialectal groups for which some level of documentation is available, viz. North-Central and South-Eastern, and proposes a unified diachronic account of the diversity of properties and uses of these constructions. The main claim is that exophoric demonstratives were verbs in Proto-Ju. Demonstrative and relative constructions in modern Ju dialects are shown to derive through various grammaticalisation pathways from these Proto-Ju verbal demonstratives and a relative construction still marginally attested in modern North-Central Ju. The complexity found in North-Central lects is due to numerous innovations (in particular the depredicativisation of non-canonical verbal categories) and the co-occurrence of many historical layers in synchrony. Juǀ’hoan, on the other hand underwent only minor changes, preserving most of the properties of the Proto-Ju demonstrative and relative constructions.

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