From Demonstrative to Nominalizer: The Suffix -gai in Northern Tepehuan

In this paper, I examine clause nominalization in Northern Tepehuan (NT hereinafter), particularly the source of the nominalizer -gai that occurs in complement and adverbial clauses. I propose that this suffix originates from the demonstrative igai, which also functions as 3SG/PL pronoun. Evidence comes from the examination of word order in clauses when this demonstrative acts as a personal pronoun, which led to the reanalysis of this element into a suffix. I test the hypothesis by also showing a similar path of grammaticalization with the suffix -go. The data from NT used in this paper comes from my own fieldwork as well as from Bascom (1982) and Rinaldini (1994). Data from Pima Bajo (Hale 2002; Estrada, In Press) is used as well.