Aspects of Tsishaath Nootka Phonetics & Phonology

John Stonham
University of Hongkong

This book provides a characterisation of the sound system of the Tsishaath Nootka language as spoken in the vicinity of Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada. As such, it is the first book to provide a detailed description of the phonetic and phonological systems of any member of the Wakashan family of languages.

The book has been written with several groups of readers in mind. For those interested in issues of phonological theory, Tsishaath Nootka provides much of interest including the nature of variable-length vowels, the processes of glottalisation and lenition, the transformation of sounds encountered in special speech forms, the rules for stress placement, the status of the foot, and various types of coalescence and deletion. For comparative linguists and typologists in particular, the book offers a useful description of a little studied language and language family. Finally, it provides teachers and students of linguistics with a richness of data for discussion in classes on phonetics and phonology, following a progression in the exposition similar to that followed in the field in analysing the sound system of an unknown language.

John Stonham's previous research in this area includes his book, Combinatorial Morphology, and both theoretical and descriptive papers on Nootka and the closely related Ditidaht. John Stonham is currently Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong.

ISBN 9783895865770. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 32. 160pp. 1999.

Grammaire du purépecha

Claudine Chamoreau
Col. Oxtopulco-Universidad

L'objet de ce travail est de faire une description synchronique du purépecha parlé sur des îles du lac de Patzcuaro (Mexique). Il est, dans un premier temps, important de noter que cette langue est génétiquement isolée. Les différentes études menées pour tenter de la relier à une autre langue ne permettent pas, jusqu'à présent, de passer du stade des hypothèses à celui des certitudes.

Sont étudiées en premier lieu la phonologie et la synthématique. Les procédés de formation des synthèmes sont très importants puisque plus de cinquante suffixes permettent la création de synthèmes dérivés.

Au niveau syntaxique, l'approche qui est privilégiée est celle qui se centre sur le prédicat en tant qu'entité relationnelle syntaxiquement nécessaire. A l'exception d'un participe, toutes les unités qui reçoivent des déterminations peuvent être employées comme des prédicats. Différents types de structures sont analysés : d'une part, le prédicat verbal (qui peut avoir pour variante dans certains contextes, un prédicat à l'infinitif), d'autre part, le prédicat nominal avec copule et sa structuration en tant que prédicat complexe (les unités de douze classes sont attestées dans cet emploi, en particulier, les noms, les noms propres, les personnels, les démonstratifs, les interrogatifs). Est étudiée aussi une structure dans laquelle, le prédicat nominal apparaît seul. Il s'agit d'énoncés exclamatifs qui sont présents dans des contextes dialogiques. Les fonctions syntaxiques qui existent dans les zones actancielle et circonstancielle sont analysées ainsi que leurs différents procédés syntaxiques. L'inventaire des classes d'unités est ordonné à partir de la dichotomie prédicat verbal-prédicat nominal.

Ensuite, un éclairage est apporté sur quelques marqueurs transphrastiques qui ont été relevés dans les récits. Enfin, sont analysées des variations d'usage dans les différents domaines (phonologie, morphologie, syntaxe, lexique). On peut retenir en particulier des variations dans le système phonologique, l'importance des fluctuations entre différents phonèmes, des faits morphologiques qui de par leur simplification ou leur fantaisie de marquage (le nombre, par exemple) rendent certains énoncés ambigus, le déplacement et l'élargissement des valeurs du fonctionnel casuel -Npu mais aussi l'utilisation rare et incertaine des indices de catégories nominales. Ces variations tendent à montrer que la langue est fragilisée, voire menacée de disparaître dans certaines communautés même si des actions de revitalisation et de restauration sont déjà menées.

Sommaire

Ch. I : Introduction Le purépecha : à la recherche de son histoire. Choix du terrain et constitution du corpus. Ch. II : La phonologie. Ch. III : La synthématique1. Ch. IV : Introduction à la syntaxe. Ch. V : Les classes des verbes et des infinitifs. Organisation relationnelle au sein de la zone actancielle. Ch. VI : Les classes des unités employées comme prédicats avec copule La prédication non verbal. Ch. VII : Les fonctions non spécifiques facultatives. Ch.VIII : Des processus phrastiques et transphrastiques. Ch. X : Dynamique actuelle de la langue purépecha. De la perte de vitalité aux tentatives de revitalisation.

ISBN 9783895869419. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 34. 680pp. 2000.

Aymara

M. J. Hardman
University of Florida, Gainesville

Aymara, a member of the Jaqi family of languages (Jaqaru, Kawki, Aymara), is a language of the high Andean plain between the highest peaks of the Andes mountains and of the shores of the world's highest navigable lake. Aymara is the first language of approximately one-third of the population of Bolivia, the dominant language of the southern area of Perú throughout Puno and down towards the coast in Moquegua, Tacna, with branches into Arequipa, and is the indigenous language of northern Chile.

Aymara is a suffixing language with complex morphophonemics. The bulk of the grammatical resources are found within the morphology. Syntax is morphologically marked; verbal person suffixes mark simultaneously object/subject; data source is marked at all levels of grammar. Within the nominal system inclusive/exclusive and humanness are marked.

The Aymara sentence is defined by the use of sentence suffixes. These sentence suffixes are independent of root classes and may occur on all classes. Every sentence must be marked by one or more sentence suffix, which serves to define the sentence type. Aymara has 26 consonant phonemes and three vowel phonemes. Fifteen of the consonants are voiceless stops which occur in five contrasting positions of articulation; and in three manners. Vowel dropping is significant, complex and pervasive, marking case and phrase structure as well as style.

MJ Hardman is Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of Florida. She began the study of Aymara in the sixties and has since been continually involved with one or another of the Jaqi languages for which she has written grammars, teaching materials and cultural studies. She founded INEL (Instituto Nacional de Estudios Lingüísticos) in Bolivia and the Aymara Language Materials Program at the University of Florida. Her current research also involves language and gender and the patterning of worldview in language.

ISBN 9783895869754. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 35. 360pp. 2001.

A Grammar of Teribe

J. Diego Quesada
University of Toronto

This is the first comprehensive description of the grammatical structure of Teribe, a language of Panama, and a member of the Chibchan family of languages, which covers a wide area ranging from Northeastern Honduras, through the Atlantic of Nicaragua, most of Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, to the West of Venezuela. Spoken by some 1,000 people, Teribe is at present potentially, though not severely, endangered. This grammar fills a lacuna in a twofold manner: it provides an extensive account of the structure of Teribe, and in doing so, it reduces the number of Central American Chibchan languages being undescribed.

This grammar is thus intended as a contribution to the description of the language at three levels: a. language-immanent; b. Chibchan comparative grammar; c. documentation of endangered languages, especially those of the American continent. Teribe is both a clear representative of the "Central American" features of the Chibchan languages (numeral classifiers, limited agreement, no evidentials), and idiosyncratic within these languages (having such phenomena as an inverse construction and verb serialization). The research for this book was funded in its entirety by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

ISBN 9783895866715. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 36. 200pp. 2000.

Des noms et des verbes en tupi-guarani: état de la question

F. Queixalós (ed.)
CNRS-IRD

Tupi-Guarani is a major South American language family which has been the object of sustained attention from the very beginnings of the European presence on the continent. To-day it can be considered a relatively well known family of languages, in terms of description of individual languages as well as in terms of comparative studies. A number of grammatical topics show interesting characteristics in the languages of the family, and it is worth divulgating both the data and the typological issues raised by these data. The book, whose contents results form an international meeting held in French Guyana in January 2000, addresses one of these topics: the basis for a distinction between nouns and verbs. The issue is pervasive in the grammar of many of the languages, because it connects with questions like types of predication (possessive, existential), case-marking, active-stative type of language, omnipredicativity, configurationality, and others. Contributions, which focus whether on a single language or on large amounts of different language data, aim to freshen our perception of formerly known data as well as to bring new data into current discussion.

Languages studdied include Tupinamba, Guarani, Chiriguano, Kamayura, Tapirape, Mbya, Emerillon, and Karitiana, a Tupi but non Tupi-Guarani language.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Carte des langues

Categorias lexicais nas lînguas tupi-guaranis (visão comparativa), Wolf Dietrich (Romanisches Seminar, Universitaet Muenster).
Classes de palavras e categorias sintático-funcionais em Kamaiurá, Lucy Seki (Unicamp)
As sentenças possessivas em Mbyá-Guarani: evidência para a distinção nome e verbo, Márcia Dámaso Vieira (Museu Nacional/UFRJ)
O estatuto dos sintagmas nominais de sujeito e objeto em Tapirapé, Yonne Leite (CNPq/ Museu Nacional)
Sobre a natureza do caso argumentativo, Aryon Dall'Igna Rodrigues (Laboratório de Línguas Indígenas, Instituto de Letras, UnB)
Le suffixe référentiant en émérillon, F. Queixalós (IRD-CNRS)
Observações sobre a história do morfema -a da família Tupí-Guaraní, Ana Suelly Arruda Câmara Cabral (UFPa)
Duas Classes de Verbos Intransitivos em Karitiana (família Arikém, tronco Tupi), Luciana R. Storto (Museu Nacional/UFRJ)

ISBN 9783895864070. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 37. 280pp. 2001.

Língua matis (pano): aspectos descritivos da morfosintaxe

Rogerio Ferreira
Universidad de CAMPINAS

This study presents a morphosyntactic description of the "Matis" language, pertaining to the Pano family. The study is divided into the following sections: .

a) introduction, in which the author presents a discussion about the importance of research the indigenous languages, how the project in question began, the fundamental theory used and information about the people and the Matis language; b) in this dissertation the author presents the phonological tables based on the work of Spanghero (2000); c) in the third part of our work, the classes of words of Matis are described. The criteria used for describing the classes of words were based on those proposed by Schachter (1985) and Givón (1984); d) in the fourth part, the author focuses on syntax (mainly what is refered to the order of the constituents) and ergativity. [Written in Portuguese] .

ISBN 9783895864179. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 38. 200pp. 2001.

Língua matis (pano): uma análise fonológica

Vitória Regina Spanghero Ferreira
Universidad de CAMPINAS

The following study shows a phonetic and phonological report of the Matis language, belonging to the Pano family whose population lives in the state of Amazonas.

This work consist of six chapters, conclusion and a bibliography. The first chapter shows a brief introduction, presents the methodology applied in the field to collect the linguistic material used in this study and the methodology of linguistic analysis.

The second chapter shows a detailed report of the Matis people, their geographical position and some aspects concerning their language and culture, and a brief discussion of the studies about the Pano linguistic family.

The third chapter defines the phonemes and the allophones of the language through the traditional analysis such as minimum pair, analogous pair, complementary distribution and free variation.

From the fourth chapter on our study was guided mainly by the non-linear phonological theories. On this chapter we covered the Matis syllable structure, taking into consideration the syllable, syllable standards, the language syllable process, the ambivalent sequences, and we classified the phonemes in natural classes according to the feature geometrical theory.

The fifth chapter analyse the phonological processes which occur in the language: fusion, nasal assimilation, lenition and tapping, neutralization and vowel deletion. The last chapter deals with the stress pattern. [Written in Portuguese]

ISBN 9783895864186. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 39. 170pp. 2001.

Die Numeralklassifikation im klassischen Aztekischen

Thomas Stolz
Universität Bremen

Diese Studie liefert die erste ausführliche Beschreibung der klassisch-aztekischen Numeralklassifikation und schließt auf diese Weise eine empirische Lücke, die sowohl in der Alt-Amerikanistik als auch in der Typologie und Universalienforschung zu konstatieren war. Zu diesem Zweck werden klassisch-aztekische Originaltexte aus dem 16. Jahrhundert ausgewertet; jüngere Textdokumente und Daten aus anderen Quellen werden für die Darstellung der weiteren Entwicklung herangezogen.

In Kapitel 1 wird in das Thema eingeführt und ein Literaturbericht gegeben. Eine Synopse der klassisch-aztekischen Grammatik folgt in Kapitel 2. Den Hauptteil der Arbeit bietet Kapitel 3, in dem die Numeralklassifikation des klassischen Aztekischen im Detail analysiert wird. über mögliche Entstehungsszenarien für das beschriebene Phänomen unterrichtet Kapitel 4, während Kapitel 5 die diachronen Prozesse bis hin zu den modernen Varietäten des 20. Jahrhunderts zum Gegenstand hat. Ein Abgleich mit rezenten Erkenntnissen aus der typologischen Forschung zu Klassifikations-systemen findet in Kapitel 6 statt. Die Arbeit wird abgerundet durch ein Resümee in Kapitel 7, das auch Aufgaben für zukünftige Forschungsarbeiten skizziert.

ISBN 9783895863394. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 40. 120pp. 2001.

Anthology of Menominee Sayings

(Texts & Grammar)

Timothy Guile
Meio University

"Anthology of Menominee Sayings" is the result of seven years of field work (conducted during the 1980's) with about half a dozen speakers of one of Wisconsin's indigenous Algonquian languages. The anthology, consisting of some 450 short pieces of Menominee oral tradition, contains weather rules, conventions and taboos surrounding hunting and fishing, wisdom on the conduct of life, and omens predicting good or ill. The texts, therefore, tell of the community's interest in the contour of life from its inception to its preservation and eventual demise. Each text is accompanied by an English translation and, where necessary, explanatory linguistic and cultural notes.

The notes take Bloomfield's grammatical description and lexicon of Menominee as a point of comparison, and indicate phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic departures from the state of the language as described by him. The text is useful to students of culture, folklore, Native American studies, as well as historical and descriptive linguistics.

The volume concludes with a short descriptive grammar focusing on phonology, morphology and syntax.

ISBN 9783895862748. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 41. 500pp. 2001.

ISBN 9783969390313 (Hardbound). LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 41 (2^nd ed.). 516pp. 2021.