LSNAL 32: Aspects of Tsishaath Nootka Phonetics & Phonology

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.