search : contact us : about us : site guide : home

  University of British Columbia Press
 Search Our Catalogue
  search by subject

 UBC Press
About UBC Press
Acknowledgements
Conferences & Events
Contact Us
Media Centre
Publishing With UBC Press
Publishers Represented
Staff Directory

 Books
Awards
Catalogues
Forthcoming Titles
How To Order
Recent Reviews
Review Copies
Series

 Join Our Mailing List
Sign Up
Privacy Statement

 ubcpress.ca
About ubcpress.ca
Frequent Questions
Privacy Statement
Site Guide
Website Feedback

 Featured Title
.
Witsuwit'en Grammar
Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology
Sharon Hargus  

$150.00 Hardcover
Release Date: 3/15/2007
ISBN: 9780774813822    


850 Pages



First Nations Languages series

OTHER WAYS TO ORDER

About the Book

Witsuwit’en is an endangered First Nations language, spoken in western-central British Columbia. A member of the Athapaskan family of languages, the language had been known to have some intriguing characteristics of consonant-vowel interaction, the details of which have been in dispute among scholars.
Witsuwit’en Grammar presents acoustic studies of several aspects of Witsuwit’en phonetics, including vowel quality, vowel quantity, ejectives, voice quality, and stress. Information about the sound system and word structure of Witsuwit’en is also provided, revealing many unusual features not previously described in this level of detail for an Athapaskan language.
Witsuwit’en has elaborate morphology, even by the standards of the Athapaskan language family. Witsuwit’en Grammar will be of interest to anthropologists interested in the history of the Athapasakan language family, linguists interested in comparative Athapaskan grammar, or any linguist interested in phonetics-phonology or phonology-morphology interaction.


About the Author(s)

Sharon Hargus is a professor of linguistics at the University of Washington.


Table of Contents

Contents
Author’s note
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements

Part 1: Language and dialect
1 Witsuwit’en
1.1. Geography
1.2. Demographics
1.3. Previous research on Witsuwit’en-Babine
1.4. Witsuwit’en-U’in Wit’en dialects
1.5. Witsuwit’en dialects
1.6. Carrier vs. Witsuwit’en-Babine
1.7. Language name

Part 2: Segmental phonetics and phonology
2 Consonant contrasts
2.1. Consonant inventory
2.2. Labial consonants
2.3. Nasal consonants
2.4. Voiced vs. voiceless fricatives
2.5. Labio-velar consonants
2.6. /h/
2.7. V
2.8. Summary

3 Consonant phonetics
3.1. Ejective stops
3.2. Final glottalic consonants and voice quality
3.3. T- qualifier prefix
3.4. Summary

4 Vowel quality
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Previous analyses
4.3. An acoustic study of vowel quality
4.4. Summary
4.5. Tables of numerical results

5 Vowel quantity
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Reduced vs. full vowels
5.3. Long full vowels
5.4. / / lengthening
5.5. A phonetic study of /a/, /aa/ and lengthened / /
5.6. Representation of the reduced and full vowel classes
5.7. Summary

6 Consonant and vowel classes
6.1. Laryngeal features
6.2. Place features
6.3. Manner features
6.4. Summary

Part 3: Morphology and phonological structure
7 Nouns
7.1. Possessive prefixes
7.2. Pronouns
7.3. Nominal roots
7.4. Compounds
7.5. Plural and vocative forms
7.6. Noun classes
7.7. Nouns derived from other lexical categories
7.8. Loan words
7.9. Summary

8 Postpositions
8.1. Inflection for object of postposition
8.2. Postposition stems: phonological properties
8.3. Postposition stems: semantic properties
8.4. Noun phrases containing postpositional phrases
8.5. Summary

9 Directional system
9.1. Introduction
9.2. Directional morphemes
9.3. Directional words
9.4. Directional adverbs vs. postpositions
9.5. Co-occurrence with verb prefixes
9.6. Lexical items historically derived from directional adverbs
9.7. Summary

10 Adjectives
10.1. Predicate adjectives
10.2. Nominal adjectives
10.3. Post-nominal adjectives
10.4. Summary

11 Numbers
11.1. Cardinal numbers 1-10
11.2. Ordinal forms of numbers
11.3. Numbers: 11+
11.4. Summary

12 Overview of verb structure
12.1. The lexical verb
12.2. Inflection
12.3. Derivation
12.4. Prefix order restrictions
12.5. Discontinuity
12.6. The verb system

13 Verb roots
13.1. Overview
13.2. The lexical root
13.3. Number
13.4. Ablaut
13.5. Imperative suffixation

14 Verb prefix position classes
14.1. Introduction
14.2. Voice/valence (classifier)
14.3. Inner subject
14.4. Tense/negative/conjugation
14.5. Qualifier
14.6. Pronominal
14.7. Distributive: /n/
14.8. Incorporated root
14.9. Inceptive /ho/
14.10. Negative: /we/
14.11. Multiple: /ye/
14.12. Iterative: /ne/
14.13. Preverb: postposition/adverbial
14.14. Summary
14.15. Word external verb theme forming elements

15 Aspectual verb suffixation
15.1. Introduction
15.2. Continuative
15.3. Momentaneous
15.4. Persistive
15.5. Distributive
15.6. Conclusive
15.7. Durative
15.8. Repetitive
15.9. Neuter
15.10. Semelfactive
15.11. Customary
15.12. Progressive
15.13. Summary of aspectual stem variation

16 Verb theme categories
16.1. Introduction
16.2. Active vs. neuter verb themes
16.3. Active verb themes
16.4. Neuter verb themes
16.5. Summary

17 Inflectionally defective verbs
17.1. Third person subject only
17.2. No perfective
17.3. No perfective and no positive
17.4. Suppletive perfective
17.5. No imperfective
17.6. Imperfective negative only
17.7. Imperative only
17.8. No negative
17.9. No tense or subject
17.10. Summary

18 Phonological domains
18.1. Word domain
18.2. Stem domain
18.3. Prefix domain
18.4. Conjunct domain
18.5. Qualifier domain?
18.6. Summary

Part 4: Suprasegmental phonology
19 Syllables
19.1. Syllable types
19.2. Coda consonants
19.3. Word-final rhymes
19.4. Onsetless syllables
19.5. Consonant clusters
19.6. Antigemination
19.7. Syllable weight
19.8. [ ] ~ 0 alternations
19.9. Glides
19.10. Summary

20 Stress
20.1. Previous analyses
20.2. Word stress: qualitative observations
20.3. Phonetic correlates of stress in Witsuwit’en
20.4. Summary

Part 5: Prefix case studies
21 Morpheme-specific alternation
21.1. Introduction
21.2. Allomorphy as output optimization
21.3. Co-phonologies vs. prespecification
21.4. Summary

22 First person plural subject prefix
22.1. Introduction
22.2. Overview
22.3. ___V
22.4. V___.C
22.5. C___.C
22.6. PWd[___.C
22.7. ___C.
22.8. PWd[C___
22.9. Second person singular object + first person plural subject
22.10. Summary
22.11. Cross-linguistic perspective

23 Areal prefix
23.1. Introduction
23.2. The areal prefix in Witsuwit’en
23.3. The verbal areal prefix
23.4. The areal prefix with nouns, postpositions, adjectives and
directional adverbs
23.5. Summary

24 D- voice prefix
24.1. Introduction
24.2. The Witsuwit’en pattern
24.3. First person dual subject
24.4. OT analysis
24.5. Thematic and iterative D- voice
24.6. D- combinations
24.7. Summary

Part 6: Conclusion
25 Witsuwit’en in comparative and theoretical perspective

Appendices
26 Historical phonology
26.1. Consonants
26.2. Reflexes of vowel initial roots
26.3. Vowels

27 Writing systems for Witsuwit'en-Babine
27.1. Introduction
27.2. G j vs. gg g
27.3. Cl vs. gil
27.4. Long full vowels
27.5. Front vowels
27.6. Uwh, eeyh vs. uh, ďh
27.7. Glottalized nasals
27.8. Conclusion

28 Verb paradigms
28.1. Imperfective and customary
28.2. Perfective
28.3. Future
28.4. Optative
28.5. Perfective negative
28.6. Non-perfective negative
28.7. Irregular verbs

29 Texts
29.1. Alfred Joseph, 1 July 9, Witsuwit'en summit
29.2. Mabel Forsythe and Lillian Morris talking together, September 7

References
Index


Reviews


Sample Chapter

A sample chapter of this title is not available at this time. For further information, please email info@ubcpress.ubc.ca.


Related Topics

Native Studies
Linguistics
Native Studies > Canada


Other Ways To Order

In Canada, order your copy of Witsuwit'en Grammar from UTP Distribution at:

UTP Distribution
5201 Dufferin Street
Toronto, Ontario
M3H 5T8

Phone orders: 1(800)565-9523 or (416)667-7791
Fax orders: 1(800)221-9985 or (416)667-7832
Email: utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca

Ordering information for customers outside Canada


© 2001 UBC Press
2029 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6T 1Z2
t. 604.822.5959 | f. 604.822.6083 | e. frontdesk@ubcpress.ca