Witsuwit'en Grammar
850 pages, 7 x 10
Hardcover
Release Date:15 Mar 2007
ISBN:9780774813822
PDF
Release Date:01 Nov 2007
ISBN:9780774855754
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Witsuwit'en Grammar

Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology

UBC Press

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.

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

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, ïh

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

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