Witsuwit'en Grammar
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.
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
