1036: 4P
slkdgha
8.9LanguagesoftheAmericas.pdf
LING 1030: The Diversity of Languages
The languages of the Americas
Introduction
Languages in the Americas:
the languages from the Old World, mostly Europe the indigenous languages of the Americas
The original inhabitants of the Americas came over from Asia, most likely across Beringia, the land bridge that connected Asia and America at various times throughout the Pleistocene, most recently for a long period of time ending about 16,000 years ago. We don’t know for sure when the first migration happened: there is good evidence for 20,000-15,000 years ago, but there is some evidence that it happened much earlier (about 40,000). The migrations took place it many waves. Some scholars believe, for example, that an Eskimo-Aleut migration from Asia may have taken place as recently as 5,000 years ago.
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Outline
1 NorthAmerica
2 Mesoamerica
3 SouthAmerica
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NorthAmerica
Outline
1 NorthAmerica
2 Mesoamerica
3 SouthAmerica
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North America
Some language families in North America
There is a large number of languages and language families in North America, e.g.
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North America
Some language families in North America
There is a large number of languages and language families in North America, e.g.
Eskimo-Aleut (e.g. Kalaallisut, Central Alaskan Yup’ik)
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North America
Some language families in North America
There is a large number of languages and language families in North America, e.g.
Eskimo-Aleut (e.g. Kalaallisut, Central Alaskan Yup’ik) Na-Dene (e.g. Athabaskan, Navajo)
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North America
Some language families in North America
There is a large number of languages and language families in North America, e.g.
Eskimo-Aleut (e.g. Kalaallisut, Central Alaskan Yup’ik) Na-Dene (e.g. Athabaskan, Navajo) Algic (≈Algonquian) (e.g. Cree, Potawatomi, Blackfoot)
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North America
Some language families in North America
There is a large number of languages and language families in North America, e.g.
Eskimo-Aleut (e.g. Kalaallisut, Central Alaskan Yup’ik) Na-Dene (e.g. Athabaskan, Navajo) Algic (≈Algonquian) (e.g. Cree, Potawatomi, Blackfoot) Siouan
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North America
Some language families in North America
There is a large number of languages and language families in North America, e.g.
Eskimo-Aleut (e.g. Kalaallisut, Central Alaskan Yup’ik) Na-Dene (e.g. Athabaskan, Navajo) Algic (≈Algonquian) (e.g. Cree, Potawatomi, Blackfoot) Siouan (e.g. Lakota)
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North America
Some language families in North America
There is a large number of languages and language families in North America, e.g.
Eskimo-Aleut (e.g. Kalaallisut, Central Alaskan Yup’ik) Na-Dene (e.g. Athabaskan, Navajo) Algic (≈Algonquian) (e.g. Cree, Potawatomi, Blackfoot) Siouan (e.g. Lakota) Iroquoian (e.g. Cheerokee, Mohawk)
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North America
Eskimo-Aleut
Two branches of the family: Eskimo and Aleut
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North America
Eskimo-Aleut
The Aleut branch It’s spoken by small groups of inhabitants of various islands in the Aleutian chain and on the Commander Islands. There are now about 150 speakers of various Aleut dialects. All of the Aleut dialects have been heavily in influenced by Russian, from which most of their technical and religious vocabulary was borrowed. There is even a language, Mednyj Aleut, that is such a thorough mixture of Aleut and Russian that many linguists classify it as a mixed language, one that is no longer clearly Eskimo-Aleut or clearly Indo-European.
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North America
Eskimo-Aleut
The Eskimo branch
The term Eskimo, which dates back to the 1500s, originates from an Algonquian language. In the 1970s, many Canadians began to perceive the term as offensive, and the term has been controversial ever since. In Canada, the endonym Inuit replaces the exonym Eskimo, but in Alaska and Siberia, many Eskimos are not Inuit, and so a more inclusive term is needed. As a result, most linguists continue to use the word Eskimo for this group of languages.
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North America
Aside: exonyms vs endonyms
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(1) An exonym is an external name for a geographical place, or a group of people, an individual person, or a language or dialect. It is a common name used only outside the place, group, or linguistic community in question, usually for historical reasons.
(2) An endonym is an internal name for a geographical place, or a group of people, or a language or dialect. It is a common name used only inside the place, group, or linguistic community in question; it is their name for themselves, their homeland, or their language.
North America
Central Alaskan Yup’ik
Yupik language belonging to the Eskimo branch of the Eskimo-Aleut family of languages the largest of the Yupik languages, and the only one that we know is still being passed on naturally to children.
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North America
Central Alaskan Yup’ik
a Yup’ik has borrowed a lot of words from Russian:
But also from English:
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North America
Yup’ik morphology
the very rich morphology Nouns and verbs begin with a root, which may o en be followed by several lexical suffixes before an inflectional ending
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North America
Yup’ik morphology
the very rich morphology Nouns and verbs begin with a root, which may o en be followed by several lexical suffixes before an inflectional ending
Of what morphological type is Yup’ik?
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North America
Yup’ik morphology
the very rich morphology Nouns and verbs begin with a root, which may o en be followed by several lexical suffixes before an inflectional ending
Of what morphological type is Yup’ik?⇒ it’s a polysynthetic language
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North America
Yup’ik noun morphology
Nouns in Yup’ik are inflected for case, number, and possession. There are three numbers: singular, dual, and plural. Sometimes the case, number, and possessor markers are fused together,
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North America
Ergative case system
What have we said about Rrgative case so far?
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North America
Ergative case system
What have we said about Rrgative case so far? ⇒ It appears on subjects of transitive sentences.
What about Absolutive case? Why do we find Absolutive case in languages that also Ergative, but not in those that don’t (e.g. English)?
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North America
Ergative case system
What have we said about Rrgative case so far? ⇒ It appears on subjects of transitive sentences.
What about Absolutive case? Why do we find Absolutive case in languages that also Ergative, but not in those that don’t (e.g. English)?
We need to understand what these names really mean. Spoiler: not a lot.
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North America
Case systems
Some cases correspond to specific meanings, e.g.
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North America
Case systems
Some cases correspond to specific meanings, e.g. locative, ablative, vocative, instrumental
But others don’t: Nominative:
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North America
Case systems
Some cases correspond to specific meanings, e.g. locative, ablative, vocative, instrumental
But others don’t: Nominative: is the case found on subjects
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North America
Case systems
Some cases correspond to specific meanings, e.g. locative, ablative, vocative, instrumental
But others don’t: Nominative: is the case found on subjects
Accusative:
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North America
Case systems
Some cases correspond to specific meanings, e.g. locative, ablative, vocative, instrumental
But others don’t: Nominative: is the case found on subjects
Accusative: is the case found on objects
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North America
Case systems
Some cases correspond to specific meanings, e.g. locative, ablative, vocative, instrumental
But others don’t: Nominative: is the case found on subjects
Accusative: is the case found on objects
Ergative and Absolutive are like Nom and Acc – they are defined by the grammatical function of the noun. Roughly:
Ergative:
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North America
Case systems
Some cases correspond to specific meanings, e.g. locative, ablative, vocative, instrumental
But others don’t: Nominative: is the case found on subjects
Accusative: is the case found on objects
Ergative and Absolutive are like Nom and Acc – they are defined by the grammatical function of the noun. Roughly:
Ergative: is the case found on transitive subjects
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North America
Case systems
Some cases correspond to specific meanings, e.g. locative, ablative, vocative, instrumental
But others don’t: Nominative: is the case found on subjects
Accusative: is the case found on objects
Ergative and Absolutive are like Nom and Acc – they are defined by the grammatical function of the noun. Roughly:
Ergative: is the case found on transitive subjects
Absolutive:
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North America
Case systems
Some cases correspond to specific meanings, e.g. locative, ablative, vocative, instrumental
But others don’t: Nominative: is the case found on subjects
Accusative: is the case found on objects
Ergative and Absolutive are like Nom and Acc – they are defined by the grammatical function of the noun. Roughly:
Ergative: is the case found on transitive subjects
Absolutive: is the case found on objects and intransitive subjects
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North America
Case systems
Some cases correspond to specific meanings, e.g. locative, ablative, vocative, instrumental
But others don’t: Nominative: is the case found on subjects
Accusative: is the case found on objects
Ergative and Absolutive are like Nom and Acc – they are defined by the grammatical function of the noun. Roughly:
Ergative: is the case found on transitive subjects
Absolutive: is the case found on objects and intransitive subjects
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⇒ The two pairs of cases don’t appear within the same language ⇒ A language is either NOM/ACC or ERG/ABS
North America
Case systems
A subject or an object of a verb is called an argument of that verb.
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North America
Case systems
A subject or an object of a verb is called an argument of that verb. E.g. the verb kick, being a transitive verb, has two arguments:
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(3) He A(gent)
amused them. Object
North America
Case systems
A subject or an object of a verb is called an argument of that verb. E.g. the verb kick, being a transitive verb, has two arguments:
(3) He A(gent)
amused them. Object
E.g. the verb laugh, being a intransitive verb, has only one argument:
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(4) They S(subject)
laughed.
North America
Case systems
A subject or an object of a verb is called an argument of that verb. E.g. the verb kick, being a transitive verb, has two arguments:
(3) He A(gent)
amused them. Object
E.g. the verb laugh, being a intransitive verb, has only one argument:
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(4) They S(subject)
laughed.
(5) We need to differentiate three types of arguments a. A(gent) – subject of a transitive sentence b. O(bject) – object c. S(ubject) – subject of an intransitive sentence
North America
Case systems
A, O and S are the grammatical functions that some cases are defined by. That is, some cases are defined by appearing on A, O or S.
On what types of arguments does NOM appear?
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North America
Case systems
A, O and S are the grammatical functions that some cases are defined by. That is, some cases are defined by appearing on A, O or S.
On what types of arguments does NOM appear? ⇒ A and S
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North America
Case systems
A, O and S are the grammatical functions that some cases are defined by. That is, some cases are defined by appearing on A, O or S.
On what types of arguments does NOM appear? ⇒ A and S On what types of arguments does ACC appear?
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North America
Case systems
A, O and S are the grammatical functions that some cases are defined by. That is, some cases are defined by appearing on A, O or S.
On what types of arguments does NOM appear? ⇒ A and S On what types of arguments does ACC appear? ⇒ O
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North America
Case systems
A, O and S are the grammatical functions that some cases are defined by. That is, some cases are defined by appearing on A, O or S.
On what types of arguments does NOM appear? ⇒ A and S On what types of arguments does ACC appear? ⇒ O On what types of arguments does ERG appear?
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North America
Case systems
A, O and S are the grammatical functions that some cases are defined by. That is, some cases are defined by appearing on A, O or S.
On what types of arguments does NOM appear? ⇒ A and S On what types of arguments does ACC appear? ⇒ O On what types of arguments does ERG appear? ⇒ A
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North America
Case systems
A, O and S are the grammatical functions that some cases are defined by. That is, some cases are defined by appearing on A, O or S.
On what types of arguments does NOM appear? ⇒ A and S On what types of arguments does ACC appear? ⇒ O On what types of arguments does ERG appear? ⇒ A On what types of arguments does ABS appear?
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North America
Case systems
A, O and S are the grammatical functions that some cases are defined by. That is, some cases are defined by appearing on A, O or S.
On what types of arguments does NOM appear? ⇒ A and S On what types of arguments does ACC appear? ⇒ O On what types of arguments does ERG appear? ⇒ A On what types of arguments does ABS appear? ⇒ S and O
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North America
Case systems
A, O and S are the grammatical functions that some cases are defined by. That is, some cases are defined by appearing on A, O or S.
On what types of arguments does NOM appear? ⇒ A and S On what types of arguments does ACC appear? ⇒ O On what types of arguments does ERG appear? ⇒ A On what types of arguments does ABS appear? ⇒ S and O
The two case systems arise due to different groupings of arguments:
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North America
Case systems
NOM/ACC System ERG/ABS System
NOM/ACC is a system in which A and S are treated equally by the grammar (have the same case: NOM). ERG/ABS is a system in which S and O are treated equally by the grammar (have the same case: ABS)
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North America
Ergative system in Yup’ik
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North America
Ergative system in Yup’ik
Another example of a transitive sentence:
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North America
Ergative system in Yup’ik
Another example of a transitive sentence:
Ergative case can also be used to mark possessors
How do we know this is a possessor and not an Agent?
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North America
Ergative system in Yup’ik
Another example of a transitive sentence:
Ergative case can also be used to mark possessors
How do we know this is a possessor and not an Agent?
– word order – the form of the verb: intransitive, no object agreement
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Na-Dene Family
History of Native American Indians: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YR2FgxalCU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qubUz25Uxj0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BVO4qnQtj8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28IAI6F0DZc
Salish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYFVkrCDOeg
Nuxalt (Bella Coola): http://vimeo.com/57664411
Cherokee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saSSlSQwlwg
Lakhota: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTc0o-S7tgQ - Dances with the wolves
Navajo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1s9jd7OOcM - Amazing grace
Inflection
Polysynthetic morphology
A subcase of languages with agglutinative morphology in which not only grammatical morphemes, but also root morphemes may accumulate so that a single word can represent a whole sentence. This process is called root incorporation.
Example from Cuckchi:
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(20) Təmeyŋəlevtpəγtərkən. t-ə-meyŋ-ə-levt-pəγt-ə-rkən 1.SG.SUBJ-great-head-hurt-PRES.1 'I have a fierce headache.’
⇒ The entire sentence is expressed in one word.
Many of the Native American languages are polysynthetic, that is, characterized by a large number of affixes and by incorporation.
Polysynthetic: Mohawk, Yupik, Nootka
Noun incorporation in Takelma, Oregon
a. (gwen) sgow-t' - hi waya wa (neck) cut-off - 3Pl-3Sg knife with "He cut their necks off with a knife”
b. gwen - waya - sgow-t' - hi neck knife cut-off -3Pl-3Sg "He-neck-off-knife-cut-them"
Noun incorporation in Mohawk (Iroquoian):
wa-hi-sereht-ohare-se he- for me-car-washed
Another characteristic of many Native American languages is a lack of morphological distinction between nouns and verbs:
Nuuchahnulth:
?inkw ‘fire/burn’
?inkw-i¬ ‘fire in the house/burn in the house’
ts·ax ‘spear/to spear’
?ath ‘night/to become night’
?inma ‘to suck milk/breast’
Navajo Major language of the Athabascan family
The most flourishing indigenous language in North America
Navajo 'nation': c. 200,000
Navajo speakers: c. 100,000
Navajo reservation land: 25,000 square miles in Southwestern states of USA: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah
The Navajo call themselves Diné—"The People." (hence the term: Na-Dené)
Navajo as SOV language (like Japanese): postposition after noun
[[ 'éé' biih PP ] náásdzá VP] clothing into I-got-back 'I got back into (my) clothes'
Mesoamerica
Outline
1 NorthAmerica
2 Mesoamerica
3 SouthAmerica
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWipqUVVLvk - Nahuatl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLgonhEHllc - Musica prehispanica
Mayan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AFSjli4idE - Mayan speakers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn4ZtNdqY5M - The Mayan Languagehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA8Bjzj-aLs - Apocalipto
North America
Uto-Aztecan
A language family spoken mostly in Mexico in Mesoamerica
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North America
Uto-Aztecan
According to Ethnologue, the family has 61 languages. The total number of speakers is almost 2 million. Roughly 1.5 million of them speakers of Nahuatl languages. Nahuatl is historically known as Aztec Classical Nahuatl was the chief language of the Aztec empire at the time of Spanish conquest.
The last sound in the name Nahuatl is a lateral affricate: [tì]
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Mesoamerica
Mesoamerican area
Mesoamerica: the region from central Mexico to northern Costa Rica It is traditionally separated from the rest of North America in part because of its distinctive culture (e.g. it was one of the very few places in the world where writing was invented independently) It is also a sprachbund, where hundreds of languages exerted much influence on each other. Example families of Mesoamerica:
Totonacan (Mexico)
Mayan (Guatemala): Chol Kaqchikel
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Mesoamerica
Aztec vs Mayan
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oXwlvjld_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg Krh7r5lEQ - Guarani
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrAF T4NbG7k - Aymara
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHv3 -U9VPAs - Piraha
http://video.answers.com/daniel- everett-on-the-amazonian-piraha-tribes- language-culture-516907191 - Dan Everett
South America
South America
About 11.2 million people in South America speak an American native language. Research and documentation only started in mid 20th century – a lot of inconclusive data; many remain unclassified genetically. Greenberg’s (1987) Amerind hypothesis lumps all South American Indian languages into one family. At the other extreme, we have Kaufman’s (1990) classification, which lists 118 families and language isolates.
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South America
Typological diversity of native American languages
Some are tonal: e.g. Navajo
Basic word orders vary VSO, VOS: Mayan languages SOV: Athabaskan
Some are Ergative: e.g. Yup’ik, Mayan languages Many are polysynthetic: e.g. Yupik, Mohawk
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Long-range comparison (Greenberg, Ruhlen, Starostin)
Greenberg (Language in the Americas, 1997): 3 families
[1] Amerind: all native American languages except Na-Dené and Eskimo-Aleut [2] Na-Dené [3] Eskimo-Aleut
Three migrations posited by Greenberg (from Siberia to Alaska via Bering strait/land bridge):
(i) 12000 BC or earlier: Amerind (ii) 6-7000 BC: Na-Dené (iii) 4-5000 BC: Eskimo-Aleut
Supported by evidence from human genetics, teeth etc
The evidence for Amerind
Personal pronouns: Sahaptin (Oregon) Wintu (California) Pipil (Mexico)
1 n- in ni nu- (noun prefix) 2 m- im ma: mu- (noun
prefix)
Kinship terms: Proto-Amerind *T’ANA ‘child, sibling’ (t’ = glottalic stop)
Compare Nootka t’an’a “child”, Tsimshian luk-taen “grandchild”, Cheyenne tatan- “older brother”, Coeur D'Alene tune “niece”, Miskito tuk-ytan “child, boy”, “older brother”, Atoroi dan “baby, son”
Na-Dené: relationships with language families of Europe?
Dené-Caucasian (hypothesis) ______________________|_____________________
| | | | N.Caucasian Sino-Tibetan Yeniseian Na-Dené
(Ket) (Navajo, etc)
Evidence linking Ket (Siberia) with Athabaskan and Tlingit (Canada):
Roots: Ket Tlingit ‘I’ ad xad ‘he’ du du ‘it’ bi < wi bi < wi ‘go’ qut/ka gut/ka (suppletive forms -- strong evidence
for genetic relationship) ‘people’ de’ng den (as in Dené)
