Organization
• General background – Language family – Phonology
• Morphological background • Discontinuous morphemes
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
(Athapaskan, Athabascan) [æθbæskn]
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Athabaskan language family
Navajo Apachean languages
Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanie
Na-Dene/Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit Tlingit Proto-Athabaskan-Eyak Eyak Proto-Athabaskan CAY CBC NW Can
Deg Xinag Babine-Witsuwit’en Tsek’ene
CAY = Central Alaska-Yukon; CBC = Central BC; NW Can = NW Canada
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Language family
Dene-Yeniseian: http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/dy/
Northern Athabaskan languages
Deg Xinag (Ingalik) Tsek’ene (Sekani) Babine-Witsuwit’en (Babine)
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Witsuwit’en consonants
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
labial alveolar palatal labio-velar
uvular glottal
stop p p p’ t t t’ c c c’ kw kw kw’
q q q’ ʔ
affricate ts ts ts’
t t t’
fricative s z ç xw χ h
nasal m n approx. l j w
Morphological background
• Major lexical categories • Morphological structures
• affixation (simple cases) • compounding • ablaut • noun classes • incorporation • position-class morphology
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Major lexical categories
nouns verbs postpositions directional adverbs adjectives
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Affixation (simple cases)
[stoʔ] ‘my water’ [nǝxwtoʔ] ‘your (pl.), our water’ [ntoʔ] ‘your (sg.)
water’
[pǝtoʔ] ‘his/her/its water’
[hǝpǝtoʔ]
‘their water’
A possessive paradigm for [to] ‘water’ ([-toʔ] (psd.)
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Compounding
• Noun + noun – endocentric
• tho ‘water’ + tsut ‘coat’ = ‘raincoat’ • -nin ‘face’ + ts’n ‘bone’ = ‘cheek bones’
– exocentric • tni ‘person’ + nin ‘face’ = ‘penny’ • wq’z ‘cold’ + u ‘tooth’ = ‘icicle’ • c’tsht ‘ruffed grouse’ + qh ‘foot’ =‘the letter X’ • tlkw’aχ ‘frog’ + neɬtc ‘blanket’ =‘broad-leaved
plantain’
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Verbal time categories
• imperfective: uncompleted action, state – [nǝje] ‘(3s) is walking around’
• perfective: completed action, state – [nǝsǝje] ‘(3s) walked around’
• future: action, state to take place in future (some degree of certainty) – [nǝthajeɬ] ‘(3s) will walk around’
• optative: wish for future action, state – [nujeʔ] ‘let (3s) walk around’
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Ablaut in verb stems verb root impf/opt perfective future -/qes/ ‘scratch hard’ –[qes] –[qez] –[qs] -/qz/ ‘do with arms’ –[qis] –[qz] –[qs] Ablaut patterns: /e/ --> // in future // --> /i/ in imperfective/optative
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Noun classes • ‘be (in position)’
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Hargus, Sharon. 2007. Witsuwit’en Grammar: Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Classificatory verbs
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
• detic ‘et stan door there it[rigid].is ‘a door is there’ • nelhdic ‘et silhcoz blanket there it[clothlike].is ‘a blanket is there’ • distl’is ‘et silhcoz paper/book there it[clothlike].is ‘a (single sheet of) paper is there’ • distl’is ‘et si’ay paper/book there it[compact].is ‘a book is there’
Position class verbal morphology
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Verb prefix positions Root Suffix
postposition/adverbial12 – iterative11 – multiple10 – negative9 – incorporated root8 – inceptive7 – distributive plural6 – pronominal object/subject5 – qualifier4 – tense/neg3 – subject2 – valence1
tense – negative
Prefix order restrictions
Subject in two positions ...object/subject5 – qualifier4 – tense/neg3 – subject2 – valence1 1s s- qha usqhɛt ‘let me buy a car’ 2s in- qha unqhɛt ‘you (should) buy a car’ 3s qha uqhɛt ‘let (3s) buy a car’ 1d tǝt- qha utǝtqhɛt ‘let us (2) buy a car’ 1p ts’- qha ts’oqhɛt ‘let’s buy a car’ 2p xw- qha uhqhɛt ‘you (pl.) (should) buy a car’ 3p h- qha hoqhɛt ‘let them buy a car’
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Incorporation
• incorporated root8 – nǝsǝltǝlje ‘he’s walking around hollering’ – cf. ɬɛzǝl ‘he’s hollering’ – hatshetqǝz ‘a head is sticking out’ – cf. PA *-tshiʔ ‘head’, -nʁen ‘head’ < *-tshi:-ʁa:ŋ’
‘brain’ – qhajǝstc’ej ‘he wounded it (shooting)’ – cf. –qhaq ‘surface, skin’
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Discontinuous morphemes
discontinous morpheme : forma + formb + ... ‘meaning’ je10-t4- ‘all over’ nepe12-t4- ‘turn around’ u3- ... - optative inc8-t4-l1- ‘perform (oral action) (while in
motion)’ cf. portmanteau morpheme: form ‘meaninga +
meaningb ...’ LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
More discontinuous morphemes
O-u4-jin ‘pick O (berries) while stationary’ cf. -jin ‘sg./du. stand’
t4-t1-/as ‘du. pick berries (while walking around)’ cf. -/as ‘du./group goes, walks’
qhɛ8-t4-zǝt ‘sg./du. travel’ cf. –zǝt ‘sg./du. subsist’
O = object required (transitive verb)
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus
Discontinuous morphemes in ‘I’m not going to pick (round) things’
[we- c’- o- n- th- [] z- i- s- ji -t -]
negative round 1 sg. subject
unspecified object ‘pick (berries)
while stationary’ future
LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus