Witsuwit'en grammar : phonetics, phonology, morphology

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hargus, Sharon, Author.

Series:

First Nations Languages Series

First Nations languages Witsuwit'en grammar

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Babine-Witsuwit'en language--Grammar--British Columbia.

Babine-Witsuwit'en language.

Babine-Witsuwit'en language--Phonetics.

Babine-Witsuwit'en language--Morphology.

Wet'suwet'en Indians--Languages.

Wet'suwet'en Indians.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (850 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] UBC Press 2007

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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:

Front Matter

Contents

Author's note

Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

Language and dialect

Witsuwit'en

Segmental phonetics and phonology

Consonant contrasts

Consonant phonetics

Vowel quality

Vowel quantity

Consonant and vowel classes

Morphology and phonological structure

Nouns

Postpositions

Directional system

Adjectives

Numbers

Overview of verb structure

Verb roots

Verb prefix position classes

Aspectual verb suffixation

Verb theme categories

Inflectionally defective verbs

Phonological domains

Suprasegmental phonology

Syllables

Stress

Prefix case studies

Morpheme-specific alternation

First person plural subject prefix

Areal prefix

D‒ voice prefix

Conclusion

Witsuwit'en in comparative and theoretical perspective

Appendices

Historical phonology

Writing systems for Witsuwit'en-Babine

Verb paradigms

Texts

References

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

1-282-59348-X

9786612593482

0-7748-5575-4

OCLC:

1320949534