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Vol. 38, no. 2 (Summer 1996)

Contents

Abstracts

Sapir's Classifications: Haida and the Other Na-Dene Languages

Alexis Manaster Ramer
Wayne State University

Abstract. Sapir's proposal, following earlier suggestions by Boas and Swanton, that Haida is related to Athabaskan and Tlingit is reexamined, as are the critiques of Sapir by Krauss, Levine, and Jacobsen, and the defense of Sapir by Greenberg. I argue that both sides in the debate have taken extreme positions which have not been logically justified and which have presupposed a false picture of the history and nature of linguistic classification and of Sapir's role in it. I conclude that the majority of the criticisms against Sapir are invalid, or else can easily be responded to, and that even by the critics' own criteria there is a rather impressive case for the validity of Sapir's construction. In addition, I call attention to significant amounts of data which have been ignored in the debate to date and which again seem to support Sapir's views. At the same time, unlike Greenberg, I identify a number of mistakes in Sapir's arguments and leave the case for Haida being Na-Dene, as did Sapir, at a preliminary stage, pending a careful examination of additional data, especially those in Sapir's manuscripts.

Dyadic and Polyadic Kin Terms in Gooniyandi

William McGregor
University of Melbourne

Abstract. Like many Australian Aboriginal languages, Gooniyandi (a non-Pama-Nyungan language of the Kimberley region of Western Australia) shows various morphological means for deriving dyadic and polyadic kin terms--where the former denote pairs of individuals in some kin relation to one another, the latter, groups of three or more individuals in such relationships. The notion of propositus is shown to be fundamental to an understanding of the meanings of these stem-forming morphemes and processes, and to the pragmatics of use of the derived kin terms. An attempt is made to characterize these meanings, and to compare and contrast them with the meanings of constructions involving conjunctions.

An Integrated Vocabulary of Mobilian Jargon, a Native American Pidgin of the Mississippi Valley

Emanuel J. Drechsel
University of Hawai`i at Manoa

Abstract. This vocabulary offers a substantial lexical inventory of Mobilian Jargon, a Muskogean-based pidgin of the lower Mississippi River valley, and includes some 1,250 entries plus comparative data of sources, drawn both from memory fieldwork with the pidgin's last speakers and from philological research. Allowing for idiosyncrasies of early spelling conventions, the historical evidence demonstrates not only remarkable consistency with modern recordings of Mobilian Jargon and with comparative data for related source languages, but also the feasibility of systematic philological reconstructions or reconstitutions by triangulation. The vocabulary shows considerable lexical richness with a diversity of semantic domains, confirming multiple usages and manifold social contexts for the pidgin, as indicated by historical and ethnographic data. Its lexicon further reveals substantial etymological variation, reflecting contributions from the speakers' diverse first languages, and lends support to a multilectal interpretation of Mobilian Jargon, including the lingua franca Creek of colonial Alabama and Georgia.

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