[ Index of Recent Volumes | Previous Issue | Next Issue | Order]

Vol. 41, no. 4 (Winter 1999)

Contents

Abstracts

Twins and Becoming Jaguars:
Verse Analysis of a Napo Quichua Myth Narrative

Michael Uzendoski
University of Virginia

Abstract. Napo Quichua relations of verse and structure are analyzed as they contribute to drama and the unfolding of theme in a myth narrative. The major organizational and grammatical features are examined at the level of lines, verses, stanzas, scenes, and acts. The quotative is found to be a principal marker of verses. Initial words, features of syntax, repetition, rhyme, and sound symbolism emerge as poetic features that group lines into larger units. The narrative's theme, "becoming a jaguar," is expressed through a rhetorical logic of onset, ongoing, and outcome that unfolds as a synecdochic relation between "the twins," humans, and mythical jaguars. The narrative illustrates the poetic dynamics used to depict the jaguar as a "concept" (i.e., as a "sign") in Napo Quichua cosmology and religion.

Language and Dialect Varition in Straits Salishan

Timothy Montler
University of North Texas

Abstract. Within Salishan linguistics, the term "Straits" has been used with various meanings. This article shows that Straits Salishan is composed of two very closely related languages: Klallam and Northern Straits. These form a subgroup in the Central Coast Salishan division of the Salishan language family. Klallam is composed of three dialects, and Northern Straits comprises a dialect continuum composed of Sooke, Songish, Saanich, Lummi, and Samish. Within the Saanich dialect of the Northern Straits language, we can identify two subdialects. This article summarizes the history of the terminological confusion, demonstrates that Klallam is a distinct language, lists distinguishing features of the varieties, and discusses problems and complicating factors, including dialect identification, gender differences, generational differences, and new, revitalized varieties of these endangered languages.

Tone in Navajo

Joyce M. McDonough
University of Rochester

Abstract. Navajo is generally classified as a tone language. Yet an important and large class of verbal morphemes, the morphs of the conjunct domain, are reported to be underlyingly toneless. The relationship between the redundancy of the vowels of many of these morphs, their inflectional status, and their tonelessness is unexplored and calls for an explicit investigation before the catergorical assumptions behind traditional phonological classification can be applied. This article reports on an instrumental investigation of the tonal system of Navajo and the relationship of these results to its phonology and typology. Navajo is shown to be a tone language insofar as each syllable carries a tonal specification. However, tone specification is very stable, and the tone contours are apparently sensitive to the morphological boundaries in the world. This co-occurrence indicates that mapping between phonology and phonetics in Athabaskan, as well as the arguably attendant tonal variation in the family, is best accounted for by clearly defined implementation strategies more characteristic of laboratory phonology than of pure autosegmental analyses.

Last updated: 29 Feb 2000
URL: https://anthling.indiana.edu/v41-4.html
Comments: anthling@indiana.edu
Copyright© 1999 Anthropological Linguistics.