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Languages of Virginia

Languages of Virginia. Simon D. Levy Washington and Lee University The Virginia Forum 26 March 2011. I believe the United States should let all foreigners in this country, provided they can speak our native language:.

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Languages of Virginia

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  1. Languages of Virginia Simon D. Levy Washington and Lee University The Virginia Forum 26 March 2011

  2. I believe the United States should let all foreigners in this country, provided they can speak our native language:

  3. I believe the United States should let all foreigners in this country, provided they can speak our native language: Apache

  4. Outline • Why study language • Discovering language families: the historical/comparative method • Native American languages (and language families) of Virginia • Characterizing the sounds of language: phonetics • Phonetics of Rockbridge County dialect

  5. Why Study Language

  6. Language ≠Culture(Language ≠Ethnicity)

  7. Language ≠Culture(Language ≠Ethnicity)

  8. Language Is Not "Logical" I don't have any.

  9. Language Is Not "Logical" I don't have any. I ain't got none.

  10. Language Is Not "Logical" I don't have any. I ain't got none. No tengo ninguno. Je n'en ai pas. [cf. pas de pain]

  11. Language Is Not "Logical" The girl

  12. Language Is Not "Logical" The girl Das mädchen [neut.]

  13. Language Is Not "Logical" The girl Das mädchen [neut.] An cailín [masc.!]

  14. Discovering Language Families The Historical / Comparative Method

  15. How Not to Reconstruct Language • Look for isolated similarities that support thrilling speculations: Hawaiian kahuna / Hebrew kohen [priest] • "Exoticize" other language systems: e.g. Maya script • Phoneticists: glyphs represent sounds • Rejectionists: glyphs represent "ideas"

  16. How Not to Reconstruct Language • Look for isolated similarities that support thrilling speculations: Hawaiian kahuna / Hebrew kohen[priest] • "Exoticize" other language systems: e.g. Maya script • Phoneticists: glyphs represent sounds • Rejectionists: glyphs represent "ideas"

  17. How Not to Reconstruct Language Look at word order Tutelo-Saponi Yuchi English Cherokee French Subject-Object-Verb Subject-Verb-Object

  18. How Not to Reconstruct Language Look at word order Japanese Chinese Tutelo-Saponi Yuchi English Swahili Cherokee French German (rel. clause) Subject-Object-Verb Subject-Verb-Object

  19. How to Reconstruct Language 1. Look for systematic sound correspondences among words with similar meaning:

  20. How to Reconstruct Language 2. Reconstruct a proto-language genetically based on plausible directions of change:

  21. Native American Languages of Virginia

  22. The Current Situation(2000 Census) Two languages, one language family

  23. Pre-Contact Seven languages

  24. Pre-Contact Algonquian Iroquoian Siouan-Catawban Yuchi Four language families

  25. Algonquian Languages Plains [areal reconstruction] Blackfoot, Arapahoan, Cheyenne Central [areal reconstruction] Cree-Montagnais, Menominee, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Fox, Shawnee, Miami-Illinois Eastern [genetic reconstruction]

  26. Eastern Algonquian Plains [areal reconstruction] Blackfoot, Arapahoan, Cheyenne Central [areal reconstruction] Cree-Montagnais, Menominee, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Fox, Shawnee, Miami-Illinois Eastern [genetic reconstruction]

  27. Eastern Algonquian PROTO EASTERN-ALGONQUIAN Nanticoke ABENAKIAN DELAWARAN Míkmaq Carolina Algonquian (Pamlico, Lumbee, Croatan) Etchemin Powhatan SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND DELAWARE Piscataway EASTERN ABINAKI Penobscot Passamaquoddy Pequot Mohegan Munsee

  28. Grammatical Features of Algonquian Languages • Polysynthetic morphology (word structure) e.g. Menominee paehtāwāēwesew "He is heard by higher powers" (paeht- 'hear', -āwāē- 'spirit', -wese- passivizer, -w third-person subject) • Animate / Inanimate contrast for nouns • Inclusive / Exclusive contrast for first-person plural pronouns

  29. Iroquoian Languages Southern Iroquoian Cherokee (12,000 - 20,000 speakers) Northern Iroquoian Lakes Iroquoian Five Nations and Susquehannock Seneca-Onondaga Seneca-Cayuga Seneca Cayuga Onondaga Onondaga Mohawk-Oneida Oneida Mohawk Susquehannock Susquehannock (extinct) Huronian Wyandot (Huron-Petun) (extinct) Erie (extinct) Tuscarora-Nottoway Tuscarora (few remaining speakers) Nottoway (extinct)

  30. Cherokee Language

  31. Siouan-Catawban Languages I. Siouan (a.k.a. Siouan proper, Western Siouan) 1. Mandan A. Missouri River (a.k.a. Crow-Hidatsa) 2. Crow (4,280 speakers) 3. Hidatsa B. Mississippi Valley (a.k.a. Central Siouan) 4. Sioux (Lakota, Dakota: 33,000 speakers) 5. Assiniboine (200 - 250 speakers) 6. Stoney 7. Chiwere (a.k.a. Iowa-Oto-Missouri) 8. Winnebago (230 speakers) 9. Omaha-Ponca (85 speakers) 10. Kansa-Osage 11. Quapa C. Ohio Valley (Extinct) 12. Tutelo 13. Saponi 14. Moniton / Monacan 15. Occaneechi 16. Biloxi 17. Ofo II. Catawban (a.k.a. Eastern Siouan) (Extinct) 18. Woccon 19. Catawba

  32. Tutelo Language • Last speaker died in 1871, leaving 100 vocabulary words to ethnologist Horatio Hale • Hale, Edward Sapir, and others recorded more vocabulary grammar from speakers living among the Six Nations of the Grand River (Ontario, Canada) • May help with reconstructing Monacan Horatio Hale (1817-1896) Edward Sapir (1884-1939)

  33. lin /lε/ 'flax' ~ Tutelo Language Nasal / Non-nasal vowel contrast : cf. French: long /lõ/ 'long' lot /lo/ 'prize' laid /lε/ 'ugly' la /la/ 'there' lent /lã/ 'slow'

  34. Yuchi Language • An isolate not clearly related to any other language • As with Cherokee, speakers forcibly relocate to Oklahoma in 1800's • Around five speakers left • Large vowel / consonant inventory

  35. Yuchi Language A.

  36. Yuchi Language A.

  37. Yuchi Language A.

  38. "Resurrecting" Languages • The New World (Terrence Malik, New Line Cinema 2005) • Linguist Blair Rudes (1951-2008) consulted (cf. 1975 work by F.T. Siebert)

  39. Preserving / Revitalizing Languages

  40. Characterizing the Sounds of Language:Phonetics

  41. Consonants are produced by contact / proximity of tongue and lips in various locations (hard palate, soft palate, teeth). • Vowels are produced by shaping of tongue and lips. • English dialects (accents) are distinguished mainly by vowels, so we will focus on vowels. • It's easier (and less expensive) to measure vowel acoustics than to measure shape of tongue and lips.

  42. Vowel Acoustics • Different vowels are like different musical instruments playing the same note: same pitch, different overtones • In speech science, overtones are called formants. • Two formants are generally enough to distinguish among vowels. • This method gives us an objective way of distinguishing among dialects. Vowel /o/ (as in "go")

  43. Vowel "Space"

  44. Virginia Dialects: Plan A

  45. Virginia Dialects, Plan B:Vowels of Rockbridge County • Five women ages 52 - 74 • Four raised in Rockbridge County • One raised New Jersey (comparison) • Asked to read aloud a short story (around two minutes) about "Arthur the Rat", designed to have a uniform distribution of English sounds.

  46. Once there was a young rat named Arthur, who could never make up his mind. Whenever his friends asked him if he would like to go out with them, he would only answer, "I don't know." He wouldn't say "yes" or "no" either. He would always shirk making a choice. His aunt Helen said to him, "Now look here. No one is going to care for you if you carry on like this. You have no more mind than a blade of grass." One rainy day, the rats heard a great noise in the loft. The pine rafters were all rotten, so that the barn was rather unsafe. At last the joists gave way and fell to the ground. The walls shook and all the rats' hair stood on end with fear and horror. "This won't do," said the captain. "I'll send out scouts to search for a new home." Within five hours the ten scouts came back and said, "We found a stone house where there is room and board for us all. There is a kindly horse named Nelly, a cow, a calf, and a garden with an elm tree." The rats crawled out of their little houses and stood on the floor in a long line. Just then the old one saw Arthur. "Stop," he ordered coarsely. "You are coming, of course?" "I'm not certain," said Arthur, undaunted. "The roof may not come down yet." "Well," said the angry old rat, "we can't wait for you to join us. Right about face. March!" Arthur stood and watched them hurry away. "I think I'll go tomorrow," he calmly said to himself, but then again "I don't know; it's so nice and snug here." That night there was a big crash. In the morning some men—with some boys and girls—rode up and looked at the barn. One of them moved a board and he saw a young rat, quite dead, half in and half out of his hole. Thus the shirker got his due. Speaker 1 Speaker 2 Speaker 3 Speaker 4

  47. Tidewater Accent • "/r/-less" dialect : common elsewhere (New York, Boston, Georgia) • Raised (centralized) /au/ : in North America, unique to Canadian English and Tidewater Speaker 5

  48. Acoustic Analysis

  49. "out"

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