Nez Perce Vowels and Proto-Sahaptian Vowel Harmony

Rigsby, Bruce; Silverstein, Michael

doi:10.2307/411752

Cited by 19 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Harmony is bidirectional. Empirical discussion of this system may be found in Aoki (1970) and Crook (1999); theoretical discussions may be found in Zimmer (1967), Chomsky and Halle (1968), Jacobsen (1968), Rigsby and Silverstein (1969), Zwicky (1971), Hall and Hall (1977), Crook (1999), Bakovic (2000), and Mackenzie and Dresher (2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plural exponence in the Nez Perce DP: a DM analysis

Deal

2016

Morphology

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This paper analyzes two patterns of number marking in DP in Nez Perce (Sahaptian) within the framework of Distributed Morphology. The first involves underrealization of plural on nouns. Number has classically been understood as a feature inherent to nouns, rather than to adjectives that modify them. In Nez Perce, however, only a small set of nouns show number morphology, whereas number morphology is highly productive on adjectival modifiers. Adjectives in fact may realize the plural more than once per word -an instance of multiple exponence. I show that the puzzle of under-realization for nouns can be solved through conditioned allomorphy, providing new evidence for the presence of gender features on n (Lowenstamm 2007, Kramer 2014). The puzzle of multiple exponence (over-realization) for adjectives can be solved through Local Dislocation (Embick and Noyer, 2001) combined with very late insertion of reduplicative content (Haugen 2008(Haugen , 2011, demonstrating one way the DM architecture may produce multiple exponence without recourse to dedicated mechanisms.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plural exponence in the Nez Perce DP: a DM analysis

Deal

2016

Morphology

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“…Maddieson also finds that the general hierarchy for a five vowel system is {i, a}>{e, o}>u (142). Nez Perce, however is lacking /e/ and does not follow this hierarchy, though Rigsby and Silverstein (1969) suggest that the low front vowel /ae/ developed from a mid front vowel, /e/.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The language is a member of the Sahaptin branch of the Penutian language family and is most closely related to Sahaptian. Its phonology has been a subject of great interest, due to the language's unusual vowel harmony system (Aoki 1966;Zimmer 1968;Jacobsen 1968;Rigsby and Silverstein 1969;Zwicky 1970;Silverstein 1979;Hall and Hall 1980;Crook 1999;Bakovic 2000;MacKenzie and Dresher 2003). None of these previous phonological studies, however, have included any acoustic data to support their analyses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Nez Perce vowel system: A phonetic analysis

Nelson

2013

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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The Nez Perce language, a highly endangered American Indigenous language, has been of great interest in phonology over the years due to its unusual vowel system and vowel harmony process. It has five monophthongs and seven diphthongs, all with phonemic length. This system is unusual because rather than /i, e, a, o, u/ as is common, the Nez Perce inventory is /i, ae, a, o, u/. This uncommon inventory leads to two seemingly unrelated dominant, /i, a, o/, and recessive, /i, ae, u/, vowel harmony groups. To date there has been no phonetic analysis of the vowel system. This paper provides an acoustic analysis of the vowels as well as the vowel harmony system. Five native speakers (two male and three female) were used to analyze the vowels and the three female native speakers were used for the vowel harmony study. Results support the current vowel system analysis for Nez Perce. The vowel harmony data lends support to the current advanced tongue root analysis; however it also poses questions for future research.

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“…A paper by Beeler (6) reflects work with earlier written records, a concern too often ignored by scholars. There has been a very interesting series of papers on vowel harmony in Sahaptian (taken by Sapir as a typological mark of Penutian), summarized by Rigsby & Silverstein (76). Not strictly Penutian but connected is work on Chinook jargon, a lingua franca of the Northwest, by Silverstein (85).…”

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confidence: 98%

American Indian Linguistics

Teeter¹

1972

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

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Nez Perce Vowels and Proto-Sahaptian Vowel Harmony

Cited by 19 publications

References 8 publications

Plural exponence in the Nez Perce DP: a DM analysis

Plural exponence in the Nez Perce DP: a DM analysis

The Nez Perce vowel system: A phonetic analysis

American Indian Linguistics

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