Chimariko in Areal and Typological Perspective.pptVIP

Reconstructing the Stress System of an Extinct Language:The Case of Chimariko Carmen Jany Cal State, San Bernardino cjany@csusb.edu Introduction Contents Chimariko Data Stress Systems Stress in Chimariko Areal Perspective Conclusions Chimariko A few small villages along the Trinity River and New River in Northern California Source: Shirley, Silver, ‘Shastan Peoples’. Handbook of North American Indians Chimariko Small tribe (250 people in 1850s) Gold mining in the area Last spoken in the 1930s Genetic affiliation Language isolate (no closely related languages) Distant genetic relationship: Hokan Problems with Hokan hypotheses Data Data Main sources (1) 3500 pages of handwritten notes collected by J. P. Harrington in the 1920s from the last speakers Available on microfilm Narratives with translations, sentences, vocabulary Stress sporadically marked (2) Sound recording (1930s - date unclear; wax cylinder; words) Data J. P. Harrington Data Sound recording Speaker: Martha Ziegler Length: 13 minutes Content: Elicitation of words; some repetitions Media: from wax cylinder to cassette tape; digitized from cassette tape Finding out how stress is reflected phonetically Stress Systems What is Stress? Stress is a property of syllables Increased prominence (= higher pitch, increased duration, increased intensity) associated with certain syllables Strongest stress = primary stress Weaker stress = secondary stress In general, every word has one main stress Stress Systems Types of stress systems Phonemic stress: Words have different meaning depending on stressGerman: unterstéllen ‘to insinuate’ únterstellen ‘to store’ Phonologically predictable stress: Stress is predictable based on phonological properties Fixed stress: always on same syllable Weight-sensitive stress: ‘heavy’ syllables attract stress Stress in Chimariko Phonologically predictable stress (i.e. stress determined by shape of word) Stress falls on the root or on the penultimate syl