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Vol. 56, nos. 3-4 (Fall and Winter 2014)

Contents

Abstracts

Ralámuli Kinship Terminology: A Diachronic Perspective on Diversity in the Sierra Tarahumara of Northwestern Mexico

William L. Merrill
Smithsonian Institution

Don Burgess
Creel, Chihuahua, Mexico

Abstract. The kinship terminological systems documented for modern Ralámuli (Tarahumara), a Southern Uto-Aztecan language, exhibit considerable dialectal and subdialectal diversity in both the terms they include and the linguistic forms of these terms—a diversity best understood in relation to the Proto-Tarahumaran kinship system. We reconstruct this antecedent system and discuss the principal changes that occurred in it between the seventeenth and late nineteenth centuries, when the Proto-Tarahumaran speech community appears to have still been intact. Many of the lexical, phonological, morphological, semantic, and structural differences that distinguish the modern systems from one another, like the emergence of the modern Ralámuli dialects, can be linked to the disruption of interaction patterns during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries that resulted in the breakup of the Proto-Tarahumaran speech community.

Animacy and Inverse in Movima: A Corpus Study

Katharina Haude
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

Abstract. Coding of transitive clauses in Movima (lowland Bolivia) including a speech act participant reflects a person hierarchy, 1 > 2 > 3; when a lower-ranking person acts on a higher-ranking one, the verb is marked as inverse. This article investigates the conditions under which inverse marking occurs when a transitive clause contains only third-person arguments. A quantitative analysis of spontaneous speech data shows that, while the discourse factors involved still require further research, animacy plays an important role. For instance, inverse marking never occurs when an entity higher in the animacy hierarchy acts on a lower ranking one.

The Role of Agency and Animacy in the Alignment System of Wichí

Jimena Terraza
Université du Québec à Montréal

Abstract. The alignment system of Wichí (Matacoan), coded by pronominal affixes on the verb, depends in part on semantic factors—in particular, agency—rather than valency. Generally the choice of subject prefix paradigms is lexically determined: verbs with particular semantic characteristics call for a particular paradigm. Additionally, in some cases other third person prefixes may be replaced by a more agentive one, modifying the meaning of the predicate. Agency, a relational property, strongly correlates with animacy, an inherent property of nominals; the interaction of the two properties in Wichí is investigated.

Inversion, Obviation, and Animacy in Native Languages of the Americas: Elements for a Cross-linguistic Survey

Fernando Zúñiga
University of Bern

Abstract. Native languages of the Americas whose predicate and clause structure reflect nominal hierarchies show an interesting range of structural diversity not only with respect to morphological makeup of their predicates and arguments but also with respect to the factors governing obviation status. The present article maps part of such diversity. The sample surveyed here includes languages with some sort of nonlocal (third person acting on third person) direction-marking system.

Urban Youth Languages in South Africa: A Case Study of Tsotsitaal in a South African Township

Heather Brookes
University of Cape Town

Abstract. Urban male youth “language” spoken in many townships in South Africa is a multimodal performance register through which status is negotiated and identities are expressed. Locally dominant languages act as a grammatical base into which a slang lexicon is inserted, accompanied by distinctive patterns of intonation and gesture. Variation reflecting social level, ranging from styles close to urban varieties of Bantu languages to metaphorically dense styles exhibiting features of antilanguages, and associated with a streetwise urban identity, is illustrated on the basis of naturally occurring videotaped conversations. Creative speakers coin new expressions that then spread based on the speakers’ linguistic skill and social status. Implications of these findings for the study of African urban youth languages are discussed.

Solega Place Names and Their Ecological Significance

Aung Si
University of Melbourne

Samira Agnihotri
Indian Institute of Science

Abstract. Place names in the Dravidian language Solega are analyzed, along with the nature of their referents. We discuss the lexicon of landscape terms, as these figure prominently in place name formation. Solega toponyms encode much information on not only cultural practices and religious traditions, but also forest ecology, with particular focus on plant and animal species distributions. Individual trees of great cultural or utilitarian significance are often named, as are the locations where animals congregate to perform specific behaviors. The incorporation of plant names in toponyms is a valuable resource for understanding critical elements of historical landscape ecology.

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