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Vol. 59, no. 2 (Summer 2017)

Contents

Abstracts

Nakota Linguistic Acculturation

Vincent Collette
First Nations University of Canada

Abstract. Nakota (Siouan) has expanded its lexicon of acculturation almost exclusively through coining and polysemy (semantic extension). The few loanwords designate only foreign types of person or animal, and some (e.g., ‘pig’, ‘Métis’) have diffused indirectly from neighboring Siouan and Algonquian languages. Loanshifts are mostly syntactic compounds that express concepts alien to traditional Nakota culture. When the influx of new entities and concepts increased at the turn of the twentieth century, semantic extension—representative of an older stratum of lexical expansion, when new experiences were commonly equated with their closest traditional analog—was replaced by coining of transparent and descriptive words.

Derived Verbs of Possession in Uto-Aztecan: Reconstructions and Paths of Change

Jason D. Haugen
Oberlin College

Abstract. Languages of the Uto-Aztecan family are notable for typically having multiple ways to indicate predicative possession, as well as for having a variety of mechanisms for deriving verbs from nouns (i.e., creating denominal verbs). Five morphemes can be reconstructed for Proto–Uto-Aztecan that gave rise to specific denominal verb-creating affixes (most usually, suffixes) that mark predicative possession across the family. The reconstructed suffixes are *-ka ‘have (alienable)’, *-pV ‘have (inalienable)’, *-ɨ, a postposition (most likely a locative), *-tu ‘active possession’ (‘get’, ‘acquire’), and *-wa, a marker of attributive possession (‘possessed thing’).

Documenting Landscape Knowledge in Eastern Chatino: Narratives of Fieldwork in San Juan Quiahije

Emiliana Cruz
University of Massachusetts

Abstract. Elders in San Juan Quiahije, Oaxaca, Mexico, have a unique command of the specialized vocabulary of landscape and associated cultural practices of Eastern Chatino. Drawing on oral evidence from Eastern Chatino, I show in this article a variety of ways in which one individual can relate to landscape. I include details of one day of documentation, highlighting my foot journey with an elder through San Juan Quiahije. The speaker related her life story, and described the physical landscape. I provide background to the language and its vitality, describe our hike, and analyze the language used.

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