Yaghan language

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Yaghan/Yámana
Háusi Kúta
Spoken in: Chile 
Region: Tierra del Fuego
Total speakers: 1
Language family: language isolate
 Yaghan/Yámana
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: sai
ISO/FDIS 639-3: yag
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

Yagán (variously spelled as Yahgan, Yaghan, Jagan, Iakan), also known as Yámana and Háusi Kúta, is one of the indigenous languages of Tierra del Fuego, spoken by the Yagán people. It is regarded as a language isolate, although some linguists have attempted to relate it to Kawésqar and Chon.

Only one elderly speaker remains, though there is reportedly some interest in reviving the language among Yagán descendants. Along with other Fuegian languages, it was among the first South American languages to be recorded by European explorers and missionaries.

Yaghan was also spoken briefly on Keppel Island in the Falkland Islands at a missionary settlement.

Contents

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

There are many analyses of the phonological system of Yamana, they differ in many details from one another.

The older analysis is from the 19th century (prephonological era) and corresponds to Thomas Bridges(1894); from the middle of the 20th century Haudricourt (1952) and Homer (1953); towards the end of the 20th century, the last phonological studies were made on this moribund language: Guerra Eissmann (1990), Salas y Valencia (1990) and Aguilera (2000).

Front Central Back
Close /i/ /u/
Mid /e/ /ə/ /o/
Open /æ/ /a/

[edit] Consonants

Labial Labiodental Alveolar Palatoalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n      
Stop p t tʃ k ʔ
Fricative f s ʃ   x h
Rhotic   ɾ        
Approximant w l ɻ j      

The alphabet in use is as follows [1]: a, æ, ch, e, ö, f, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, š, t, u, w, x

[edit] Morphophonology

[edit] Stress

[edit] Sound symbolism

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Syntax

Yahgan exhibits extensive case marking on nouns. Because of this, word order is relatively less important in determining subject and object relations. Most of the clauses in the three published biblical texts, the dictionary, and the various grammars show either verb medial or verb final orders. Certain clause types are verb initial, but are the distinct minority.

[edit] Grammaticalization

Grammaticalization in Yahgan is the process whereby regular lexical items shift function (and sometimes form) and become part of the grammar structure.

An example of this would be the change of posture verbs into aspectual markers. Yahgan has a system of verbs which denote the posture of an entity: 'stand' mvni, 'sit' mu:tu:, 'lie' (w)i:a and others (for instance a:gulu: 'fly/jump', kvna 'float' etc.). In normal lexical usage one could say

hai ha-mu:t-ude: 'I sat'. (hai full pronoun first person singular, ha- bound version unmarked for number, -ude: past tense).

sa sa-mvni-de: 'You stood'. (sa full pronoun second singular, sa- bound).

But with the same root in their grammaticalized forms added:

hai ha-mvni-mu:t-ude: 'I stood regularly, or as a rule'.

sa sa-muhr-mvni-de: 'You often sat, or were ready to sit'.

The semantic basis of such usage seems to the degree of bodily contact with the substratum. Flying/jumping means ceasing some activity of interest entirely and going off to do something else rather suddenly, standing implies readiness to do something else as needed but attending to the activity when one can. Sitting is regular involvement in the activity, though not to the exclusion of other things that need doing. Lying (not just on but also within) is deep involvement, almost to the exclusion of other activities (English 'immersion', being 'wrapped up in', 'in a rut' have similar import).

Such contact-based semantic clines are relatively common crosslinguistically, and the phenomenon of posture verbs changing to aspect marking morphemes is well known among linguists, though it is not the only pathway to creating such terms.

A similar cline can be seen in prefixes y- a- u:- in Yahgan, and combinations ya- and u:a-.

y- denotes an activity begun or intended, but not completed. a- seems to imply continuation, and u:- removal of impediments to the completion of the activity. Combined forms ya- and u:a- appear to accentuate the continuous part of the activity.

In North America, languages of the Siouan and Chemakuan families have similarly structured basic systems (Siouan prefixal, Chemakuan suffixal), but mostly with spatial reference. i- is standing out, away from some surface, a- is surface contact, and u- is containment within a surface. Note that standing away minimizes surface contact.

Horizontal movement verbs commonly change, crosslinguistically, into tense markers. Yahgan shows evidence of such shifts as well.

[edit] Pronouns

[edit] Demonstratives

[edit] Adjectives

[edit] Adverbs

[edit] Nouns

The physical environment the Yaghan people lived in was relatively poor in land resources. It is understandable, then, that the vocabulary reflects this. There are many fewer names for animals and plants than one might expect based on what is found in other languages from other, richer natural environments. The sea coast was a different matter, and the language had many terms for birds and ocean life.

Yaghan emphasized interconnected parts over unanalyzed wholes. Body parts are finely differentiated, as are social relationships. The vocabulary contained a vast number of deverbalized nouns.

Subject nouns take no overt case marking (subject coreference is on the verb instead). Nouns can be marked for accusative, genitive, dative, locative, instrumental and other cases. Geographical information can be incorporated into the string, as can information about number, collectivity, definiteness, etc. Most of these marks are suffixal.

[edit] Verbs

Verbs in Yaghan are often compounded ("serialized"). Bound subject pronouns, unmarked for number, are prefixed, coming before voice prefixes (passive, active, indirective, etc.). Aspect, tense, and mood (generally in that order), etc. are suffixal. Number within the verb can be encoded by overt marking (once, twice, several times, etc.) or distinct plural verbs.

A handful of verbs form doublets where one of the pair seems to have an unproductive reversitive suffix.

In addition to normal serialization Yaghan also exhibits complex verb stems of a type relatively common in western North America, where the main verb is flanked by instrument/body part manner of action prefixes and pathway/position suffixes. The prefixes are part of a larger, more open system of elements marking various kinds of causes or motivations, grading off into more grammaticalized voice marking. Many of the path/position suffixes (especially posture verbs) do double duty as sources for more grammaticalized aspectual morphology. Tense suffixes seem to derive historically from horizontal motion verbs, and together with the more vertical postural aspect forms, make an interesting Cartesian-style coordinate system for dealing with the temporal dimension.

There is little or no reduplication evident on the Yaghan verb, and sound symbolism of the augmentative/diminutive type appears to be largely lexicalized. On the other hand, Yahgan exhibits a good deal of remnant sound symbolism in the verb, similar to what one sees in English.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Aguilera Faúndez, Óscar (2000): "En torno a la estructura fonologica del yagán. Fonología de la palabra". Onomazein, Santiago, vol. 5, pp. 233—241.
  • Bridges, Thomas (1894): "A few notes on the structure of Yahgan". Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, London, vol. 23, pp. 53—80.
  • Golbert de Goodbar, Perla (1977): "Yagan I. Las partes de la oración". Vicus, Amsterdam, vol. 1, pp. 5—60.
  • Golbert de Goodbar, Perla (1978): "Yagan II. Morfología nominal". Vicus, Amsterdam, vol. 2, pp. 87—101.
  • Guerra Eissmann, Ana M. (1990): "Esbozo fonológico del yagán", en Actas del Octavo Seminario Nacional de Investigación y Enseñanza de la Lingüística. Santiago: Universidad de Chile y Sociedad Chilena de Lingüística, vol. V, pp. 88—93.
  • Guerra Eissmann, Ana M. (1992): "Las fluctuaciones de fonemas en el yagán". Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada, Concepción, vol. 30, pp. 171—182.
  • Haudricourt, André (1952): "Yamana", en Antoine Meillet y Marcel Cohen (eds.): Les langues du monde. París: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, pp. 1196—1198.
  • Holmer, Nils M. (1953): "Apuntes comparados sobre la lengua de los yaganes (Tierra del Fuego)". Revista de la Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias, Montevideo, vol. 10, pp. 193—223, y vol. 11 (1954), pp. 121—142.
  • Salas, Adalberto, y Valencia, Alba (1990): "El fonetismo del yámana o yagán. Una nota en lingüística de salvataje". Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada, Concepción, vol. 28, pp. 147—169.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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