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[edit] The *tik/*pal Challenge
There is no clear consensus among linguists as to the acceptability of the Nostratic hypothesis, though there is agreement that there is too little definitely known about the subject to allow it to serve as a sound theoretical foundation for further work (in contrast to the well-established and universally accepted Indo-European hypothesis).
Among the more persuasively presented etymological demonstrations is the proposition that Nostratic *tik meant "one" or "finger" --
- toe < Proto-Germanic *taihwo; Proto-Indo-European *deik- 'to show, point' > in-dic-ate, digit, in-dex; *dekm 'ten' > decimal; ten, Latin dicare 'to say' > diction, dictate; Fon d^okpa 'one'; Ewe deka 'one'; Proto-Afro-Asiatic *tak 'one', Oromo toko 'one', Berber tukod 'finger', Hausa (d^aya) tak 'only one'; Udmurt odig 'one'; Komi et'ik 'one'; Turkish tek 'only, single'; Mongolian nik-en 'one'; Korean ttayki 'one thing', teki 'one guy', Old Korean tek 'ten'; Japanese te 'hand'; Eskimo tiq-(iq) 'index finger'; Proto-Yeniseian *tok 'finger'; Ancient Chinese t'iek 'single, one'; Proto-Tibeto-Burman *tyik 'one', Tibetan (g-)tsig 'one'; Burmese tahku 'one'; Tlingit tl'eeq 'finger', tlek 'one'; Navajo l/a' 'one'; Papuan dik 'one'; Proto-Austroasiatic (k-)tig 'arm, hand', Vietnamese tay 'hand', Khmer tai 'hand', Munda ti' 'hand', Orang Asli tik 'hand'; Proto-Miao-Yao *nto' 'finger', Miao Hmong txhai-te 'hand'; Proto-Austronesian *(tu-)ding 'point with the finger', Malay tangan 'hand'; Nootka takwa 'only'; Cherokee sakwa 'one'; Pawnee uska 'finger'; Mohawk tsi'er 'finger'; Quapaw chak 'finger'; Karok tik 'finger, hand'; Washo tsek 'finger'; Quechua sok 'one'; Yagua teki 'one'; Katembri tika 'toe'; Kukura tikua 'finger'
and *pal meant "two" --
- Proto-Bantu badi 'two'; Nubian bar(-si) 'twin'; Proto-Indo-European *pol 'half', Sanskrit (ka-)palam 'half', Russian pol 'half'; Proto-Uralic pälä 'half', Hungarian fél 'half', Votyak pal 'side, half'; Tamil pâl 'part, portion, share'; Andaman -pol 'two'; Proto-Austalian *bula 'two'; Munda bar 'two'; Khmer pir 'two'; Orang Asli ber- 'two'; Javanese ke-bar 'doubled'; Wintun palo(-l) 'two'; Chiripo bor 'two'; Quechua pula 'both'
Vitaly Shevoroshkin suggested that the hypothesis could be falsified, and the technique of mass lexical comparison invalidated, if one could demonstrate with equal persuasiveness that in fact *pal meant "one," "finger" and *tik meant "two" -- that is, the "*tik/*pal challenge" invites investigators to show that the evidence is merely the imposition of pattern on random data.
However, Joseph Salmons found serious problems with the methodology and assumptions underlying Merritt Ruhlen's version of the*tik hypothesis. Among his criticisms, he notes that alleged reflexes of *tik appearing in only a few languages of a massive family are presumed to be present in the proto-language; forms from four different time depths (attested forms, shallow-time-depth proto-languages, remote-time-depth proto-languages, and speculative large phyla, such as Amerind) are treated equally, increasing the chances of finding "cognates"; and languages from poorly-studied families show forms almost identical to *tik, but well-studied families show forms hardly recognizable as related to *tik (such as French /dwa/, doigt) (Trask 1996:394-5). The semantic and phonological leeway allowed among forms has also been widely criticised (for example, comparing Pawnee uska, "finger" with Malay tangan, "hand" as cognates in the above table) ([1],[2]).
- A criticism of the methods used to reconstruct Nostratic or Proto-World
- How Likely are Chance Resemblances Between Languages
| Cupeño Kupangaxwicham Pe'memelki |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | United States | |
| Region: | Originally: Cupa, Wilaqalpa, and Paluqla, San Diego County, California; Later: In and around Pala Reservation | |
| Language extinction: | Last native speaker to learn the language as a child in a Cupeño-speaking community was Roscinda Nolasquez (d. 1987) (Hill 2005:8) | |
| Language family: | Uto-Aztecan Northern Uto-Aztecan Takic Cupan Cahuilla-Cupeño Cupeño |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | nai | |
| ISO 639-3: | cup | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
| Guugu Yimidhirr | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Hopevale, Queensland | |
| Total speakers: | 200–300 | |
| Language family: | Pama-Nyungan Guugu Yimidhirr |
|
| Writing system: | Latin alphabet | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | aus | |
| ISO 639-3: | kky | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Guugu Yimidhirr (many other spellings; see below) is an Australian Aboriginal language, the traditional language of the Guugu Yimidhirr people of Far North Queensland. Most of the speakers today live at a mission at Hopevale.
[edit] Name
The word guugu means "speech, language", while yimidhirr (or yumudhirr) means yimi-having, yimi being the word for "this". The use of the word yi(mi), rather than some other word for "this", was seen as a distinctive feature of Guugu Yimidhirr. The element guugu and the practice of naming based on some distinctive word is found in many other langauges.
The name has many spelling variants, including Gogo-Yimidjir, Gugu-Yimidhirr, Gugu Yimithirr, Guugu Yimithirr, Guguyimidjir (used by Ethnologue), Gugu Yimijir, Kukuyimidir, Koko Imudji, Koko Yimidir, Kuku Jimidir, Kuku Yimithirr, and Kuku Yimidhirr.
[edit] Geographic distribution
The original territory of the Guugu Yimidhirr tribe extended northwards to the mouth of the Jeannie River, where it was bordered by speakers of Guugu Nyiguudji; southwards to the Annan River, where it was bordered by speakers of Guugu Yalandji; to the west, it was bordered by speakers of a language called Guugu Warra (literally "bad talk") or Lama-Lama. The modern town of Cooktown is located within Guugu Yimidhirr territory.
Today however, most Guugu Yimidhirr speakers live at the mission at Hopevale.
[edit] Dialects
Guugu Yimidhirr originally consisted of several dialects, although even the names of most have now been forgotten. Today two main dialects are distinguished: the coastal dialect, called dhalundirr "with the sea", and the inland dialect, called waguurrga "of the outside". Missionaries used the coastal dialect to translate hymns and Bible stories, so some of its words now have religious associations that the inland equivalents lack.
[edit] History
In 1770, Guugu Yimidhirr became the first Australian Aboriginal language to be written down when Lieutenant (later Captain) James Cook and his crew recorded words while their ship, the HM Bark Endeavour, was being repaired after having run aground on a shoal of the Great Barrier Reef. Joseph Banks described the language as totaly different from that of the Islanders; it sounded more like English in its degree of harshness tho it could not be calld harsh neither (sic).
Among the words recorded was kangooroo or kanguru (IPA: /ɡaŋuru/), meaning a large black or grey kangaroo, which would become the general English term for all kangaroos.
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i iː | u uː |
| Low | a aː | |
Short /u/ may be realized as unrounded [ɯ], and unstressed /a/ may be reduced to [ə].
[edit] Consonants
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Velar | Palatal | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | |
| Stop | b | ɡ | ɟ | d̪ | d | ɖ |
| Nasal | m | ŋ | ɲ | n̪ | n | ɳ |
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Rhotic | r | ɻ | ||||
| Semivowel | w | j | ||||
The stops are usually voiceless and unaspirated initially and after short vowels, and voiced after consonants and long vowels.
The retroflexes [ɖ ɳ] may not be single phonemes, but clusters of /ɻd ɻn/. However, there is at least one word which, for older speakers, is pronounced with a word-initial retroflex: "run", which is [ɖudaː] or [ɖuɖaː].
The rhotic /r/ is normally a flap [ɾ], but may be a trill in emphatic speech.
[edit] Phonotactics
All words, with the exception of a couple of interjections, begin with one consonant. The consonant can be a stop, nasal, or semivowel (that is, /l r ɻ/ do not occur initially).
Words can end in either a vowel or a consonant. The allowed word-final consonants are /l r ɻ j n n̪/.
Within words, any consonant can occur, as well as clusters of up to three consonants, which cannot occur initially or finally.
[edit] Grammar
Like many Australian languages, Guugu Yimidhirr pronouns have accusative morphology while other nouns have ergative morphology. That is, the subject of an intransitive verb has the same form as the subject of a transitive verb if the subject is a pronoun, but the same form as object of a transitive verb otherwise.
Regardless of whether nouns or pronouns are used, the usual sentence order is Subject Object Verb, although other word orders are possible.
[edit] References
- Banks, Joseph (1962). in J. C. Beaglehole: The Endeavour journal of Joseph Banks, 1768-1771.
- Breen, Gavan (1970). "A re-examination of Cook's Gogo-Yimidjir word list". Oceania 41 (1): 28–38.
- Cook, James (1955). The Journals of Captain James Cook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Haviland, John B. (1974). "A last look at Cook's Guugu-Yimidhirr wordlist". Oceania 44 (3): 216–232.
- Haviland, John B. (1979). "Guugu Yimidhirr Sketch Grammar", in R. M. W. Dixon and B. Blake: Handbook of Australian Languages Vol I, 26–180.
- Richard Phillips; Sidney H. Ray (1898). "Vocabulary of Australian Aborigines in the neighbourhood of Cooktown, North Queensland". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 27: 144–147.
- Roth, Walter E. (1901). The structure of the Koko-Yimidir language. Brisbane: Government Printer.
- Schwarz, G. H. (1946). Order of service and hymns. Brisbane: Watson, Ferguson.
- de Zwaan, Jan Daniel (1969). A preliminary analysis of Gogo-Yimidjir. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
- de Zwaan, Jan Daniel (1969). "Two studies in Gogo-Yimidjir". Oceania 39 (3): 198–217.
