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The Archiphonaestheme in Pai Languages: A Lexicographic Challenge

Abbie Hantgan
Corbyn Sipes
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Résumé

Pai consists of a group of closely related languages in the Yuman language family. Alan Shaterian, in his seminal study of Yavapai (Shaterian 1983: 160), dubbed the term, ‘archiphonaestheme’ to describe the phonemic representation of suprasegmentals found in the morphology of the language. Examples drawn from the closely related language Hualapai (Watahomigie, Yamamoto, and Bender 1982: 406), clearly illustrate this phenomenon. The suprasegmental alternation [l] ~ [r] ~ [t̻] represents the diminutive and augmentative of onomatopoeic verb stems’ objects: 1a. lebk ‘for a large object to be flapping’ 1b. rebk ‘for a small object to be flapping’ 2a. raluthk ‘to make something large burst/to pop or burst something large’ 2b. raruthk ‘to make something small burst/to pop or burst something small’ 3a. lath-lath ‘large popping noises’ 3b. rath-rath ‘small popping noises’ 3c. tath-tath ‘very small and rapid popping noises’ Otherwise described as ‘consonant symbolism’ (Nichols 1971), the diminutive - augmentative alternation of alveolar consonants is found among many related languages in both verbal and nominal paradigms. Langdon (1996: 93) expands that historically, the proto-phoneme *R participated in ‘consonantal ablaut’ with reflexes *n *nʲ *r *l *lʲ indicating “activities characterized by persistent, abrasive motions affecting a surface”. Langdon also notes that some languages of the Pai family employ an even larger range of consonants to express both size and intensity. The following table is adapted from Kaufman (1989: 31) to summarize these patterns: Smaller/Less Intense Larger/More Intense t, r l k q s θ p v Vowels also participate in supersegmental alternations. Shaterian writes that in Yavapai, “...a vowel of any length, i.e. regardless of its specification with respect to length in the lexicon, may occur overlong as an emphatic device” (p. 43). Nasalization is another means to characterize very small objects and offspring of animals and humans. Reduplication is a highly productive method of expressing repetition or intensity in Yuman languages more generally (Munro 1979). The following examples from Shaterian (1983: 162) highlight combinations of consonantal and vocalic alternations as well as reduplication can occur to produce slight semantic differences in Yavapai: 4a. heeli ‘flow (as a river)’ 4b. holhol ‘flowing (as a waterfall)’ 4c. herheri ‘slide down’ Thus, the question for the lexicographer is how to accurately represent these lexemes and the supersegmental processes that are associated with them. One option is to create separate dictionary entries for all attested alternations, but this necessitates that the learner memorize rather than discover these productive patterns. Shaterian offers us the option of using an archiphonaestheme such as L for the diminutive/augmentative pairing, and Langdon suggests *R. The drawback of this method is that it designates one of the options as a default. Comparative examples are drawn from our on-going Yavapai dictionary projectas well as other published sources on the Pai language family. References Kaufman, Terrence. 1988. A Research Program for Reconstructing Proto-Hokan: First Groupings. In Proceedings of the Hokan-Penutian Workshop. DeLancey, S. (Ed. University of Oregon. Langdon, Margaret. 1996. Some mysteries in the reconstruction of proto-Yuman. In BLS 22: Special Session on Historical Issues in Native American Languages. https://doi.org/10.3765/bls.v22i2.3395. Munro, Pamela. 1979. Reduplication in Mohave - and Yuman. Proceedings of the 1978Hokan -Yuman Languages Workshop, ed. James E. Redden, 42 -55. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Department of Linguistics. Nichols, Johanna. 1971. Diminutive Consonant Symbolism in Western North America. Language, vol. 47, no. 4, 1971, pp. 826–48. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/412159. Accessed 8 Jun. 2022 Shaterian, Alan. 1983. Phonology and Dictionary of Yavapai (PhD). University of California at Berkeley. Watahomigie, Lucille J., Yamamoto, Akira Y., and Bender, Jorigine. 1982. Hualapai reference grammar. Los Angeles : American Indian Studies Center, UCLA.
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halshs-03898106 , version 1 (14-12-2022)

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Abbie Hantgan, Corbyn Sipes. The Archiphonaestheme in Pai Languages: A Lexicographic Challenge. Consonant and Vowel Symbolism in Native North American Languages, Julie Marsault, Dec 2022, Paris, France. ⟨halshs-03898106⟩
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