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A Sketch of a caddoan language, Skiri Pawnee

Posted: 08 Oct 2017 16:36
by ZedSed
A Sketch of Skiri Pawnee, a caddoan language.

A while ago, I wrote a short sketch of Caddo, mostly outlining it's phonological rules and the contractions that occur when morphemes combine. I had big ambitions with that thread at the time I opened it, but apart from an excellent book which describes its verbal morphology (Caddo Verb Morphology, by Lynette R. Melnar) and a handful of other online resources, there are frustratingly few resources on Caddo out there.

Because of this, my enthusiasm for Caddo began to fade a little. However, quite recently I discovered there are quite a lot of resources on a distantly related caddoan language, Pawnee. The more I looked into it, the more I just loved it, everything about it.

Words in Pawnee frequently contain around ten morphemes, and often times can contain many more than this. It has a very restricted set of phonemes, with only nine consonants (arguably eight, as the glottal stop functions mostly to separate contiguous vowels) and only three vowels in Skiri Pawnee (four in South Band Pawnee). This sketch will mostly focus on Skiri (Ckíri "Wolf") Pawnee as my resources are mostly on this.

Re: A Sketch of a caddoan language, Skiri Pawnee

Posted: 08 Oct 2017 17:08
by ZedSed
Feel free to send questions if there is anything you specifically want to hear about. I'm going to begin similar to the thread on Caddo, starting with the phonology and sound change rules, following this by moving into the grammar and the polysynthetic character of Skiri Pawnee later.

Re: A Sketch of a caddoan language, Skiri Pawneet

Posted: 08 Oct 2017 17:49
by ZedSed
Pawnee Phonology

The consonants of Skiri and South Band Pawnee are as follows:

p t k c s h w r ( ˀ )

South Band differs from Skiri Pawnee in having four vowels where the latter has three. The three vowels of Skiri Pawnee and the fourth South Band addition are:

a i u & e

Vowels can be either short or long, with the short and long vowels differing in quality as well as length.

The long -aa- vowel is an open central vowel, while it's shorter counterpart -a- is more like a mid central schwa.

The contrast between the qualities of the long -ii- and short -i- is much the same as the difference between the tense and lax variants of English "cheap" and "chip".

Similarly for long and short -u-, the tense and lax vowels of "boot" and "book" are good approximations.

The consonants are pronounced much as you'd expect with just a few added notes.

/ p t k c / are unaspirated.

/ r / has various allophones, mostly occuring as an alveolar tap, but in some speakers a lateral variation can sometimes be heard, and it often takes the form of an alveolar nasal especially in word-initial position.

/ c / can vary in pronunciation between / ts / and / č / depending on what follows it. Word-final or directly preceding another consonant, it is realized as / ts /. Followed by a vowel, it is pronounced / č /.

/ h / is pronounced much as in English, but it has a slightly breathier pronunciation when it precedes another consonant.

Re: A Sketch of a caddoan language, Skiri Pawnee

Posted: 08 Oct 2017 18:33
by Frislander
A large number of resources you say? Well if there are I guess they're not easily acessible nor in the public domain because I have had real trouble finding them, which fills me even more with anticipation for this grammar sketch because I've wanted to learn more about this language for a while (especially after seeing The Revenant).

Re: A Sketch of a caddoan language, Skiri Pawnee

Posted: 08 Oct 2017 18:45
by DesEsseintes
Frislander wrote:A large number of resources you say? Well if there are I guess they're not easily acessible nor in the public domain because I have had real trouble finding them, which fills me even more with anticipation for this grammar sketch because I've wanted to learn more about this language for a while (especially after seeing The Revenant).
[+1]

If anyone ever tracks down that grammar by Parks, I'll be forever indebted to them.

Re: A Sketch of a caddoan language, Skiri Pawnee

Posted: 08 Oct 2017 19:50
by ZedSed
A large number of resources you say?
Hahaha. Ok, not so large a number. Sorry for the confusion. I meant "in comparison with Caddo".

Re: A Sketch of a caddoan language, Skiri Pawnee

Posted: 08 Oct 2017 19:51
by ZedSed
If anyone ever tracks down that grammar by Parks, I'll be forever indebted to them.
[+1]

Re: A Sketch of a caddoan language, Skiri Pawnee

Posted: 12 Oct 2017 19:58
by ZedSed
I'm in the process of preparing a fairly large post on the phonolological sound-change rules at present. Sorry for the delay. I'll post it asap.

Re: A Sketch of a caddoan language, Skiri Pawnee

Posted: 14 Oct 2017 08:46
by ZedSed
Vowels: The Restricted Rules


There are four rules that apply to certain sequences of vowels that only apply in certain sequences of morphemes. These are the restricted rules, which typically contrast against the general unrestricted rules that will follow in the next section.


1R Dominant -i-


There are seven morpheme combinations in which an i or an ii in the preceding morpheme and the initial u of the following morpheme contract to i or ii . Those combinations are the following:



rii- “assertive mode (ASSR)” + -uks- “Aorist (AOR)” → riiks-

ti- “indicative mode (IND.3.A)” + u…]STEM → tii-

ii- “subjunctive mode (SUBJ.3.A)” + u…]STEM → ii-

ri- “contingent mode (CONT.3.A)” + u…]STEM → rii-

-i- “sequential (SEQ)” + -uur- “preverb (PREV)” → -iir-

-ir- “preverb (PREV)” + -uur- “preverb (PREV)” → -iir-

-acir- “inclusive dual agent (INCL.DU.A)” + -uur- “preverb (PREV)”
→ -aciir-



Thus, the restricted rule:


i / ii + u → i / ii


Examples:


tiihura
“he is alone”
< ti- IND + Ø 3.A + uhurah “be alone” + Ø PERF >


taciihii
“you and I are good”
< ta- IND.1~2.A + aciir- 1.DU.IN.A + uur- PREV + hiir “be good” + Ø PERF >




2R Dominant -a-


Although the vowel sequence i + a usually contracts to ii , in certain morpheme sequences the combination results in a , thus:


i + a → a


This occurs when any of the following modal prefixes is the first element and one of the a-dominant morphemes is the second element in the contraction:


MODAL PREFIXES
ti- “indicative mode, third person agent (IND)”
ri- “contingent mode, third person agent (CONT)”
kuus...i- “potential mode, third person agent (POT)”
ii- “subjunctive mode, third person agent (SUBJ)”

a-DOMINANT MORPHEMES
a- “second person patient (2.P)”
a- “preverb (PREV) / “third person agent possessor (3.POSS.A)
aca- “inclusive dual patient (1D.IN.P)”
ar- “evidential proper (EV)”



Examples of the preceding combinations are given below, with contracting vowels underlined.


tapiruˀ
“he whipped you”
< ti- IND + Ø 3.A + a- 2.P + piru “whip” + Ø PERF >


kusaakiraawaˀ
“you will forget”
< kuus- POT.1~3.A + a- 2P + i- SEQ + kiraawaahc “be sick” + Ø PERF >


wiitaruutasitit
“it would happen”
< wii- “now” + ti- IND + Ø 3.A + ar- EV + ut- PREV + asitik “happen” + Ø PERF >


siˀaawaˀa
“they (DU) should have come”
< si- DU + ii- SUBJ + Ø 3.A + a- PREV + wa- DIST + a “come” + -Ø SUB.3 >



3R -his “perfective” reduction


The suffix -his “perfective (PERF)” reduces to s after verb stems with a final k , thus:


Vk]STEM + -his → ks


An example of this rule is:


tihaksta
“he is going to pass by”
< ti- IND + Ø 3.A + hak “pass by” + -his PERF + -ta INT >




4R Stem-final Vocalic Reduplication


This rule, which applies to a class of descriptive verbs - approximately half of all descriptives - in their non-subordinate forms is:


Vi(Vi) → Vi(Vi)ˀVi / C_C + Ø (+ NON-SUB)


tipahaaˀat
“it is red”
< ti- IND + Ø 3.A + pahaat “be red” + Ø “be” >;
[ c.f. iriirapahaatu “the one that is red” ]


tihuraahtarariˀit
“the ground is burned off”
< ti- IND + Ø 3.A + huraar- “ground” + tararit “be burned, scorched” + -Ø “be” >;
[ c.f. iriiratarariitu “where it is scorched” ]