Beyond Grassmann's Law: Dissimilation as simplification

Grassmann's Law, formulated in 1863, holds that in Greek and Sanskrit the first of two aspirates as the onset of successive syllables dissimilates to the corresponding unaspirated stop.  In Indo-European linguistics this traditionally has been valued as a condition on Grimm's Law which helped to launch the Neogrammarian revolution by demonstrating that sound change can be conditioned in ways that had previously been overlooked.  More recent work in phonological theory by MacEachern suggests that Grassmann's Law is actually a special case of a more general principle governing avoidance of "laryngeally active" (glottalized, aspirated, imploded) consonants as the onsets of successive syllables.  Data drawn primarily from Austronesian languages suggests that MacEachern did not go far enough in reaching her generalization, since similar dissimilative tendencies are known to affect both geminates and consonant clusters under conditions similar to those in the classic formulation by Grassmann.  The full range of cases is therefore best explained as a tendency for word structure to avoid multiple complex consonants rather than the narrower range of "laryngeally active" consonants.

Chinook Jargon loanwords and phonological adaptation in Tlingit

Chinook Jargon (CJ) is a pidgin language which was widely spoken in the Pacific Northwest of North America. CJ was used for communication not only between Euro-Americans and Indians, but as a lingua franca among different Indian tribes, and among the many other ethnic groups (Chinese, Hawaiian, etc.) which came to the region. The sound system of CJ is unlike most pidgins in that it contains many typologically rare phonemes such as lateral fricatives and ejective stops ? these sounds are however quite common in the Pacific Northwest. The debate still rages as to whether CJ predates European contact, but its spread was closely associated with the growth of the European sea otter fur trade. Tlingit is indigenous to the northernmost regions where CJ was historically recorded. Although the Na-Dene family is often described as resistant to borrowing (e.g. Sapir 1921), Tlingit has borrowed a not insignificant amount from CJ, mostly terms for modern concepts and trade goods. Tlingit lacks several of the sounds which are common in CJ, so borrowings exhibit considerable phonological adaptation from the original forms. In this presentation I will offer the results of my ongoing investigation into Tlingit borrowing, and will outline the sound correspondences between Tlingit and CJ. As well as an interesting example of language contact phenomena, I hope that the results will prove useful for further investigations of both CJ and Tlingit phonology.

Maritime Polynesian Pidgin: Philological-Ethnohistorical Bits and Pieces of Interlingual Communications in the Early Colonial Pacific

Although subtitled ¡°Origins, Growth and Development,¡± the recent encyclopedic book Pacific Pidgins and Creoles by Darrell T. Tryon and Jean-Michel Charpentier summarily writes off any non-European, Polynesian pidgin in the eastern Pacific ? only to find that no reliable historical attestations for Pidgin English became available on any substantive scale until after the mid-nineteenth century. Surprisingly, the authors show no concern for how Europeans communicated with Islanders of the eastern Pacific in the early colonial period before the introduction of Pidgin English as prime interlingual medium. The present paper offers select linguistic attestations for a so-called Maritime Polynesian Pidgin (MPP) in early documentation by explorers, travelers, traders, missionaries, and settlers in the eastern Pacific. Of special interest are the linguistic patterns of multiple closely related varieties such as Hawaiian Pidgin, Tahitian Pidgin, Marquesan Pidgin, and M?ori Pidgin, as philologically reconstitutable by triangulation with modern comparative data. Another question addresses the sociohistorical contexts of use, as determined by ethnohistorical criteria. Initial findings establish MPP not only across much of eastern Polynesia, but beyond on board of ships from the late eighteenth into the second half of the nineteenth century. Present findings also suggest a greater range of linguistic variations and usages than hitherto recognized for Pidgin Hawaiian (including VSO next to SVO and an unmistakable linkage to the fur trade of northwestern North America).

Crossing, mockery, and stake inoculation: The use of accented English in comedy

Language use does not always relate to one¡¯s ethnic identity. Crossing and mock language are such examples. Crossing is the use of a second language not thought to belong to a speaker (Rampton 1998). Belonging is indicated through sociolinguistic correspondences of the language with ethnic groups. Crossing allows language learners to establish the multiethnic or hybrid self. Meanwhile, a similar linguistic practice, the use of mock language (e.g., Mock Spanish), is contended to be a form of racism (Hill 2005). However, it is difficult to draw a clear line between crossing and the use of mock language. It is more fruitful to investigate how these linguistic practices are achieved all together. I examine the mockery of Filipino English or accented English spoken by Philippine nationals and demonstrate how its use is rationalized in stand-up comedy shows in Hawai¡®i through stake inoculation (Potter 2004), which is used to manage the danger of being seen as a racist. In order to personify Philippine nationals, a local comic, Augie T, who is a bidialectal speaker of English and Hawai¡®i Creole, uses various linguistic resources. One of the most distinctive resources is the substitution of the phoneme /f/ with /p/ (e.g., ¡®Filipino¡¯ as ¡®Pilipino¡¯). Other resources are a high tone of voice and a rapid pace of speaking. This local comic manages the danger of using mock language by adopting various tactics of stake inoculation. They include reminding an audience of (1) the frame of his performance (i.e., comedy), (2) his ethnicity (i.e., part Filipino), and (3) his relatives (e.g., ¡®my Filipino uncle¡¯). Furthermore, he emphasizes that only those who were born and raised in Hawai¡®i can tolerate ethnic jokes. Mock Filipino English therefore is a case of crossing within an ethnic Filipino community that is comprised of members of different generations.

What can language phylogenies tell us about the tempo and mode of Pacific settlement

Ryukyuan language through time: From earliest times to the present day

The Japonic languages include Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages and dialects. A great deal of progress has been made in recent years in the reconstruction of the histories of both lineages. This talk will focus on the Ryukyun lineages: it is a synthesis within one presentation of the main developments both of linguistic structures and of the languages in their geographical and historical contexts. The presentation will also touch on questions of point of origin of Ryukyuan, and the early dialect situation in pre-split Japonic. The talk will cap off with a treatment of the present situation of the languages and dialects of Ryukyu, and the social-political situation that they find themselves in vis-?vis Japanese.

On the Historical Development of Contrastive Aspiration in the Southern Subanen language of the Philippines

Southern Subanen is one of the five languages (and various dialects thereof) that make up the Subanen subgroup of largely-undocumented languages spoken on the Zamboanga Peninsula on the Southern Philippines' largest island, Mindanao. It is the only Philippine language known to have aspirated consonants (a rarity among Austronesian languages), let alone a contrast in aspiration. Furthermore, the historical source of these aspirated consonants differs from that of such consonants in other Austronesian languages. Their unique derivation is such that aspiration has even come to mark the heads of noun phrases, and certain semantic contrasts in verbal prefixes. In this presentation, I will discuss the historical sources of this aspiration and its realization in Southern Subanen, based on work done by myself and with Dr. William Hall, a Western Subanon linguist based in Mindanao.