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The Study of Nuuchahnulth
Grammar: Consequences
for
a theory of language
Principal Investigator: John Stonham
Introduction
This project provides a detailed account of the
grammatical
structure of the Nuuchahnulth language of Vancouver Island to
complement
existing descriptions of the sound system (Stonham 1999). The project
aims
to establish a standard for the assembling and presentation of
materials
from little-studied languages and cultures. Nuuchahnulth displays an
unusually
high degree of polysynthesis and a level of incorporation that goes
well
beyond any extant cases of this phenomenon. It is therefore essential
to
provide a detailed, comprehensive, and accurate account of the
morphological
phenomena of Nuuchahnulth if the full theoretical implications of the
grammar
are to be spelt out in the clearest possible terms.
A further major objective is the production of one
of
the most
detailed
dictionaries of any Native American language investigated to date
(Stonham 2005). A
challenge
faced by both this and previous projects is the paucity of available
lexical
information for translating the texts. This dictionary will simplify
this
task and provide a framework for lexicography in neighbouring languages
and
information on related languages within the Wakashan family. It will
aim
to provide detailed cross-referencing to related forms, synonyms, and
antonyms,
details about names, loanwords, and forms from linguistically related
languages where available and will contribute to our general
understanding of the comparative
lexicography of the family and further afield.
Background
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The Nuuchahnulth tribe
is located on the west coast
of Vancouver Island. There are virtually no monolingual speakers
presently.
Most fluent speakers are over the age of 70.
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The original materials which serve as the basis
for this
research
consist of some 2,000 hand-written pages of field-notes gathered around
the
turn of the century by the linguist and anthropologist, Edward Sapir
(for
a sample page, click here). This material, housed in the Canadian
Museum
of Civilisation, has remained untouched for nearly a century, due in
part
to the dearth of Nuuchahnulth language expertise in the linguistic
academic
community. What remains of Sapir's contributions are a handful of
papers
dealing with certain aspects of the language (e.g., Sapir 1924, 1929),
and
two volumes of texts co-authored with Swadesh, now out of print (Sapir
&
Swadesh 1939, 1955). The former volume is for the most part reliable,
but
the second is seriously flawed and more or less unusable by any but the
most
expert scholar of the language. Little else was published on
Nuuchahnulth
until the early 1970s, when Jacobsen, began research on the related
Makah
language (e.g., Jacobsen 1969, 1979, 1993, 1994).
Research Goals
- To provide a detailed, comprehensive, and
accurate
account
of the morphological phenomena and a detailed account of the
grammatical
structure of the Nuuchahnulth language of Vancouver Island to
complement
existing descriptions of the sound system (Stonham 1999).
- To spell out the full theoretical implications
of the
grammar
of the language in the clearest possible terms.
- To establish a standard for the assembling and
presentation
of materials from little-studied languages and cultures.