Translating Diacritics A Comparison of Historic Transcriptions of Karuk Accent

Clare S. Sandy

University of California, Berkeley

SSILA January 2014 Overview

1 Introduction

2 Correspondences Between the Accent Transcription Systems Harrington’s Orthography Word Accent Unaccented Syllables

3 Discrepancies and Points of Interest Discourse Markers Other Anomalies Abstract Representation

4 Discussion

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 2 / 26 Introduction

The Karuk language • Highly endangered Hokan isolate of Northern California • 6-12 first language speakers, 20-50 second-language speakers • Prosodic system: two types of accent, at most 1 per word • Historic linguistic documentation • 1920s: John P. Harrington • 1949-1950: William Bright Making use of Harrington’s materials • Segmental transcriptions: phonetically precise, over-differentiated • What about suprasegmental transcriptions? • Can we make sense of his notations of Karuk accent?

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 3 / 26 Example of Harrington’s Orthography

3 word accents in Karuk: • Acute: chavura´ ‘finally’ • Circumflex: kachakaachˆ ‘bluejay’ • Unaccented: upiip ‘he said’ Diacritics in Harrington’s writing: • Arch • Acute

• Lowering T • Tilde-acute • Low arch Beginning of ‘Bluejay Myth’ in ‘Transcriptions of Karok Texts Recorded with Franz Boas’ Northern and Central California: Karok/Shasta/Konomihu, • Low circumflex John Peabody Harrington papers • Grave

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 4 / 26 Data

Harrington materials: • 1929 recording of Phoebe Maddux on aluminum disc (PHM-24-343, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology) • Harrington’s transcription with translation (John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution) For comparison: • 1949 recording of Nettie Reuben (LA 78.1, Berkeley Language Center) • William Bright’s transcription (Archives, American Philosophical Society) • Translation by Karuk elder Vina Smith (2013)

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 5 / 26 Correspondences Between the Writing Systems

JPH Corresponding Accent

1. ˜´a; aaˆ Circumflex

2. a´; aa´ Acute (in polysyllabic word)

3. a´; aa´ Acute (underlying unaccented monosyllable) “ > 4. a; aa Unaccented (prepausal, final stress)

5. a; aa Unaccented (underlying acute monosyllable) ˆ

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 6 / 26 Correspondences Between the Writing Systems

JPH Corresponding Unaccented Syllable

6. a; aa Unaccented (non-prepausal final unstressed) ˆ a 7. a’ aa Unaccented (prepausal final unstressed)

| 8. a; aa Unaccented (mid pitch)

9. a`; aa Unaccented (low pitch)

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 7 / 26 Circumflex Accent

350

300 Harrington diacritic 1: High/middle falling tone )

z 200 H

( plus high pitch mark:

h c t i

P kachak˜a;´ chich 100

50 ‘bluejay-DIM’ kachakâachich

0 1.102 Time (s)

350

300 Circumflex accent: “strong stress plus falling pitch, )

z 200

H without glottalization (Bright (

h c t i

P 1957)” 100

50 kachakaachˆ kachakâach ‘bluejay’ 0 0.7814 Time (s)

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 8 / 26 Acute Accent on Long Vowels

350 300 Harrington diacritic 2:

) High pitch mark: z 200 H (

h

c ’utha´;n’niv t i P 100 ‘she was lying there’ 50 utháaniv

0 1.005 Time (s) Acute accent: 350

300 “strong stress and high level pitch, )

z 200 H

( without glottalization

h c t i

P (Bright 1957)” 100

50 k´ıik’uummih kíikuumih ‘go ahead (and doctor)’ 0 0.869 Time (s)

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 9 / 26 Acute Accent on Short Vowels

350 300 Harrington diacritic 2:

) High pitch mark: z 200 H ( y a h

c kunp´ıkk a’ r t i P 100 ‘they went to get her’ 50 kunpíkaar

0 1.006 Time (s) Acute accent: 350

300 “strong stress and high level pitch, )

z 200 H

( without glottalization

h c t i

P (Bright 1957)” 100

50 kiikp´ıkkaan kiikpíkaan ‘go get her’ 0 0.9706 Time (s)

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 10 / 26 Acute Accent in Monosyllabic Words

350

300 Harrington diacritic 3: )

z 200

H High pitch mark plus “inlaut form” (

h c t i

P of low falling tone mark if long: 100

50 ka´;n ‘there’ káan “

0 0.3835 Time (s)

350 300 Acute accent:

) Underlyingly unaccented monosyllabic words z 200 H (

h

c receive acute accent except prepausally t i P 100 (Bright 1957): 50 káan kaan´ ‘there’

0 0.2945 Time (s)

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 11 / 26 ‘Unaccented’ Words Before Pause

350 300 Harrington diacritic 4:

) Low falling tone: z 200 H ( > h

c ’u’ u;m t i P 100 ‘she got there’ 50 u’uum.

0 0.7493 Time (s)

350 Unaccented words: 300 Receive strong stress

) with low pitch on final z 200 H (

h

c syllable prepausally: t i P 100 kun’uum 50 kun’uum ‘they got there’

0 0.8797 Time (s)

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 12 / 26 Unaccented Monosyllabic Words

350

300

) Harrington diacritic 5:

z 200 H (

h “Inlaut form” of low falling atonic: c t i P 100 ’u;m ‘3SG’ 50 ˆ uum

0 0.2214 Time (s)

350 300 Unaccented:

) Underlyingly acute-accented monosyllabic z 200 H (

h

c words lose their accent except in isolation t i P 100 (Bright 1957): 50 uum ’uum ‘3SG’

0 0.09065 Time (s)

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 13 / 26 Example of Diacritic on Unaccented Syllable

300

250

200 ) z H (

150 h c t i

P 100

50 kun’áraarahitihanik

0 1.543 Time (s) Harrington diacritic 8: Mid pitch mark: kunPar´ a| ;rahitihanik ‘they were living (there)’

Unaccented: A non-final long vowel directly following an acute-accented syllable receives mid pitch (Bright 1957)

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 14 / 26 Correspondences Between the Writing Systems

JPH Corresponding Accent

1. ˜´a; aaˆ Circumflex

2. a´; aa´ Acute (in polysyllabic word)

3. a´; aa´ Acute (underlying unaccented monosyllable) “ > 4. a; aa Unaccented (prepausal, final stress)

5. a; aa Unaccented (underlying acute monosyllable) ˆ

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 15 / 26 Correspondences Between the Writing Systems

JPH Corresponding Unaccented Syllable

6. a; aa Unaccented (non-prepausal final unstressed) ˆ a 7. a’ aa Unaccented (prepausal final unstressed)

| 8. a; aa Unaccented (mid pitch)

9. a`; aa Unaccented (low pitch)

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 16 / 26 Discrepancies and Points of Interest

Discrepancies and Points of Interest • Discourse Markers • Other Anomalies • Abstract Representation

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 17 / 26 Discourse Markers

350 300

300 250

200 ) )

z 200 z H H ( (

150 h h c c t t i i P P 100 100

50 50 kári xás kári xás

0 0.5348 0 0.6482 Time (s) Time (s) Phoebe Maddux Nettie Reuben transcribed by Harrington: transcribed by Bright: karixas ‘then, so’ kari´ xas´ ‘then, so’

Some words we would write with acute accent Harrington writes unaccented • All discourse markers or function words • Can have low or high pitch, but low intensity

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 18 / 26 Unusual Pronunciation of imsh´ıinaavish ‘may you shine this way upriver’

350

300 )

z 200 H (

h c t i P 100

50 imshîinaavish

0 1.121 Time (s) • Expected accent: acute on long ii imsh´ıinaavish ‘may you shine this way upriver’ • Harrington writes: high falling tone (=circumflex) ’imsh˜´i;nna;vish ‘may you shine this way upriver’ • Falling high on second syllable

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 19 / 26 Unusual Accent in uknˆı´ı ‘once upon a time’

350

300 )

z 200 H (

h c t i P 100

50 uknîí

0 1.629 Time (s) > Harrington transcribes low falling tone: ’ukni; ‘once upon a time’

400

300 ) z H

( 200

h c t i P 100 50 uknîí

0 1.368 Time (s) Bright transcribes falling-rising accent: ’uknˆı´ı; ‘once upon a time’

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 20 / 26 Two Pronunciations of kaan ‘there’

350 350

300 300 ) )

z 200 z 200 H H ( (

h h c c t t i i P P 100 100

50 50 káan káan

0 0.3835 0 0.8695 Time (s) Time (s)

• Expected: • Expected: kaan´ ‘there’ kaan´ ‘there’ • Harrington writes: • Harrington writes: low falling tone ka´;n ‘there’ k>a;n ‘there’ “ • Level high pitch • Rising pitch long clip

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 21 / 26 Two Pronunciations (?) of pay ‘this, that’

350 350

300 300 ) )

z 200 z 200 H H ( (

h h c c t t i i P P 100 100

50 50 páy páy

0 0.2458 0 0.2326 Time (s) Time (s) • Expected: • Expected: pay´ ‘this, that’ pay´ ‘this, that’ • Harrington writes: • Harrington writes: low pitch pay´ ‘this, that’ pay` ‘this, that’ • High in context • High in context

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 22 / 26 Discrepancies Between the Writing Systems

• Harrington writes unaccented where we would expect acute • All discourse markers or function words • Can have low or high pitch, but low intensity • Words with unusual pronunciations or accent • Anomalous pronunciation - Harrington writes accurately • Unusual accent - Harrington writes in a surprising way • Normal pronunciation - Harrington writes in a surprising way

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 23 / 26 Level of Representation

• Harrington generally concerned with surface phonetics • Instance where he appears to be making reference to an abstract level of representation • Notation for underlyingly unaccented acute monosyllables - distinct from other acute accent, though phonetically same • Example: ka´;n ‘there’ vs. ’utha´;n’niv ‘she was lying there’ “

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 24 / 26 Discussion

John P. Harrington’s suprasegmental notation • Like segmental notation: precise, over-differentiated • Phonetically accurate • Corresponds to phonemic categories we recognize • Describes same phonological system in Karuk

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 25 / 26 Bibliography Bright, William. ca. 1949. The William Bright collection of Karok sound recordings. Archives, Berkeley Language Center. Bright, William. ca. 1949-1951. Karok Texts (field notes). Archives, American Philosophical Society. Bright, William. 1957. The Karok language. University of California Publications in Linguistics, Vol. 13. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bright, William and Susan Gehr. 2005. Karuk dictionary. Happy Camp, CA: Karuk Tribe of California, Language Program. Online version at http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/ ˜karuk/ Harrington, John P. ca. 1925-1933. Northern and Central California: Karok/Shasta/Konomihu, John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Harrington, John P. 1930. Karuk texts. International Journal of American Linguistics 6(2). 121-161. Harrington, John P. 1932. Karuk Indian myths. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 107. Maddux, Phoebe. 1929. Karuk myth and formulas. Miscellaneous sound recordings from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology.

C. Sandy (UC Berkeley) Translating Diacritics SSILA 2014 26 / 26