Papers in Australian Linguistics No. 1
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PACI FIC LINGUISTICS Edi tor: S. A. Wurm Associate Edltors: D.C. Lqycock, C.L. Voorhoeve SERI ES A - OCCASI ON AL PAPERS No . 10 PAPERS IN AUSTRALIAN LINGUISTICS No.1 by D . an d K. GLASGOW JEAN F. KIRTON W.J. OATES S.A . and E.G. SOMMER CANBERRA 1967 THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Glasgow, D., Glasgow, K., Kirton, J., Oates, W., Sommer, S.A. and Sommer, E.G. editors. Papers in Australian Linguistics No. 1. A-10, vi + 65 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1967. DOI:10.15144/PL-A10.cover ©1967 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. PACIFIC LINGUISTICS is published by the Linguistic Circle of Canberra and consists of four series: SERIES A - OCCASIONAL PAPERS SERIES B - MONOGRAPHS SERIES C - BOOKS BULLET INS. All correspondence concerning PACIFIC LINGUISTICS, including orders and subscriptions, should be addressed to: The Sec retary, "Pac ific Linguistics" , Department of Linguistics, Schoo l of Pac ific Studies, The Australian Nat ional Un ivers ity, Canberra, A. C. T. , Australia. The copyright in the material of this publication is vested in the authors. The editors are indebted to the Australian National Uni versity for help in the production of this series. This publication was made possible by a grant from the Hunter lliuglas Fund. TABLE OF CONTENTS Pa�e THE PHONEMES OF BU RERA, by David and Kathleen Gl asgow 1 1. In troduction 1 2. The Phonemes 1 3. Consonantal Contrasts 2 4. Co nsonantal Variants 3 5. Vo calic Co ntrasts 4 6. Vo calic Variants 4 7. Stress 7 8. Distribu tion of Phonemes 7 9. The Sy llable 8 10. Distribution of Sy llabl es 8 11. Interpretation 9 12. Proposed Orthography 10 No tes 14 ANYULA PHONOLOGY, by Jean F. Kirton 15 O. Introduction I5 1. Phonem es 15 1.1. Consonantal De scription 15 1. 11. Consonantal Contrast 16 1. 12. Consonantal Variants 18 1. 2. Consonant Distribution 19 1. 3. Vowel Descrip tion 21 1.31. Vowel Contrast 21 1. 32. Vo calic Variants 22 1. 4. Vowel Distribution 23 2. Units Larger than the Phoneme 23 iii iv Paf1e 2. 1 Phonological Syllable 23 2. 2. Phonological Wo rd 24 27 No tes Bibl iof1raphy 28 SYLLABLE PATTERNING AND PHONETICALLY COMPLEX CON SONANTS IN SOME AU STRALIAN LANGUAGES, by W. J. Oates 29 O. Introduction 29 1. Predomin an t Syllable Patterns in Au stral ian Languages 32 2. Sy llable Co nsonan t/Contoid Fi llers 32 3. Interpretation of Homorganic Nasal- Stop Sequences 33 3. 1. Problems of Interpretat ion in some Languages (such as Gugu-Yalanji) 33 3. 2. Interpretat ion in Gugu- Yalanj i of the NS Syllable Unit 34 3. 3. Binary Nature of the Homorganic Nasal-Stop Phoneme s in Gugu-Yalanj i 34 3. 4. Phonemic Status of Component Parts of the NS Unit in Gugu-Yalanj i 35 4. Interpretation of Retrofl exed Co nto ids 36 4. 1. Binary Nature of Retro fl exion in Tiwi 36 5. Obj ections to An alysis 37 6. Defence of Analysis 38 6. 1. CV Patterning 38 6. 2. Patterning of /r/ in Non-retroflexed Stop and Nasal Sequences 38 6.3. Morpheme Boundaries 39 6 .4. The Stability of the /r/ Phoneme 39 6 . 5. Retroflexion of Vocoids 40 6.6. Rarity of Wo rd Initial Retro flexion 41 No tes 42 Charts A, B, C, D, E pages 44-49 Bibl i of1rap hy 50 v KUNJ EN PRONOUNS AN D KINSHIP, by B. A. and E. G. Sommer 53 O. Introdu ction 53 1. Pronouns 53 2. So ci al o r g an i sat ion: Kinship 55 3. Kinsh ip Terms 55 4. Co r reI at ion 56 5. Residual Fo rms 57 No tes 58 ACknowLedf,ments 59 Glasgow, D., Glasgow, K., Kirton, J., Oates, W., Sommer, S.A. and Sommer, E.G. editors. Papers in Australian Linguistics No. 1. A-10, vi + 65 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1967. DOI:10.15144/PL-A10.cover ©1967 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. THE PHONEMES OF BURERA DAVID and KATHLEEN GLASGOW 1. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to present the phonemes of the Burera language 1, and to propose a practical orthography for vernacular literacy wh ich will allow the smoothe st tr an sition into English. Burera is spoken by approximately 350 people of the Blyth River area in Ar nhem Land. There are two main dialects dis tinguished by the way they say that one, kun-narda or kun-nartpa respectively. The material for th is paper was gathered from April 1962 to September 1964. at the Maningri da Settlement on the mouth of the Liverpool River, where most of the Burera speakers have settled. The author s are grateful to Miss Eunice Pike of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, who was a most valuable consultant in the final analys is and wr ite-up of th is paper . They also wish to acknowledge the helpfulness of material shared by Lester Hiatt, Lecturer in Anthropology at Uni versity of Sydney. 2. THE PHONEMES The eighteen segmental phonemes are represented in the following charts . CONSONANTS: Bi labi al A lveo Al veolar Ve lar Denta l St ops p t k Na s als m n Flap Late ra l 1 Non-syllab ic Voco ids w y r 1 Glasgow, D. and Glasgow, K. "The Phonemes of Burera". In Glasgow, D., Glasgow, K., Kirton, J., Oates, W., Sommer, S.A. and Sommer, E.G. editors, Papers in Australian Linguistics No. 1. A-10:1-14. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1967. DOI:10.15144/PL-A10.1 ©1967 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. 2 VOWELS: Fr ont Cen tral Back Rounded u Low a There is a suprasegmental phoneme of stress. 3. CONSONANTAL CONTRASTS The stops Ip , t, t, kl contrast as follows: 'prelapila table munku 'prekka lon� stick trel �round IJu'trekka [w iLL ret,urn 'trelippre chiLd IJu'trertre [ am stron� , krelrernre ear kuna ' kreppa dawn 'tara�ap La st one an 'tampa"t �ood hunte r an' marpat skeLet on , IJanpak a rm Let Ipl contrasts with /w/ as in 'paIJarri name of subsection and 'waIJara spirit, a'pun� hit him and a'wun� �ave to him, a'prenre he arrived and a'wrenre he spoke, It I contrasts with Iyl as in '"tiri"t"ti water LiLy and 'y�r i"ttiIJa name of mo iety, ku'treritrer itiIJa pours it and ku' yrer iyrer itiIJa it fLows , 'kulat �rass LiLy and a'lay hey! (m asc.J. It I contrasts with Irl as in 'putippre they two and 'pu rippre they pLuraL, tinku' furta catfish and pur ' rak cont inu in�, 'trel ippre chiLd and 'rreppura foot . Irl and /11 contrast as in 'para buttoc ks and 'pala roof, 'kurr� here and an 'k�rlQ dry , baLd . They contrast with Irl as in 'p�ri"ta upLand �rass and 'p�rittal rice �rass, '"tarpar cypres s pine and 'watpar type of oak, 'fi�lkkiya you tease and 'fbrkkiya you do habituaLLy , 'lama shoveL spear head and 'rama� fLuff; 'tarakkara Lift it uP!, 'talakkar road, and 'tararJa sand. The nasals 1m, n, n, IJI contrast as follows : 3 'm<:>l<:> a�a in 'lama shovel spear head 'n<:>lkkiya you tease 'ana son, father 'n<:>kk<:>r<:> small shark 'lanappi�a cypress pine '�<:>rl<:> didjeridoo '�ala�a sister's son 'mamam mother 's mother 'pulan name of subsectton 'raman ! luff 'kalama� axe The non-syllab ic vocoids Iy, w, rl contrast as follows: 'yamu can? a'ya:Hni;;i wi II throw him 'wamut name of subsection a'warli;;i;;i he wi II �o up 'raman fluff a'rakkiya he sits down a' lay hey! (ma s c . ) 'watpar type oak �aw yes 4 . CONSONANTAL VARIANTS The stops /p , i;;, k/ have voiced var iants which al ternate with voicelessn ss wo d initially as in /p<:>l/ <:>l/ � � _ !p b<:>IJ fire, /'i;;urai ['i;;urA/'�urAJ paper, /'kuni;;<:>�/ ['kun�<:>�/ 'gun�<:>�J tree . These voiced variants occur word medially except in stop clusters2 . For example /apuri'i;;rekkarre/ [abur.i'�kAr8J they returned , /an'kuna/ [an'gunAJ this one. The voiced variant of /t/ alternates with voi celessness word initially, and med ially preceding Ip/ as in /'titpurkl ['�Itpurk/'�IdpurkJ axe; and occurs me dially preced ing the stressed vowe l and following nasals as in /�u'trelipprel [�u'drelip8J I am small, I'pantre/ ['pand8J le�. The alveo ar consonants It, n, r, II have retroflexed variants. [�, �, �J occur word initially and in con sonant clusters following /r/ as in I'tiyamal ['tiyamAJ type e shel lfish, Ii;;inku'purtal [i;; nku'burt. AJ lar� catfish, I . I 'n<:>rnt<:>/ ['�<:>rl?-�<:>J mud whelk shel l fish, /'lama/ ['�amAJ shovel spea r head, I'w<:>rbl ['w<:>r�<:>J siblin�. [fJ occurs word medially following /r/ as in /'�arrappa/ ['�arfapAJ a lone. 4 Ir/ has a trilled variant which tends to occur word fi nally and in consonant clusters except following Irl as in I Iy';)rl [y';):fJ ra tn, / 'yrermpre/ ['ysrmbsJ husband , wife S b rot her, /' �anaral [, �anarAJ or shor tened form [, �a nrAJ rock.