UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE LEARNER VARIETIES OF THE CHIKASHA ACADEMY: CHICKASAW ADULT LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, CHANGE, AND REVITALIZATION A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By JULIET LIANE MORGAN Norman, Oklahoma 2017 THE LEARNER VARIETIES OF THE CHIKASHA ACADEMY: CHICKASAW ADULT LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, CHANGE, AND REVITALIZATION A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY BY ______________________________ Dr. Racquel-María Sapién, Chair ______________________________ Dr. Sean O’Neill ______________________________ Dr. Kimberly J. Marshall ______________________________ Dr. Marcia Haag ______________________________ Dr. Daniela Busciglio © Copyright by JULIET LIANE MORGAN 2017 All Rights Reserved. Acknowledgements The first and biggest thanks are to the Chickasaw Nation for allowing me to carry out my research with them. I especially thank the Chickasaw Language Revitalization Program, the speakers and learners, and the director, Lokosh / Joshua D. Hinson. Thank you so much, for so much. I of course also thank my committee for their time and support. Dr. Mary Linn was my original dissertation chair for the first two years of research. Her work in Oklahoma has and will continue to strongly inspire and influence me. Dr. Gus Palmer, Jr. served on my dissertation committee for four years before retiring; always a source of cheerful support. Thank you to Dr. Sean O’Neill for many incredibly intelligent research discussions. Thank you to Drs. Kimberly Marshall and Daniela Busciglio for joining the committee and your contributions to the research. Thank you to Dr. Marcia Haag for being such a wonderful teacher. Thank you, Racquel, for taking me in – you are a steadfast and socratic advisor and I have learned so much from you. I thank the National Science Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities for supporting this research through a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (#1500730). I also owe a huge thanks to Keli Mitchell, Anthropology staff assistant, for all her help with grant-related paperwork. While our research was not usually our purpose for getting together, I have enjoyed my Anthropology cohort: Anne, Will, Tom, Nicole, Kiley, Ali, Andy, Warren, and Donna. I feel so fortunate to have been in graduate school in Oklahoma when I did with the many wonderful people who were there during this time. Being able to experience OWNAL, ONLA, and OKBOL was very special. And finally thank you also to my husband Stephen for his many months of extra honey-do work while I researched – I love you. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. v List of Figures ................................................................................................................. vii Abstract .......................................................................................................................... viii Chapter One: Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Key Concepts in Language Shift .......................................................................... 4 1.2 A Brief Chickasaw Language Ecology .............................................................. 17 1.3 Chickasaw Language Revitalization Efforts ...................................................... 29 1.4 Profiles of Speakers and Learners ...................................................................... 41 1.5 Organization of the Dissertation ......................................................................... 50 Chapter Two: Chikashshanompaꞌ ................................................................................... 54 2.1 Orthography and Phonology ............................................................................... 56 2.2 Noun Morphology .............................................................................................. 59 2.2.1 Possession .................................................................................................. 59 2.2.2 Case and Word Order ................................................................................ 62 2.2.3 Derivation .................................................................................................. 65 2.2.4 Phrase Structure ......................................................................................... 65 2.3 Verb Morphology ............................................................................................... 66 2.3.1 Agreement (I and II) .................................................................................. 67 2.3.2 Derivation .................................................................................................. 75 2.3.3 III-Dative Agreement ................................................................................ 80 2.3.4 Tense, Modality, and Aspect ..................................................................... 94 2.3.5 Negatives and Questions ........................................................................... 98 2.4 Discourse Structure .......................................................................................... 101 2.4.1 Complex Sentences ................................................................................. 101 2.4.2 Clause-level Switch-reference ................................................................. 104 2.4.3 “Paragraph-level” Switch-reference ........................................................ 113 2.5 Variation ........................................................................................................... 114 2.5.1 Agreement ............................................................................................... 115 2.5.2 Case and Word Order .............................................................................. 119 2.5.3 Switch-reference and Questions .............................................................. 121 2.6 Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 122 Chapter Three: Language Change, Acquisition, and Revitalization ............................ 124 3.1 Language Change in Endangered Languages ................................................... 126 3.1.1 Contexts of Change ................................................................................. 127 3.1.2 Sources of Change ................................................................................... 132 3.1.3 Mechanisms of Change ........................................................................... 140 3.1.4 Facilitating Factors .................................................................................. 151 3.1.5 Rhetoric of Change .................................................................................. 155 3.1.6 Summary .................................................................................................. 159 3.2 Adult Language Acquisition in the Context of Language Revitalization ........ 161 3.2.1 Adult Language Acquisition .................................................................... 162 3.2.2 Reframing Acquisition Research for Language Revitalization ............... 167 3.2.3 Mediating Language Change ................................................................... 172 v 3.3 Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 175 Chapter Four: Research Methods ................................................................................. 179 4.1 Data Collection Sites ........................................................................................ 179 4.1.1 Chikasha Academy Recordings ............................................................... 180 4.1.2 Interviews ................................................................................................ 183 4.2 Data Collection Methods .................................................................................. 184 4.2.1 Language Experience Interviews ............................................................ 184 4.2.2 Grammaticality Judgment Tasks ............................................................. 186 4.3 Data Analysis Methods and Workflow ............................................................ 188 4.3.1 Describing Chickasaw Varieties .............................................................. 188 4.3.2 Data Analysis Workflow ......................................................................... 199 Chapter Five: Discussion of Data ................................................................................. 202 5.1 Order of Acquisition ......................................................................................... 202 5.1.1 Agreement ............................................................................................... 203 5.1.2 Word Order .............................................................................................. 211 5.1.3 Case ......................................................................................................... 212 5.1.4 Negation .................................................................................................. 214 5.1.5 Tense, Mode, and Aspect