The phonological hierarchy of the White Mountain dialect of Western Apache Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Greenfeld, Philip John, 1943- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 04/10/2021 08:40:28 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/597066 THE PHONOLOGICAL HIERARCHY OF THE WHITE MOUNTAIN DIALECT OF WESTERN APACHE by Philip John Greenfeld A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 7 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by ______ Philip John Greenfeld________________ entitled THE PHONOLOGICAL HIERARCHY OF THE WHITE MOUNTAIN DIALECT OF WESTERN APACHE________ be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy______________________ Dissertation Director Date After inspection of the final copy of the dissertation, the following members of the Final Examination Committee concur in its approval and recommend its acceptance:* 7? _____ L ~ > 3 - 7 ^ This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate!s adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination. The inclusion of this sheet bound into the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory performance at the final examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allow­ able without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manu­ script in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: 7 ^ 7 PREFACE This study is based upon 13 months of field work on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, during which time my wife and I lived in housing supplied by the Whiteriver Public Schools near the community of Seven Mile. Prior to this residence on the reservation, a preliminary study was carried out using one informant in seminar sessions at The University of Arizona. The field work was financed by various sources which include: The Comins Fund of the Department of Anthropology, the Doris Duke Foundation American Indian Oral History Project, and The University of Arizona Pre- Doc toral Fellowship program. Their support is deeply appreciated. My interests in linguistic anthropology were first aroused by Dr. Harland Padfield, currently with Oregon State University; and Dr. Kenneth Hale of M.I.T. My major source of inspiration and training in phonology was Dr. Joseph Grimes of Cornell University and the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Many of his ideas reveal them­ selves here; I hope in a way which does them justice. This interest and training was further whetted by the teaching and close personal friendship of Dr. Paul R. iii iv Turner, and finally channeled to the study of White Moun­ tain Apache through the leadership and courses of Dr. Keith H. Basso. Without his willingness to trust a somewhat naive graduate student with the people he himself is so close to, the whole thing would never have been started; and without the training, inspiration, and confidence of all these men it would have never been finished. One other man who deserves special mention is the late Dr. Edward P. Dozier, who was originally a member of my doctoral committee. Although he did not live to see the conclusion of my work, I feel that he had a very real input into its production. The thoroughness of his own work and the gentle quality of his life as I observed it in his teaching had a real effect on me and I felt a deep personal sorrow with his death. The actual field work could not have been carried out without the approval of the White Mountain Apache Tribal Council, and its chairman at the time of the re­ search, Mr. Bonnie Lupe. Even with this approval if it had not been for the kind of cooperation of Mr. Vincent Altaha of Whiteriver and my Apache family, the Clarence Hawkins of East Fork, I could have accomplished nothing. Their patient efforts to teach me the Apache language can­ not be praised highly enough, and any inadequacies in the final description are due to my inability to learn rather V than their abilities to teach. I would also like to thank Anthony DeClay, Sanni Elgo, and Kathy Begaye for their help as linguistic informants. I especially want to thank the people of East Fork for their kind reception of me and my project, and their tolerance of my presence in their community for the year of field work. One fur­ ther member of the Apache community deserves special mention, and that is Mrs. Mary V. Riley, Councilwoman from Seven Mile. Her help and friendship contributed much to my work and our stay on the reservation. There, of course, were others who contributed to the field work experience. Mr. Dick Cooley continually reminded me of all I did not know, and Mrs. Elizabeth Cooley's deep personal involvement with the Apache people served as a model and goal for my own relations with them. The school district with their provision of a job for my wife and a place to live also deserves our thanks, and the intellectual stimulation of fellow anthropologist, Dr. Michael W. Everett made the field experience especially rewarding. I also wish to thank Dr. Timothy Smith of the University of California at San Diego for his generous help in the area of acoustic phonetics. Both his advice and laboratory apparatus are greatly appreciated. Simi­ larly, Dr. Harry Hoijer of The University of California Vi at Los Angeles generously sent copies of some of his field notes for which I am thankful. And, of course, I want to thank Mrs. Hazel Gillie for the final typing of a most difficult manuscript, and all the problems associated with it. Finally, I cannot put into words the deep appre­ ciation and debt which I owe to my wife, Sally. She supported us through the entire graduate school period, suffered through course work in linguistics in order to understand my work better, and was responsible for all but the final typing of this dissertation. It is in many respects hers as much as mine for she has aided at every step of the way, and I can never repay her for her love and confidence in me. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF T A B L E S ......................... xi ABSTRACT ............................. ..... xii 1. INTRODUCTION 1 The Theoretical B a s e .......... ............ 3 Goals of the S t u d y .............. .. The Structure of Language .......... The Phonological Hierarchy ................ 10 The Phoneme ........................... 10 The Syllable .......... ........ 14 The Foot . ............... .. 16 The Contour . ....................... 17- Other Higher Level Units . ............ 18 Hierarchical Arrangement ............ 18 Syntax and Phonology . ................ 19 Phonology and the Ethnography of Speaking . 20 2. THE PEOPLE, THE LANGUAGE, THE LITERATURE, THE INFORMANTS ..................................... 22 The P e o p l e ................................... 23 Number of Speakers................... 24 The Language Situation at Fort Apache . 26 The Language................................. 2? Comparative Studies .............. .. 28 The Literature.......... 29 Studies in Navajo ................. .. 33 Other Apachean Languages ........ 37 The Informants.................. 38 Data C o l l e c t i o n ..................... 39 3. UMA PHONETICS ................................... 41 C onto id P h o n e s ................. ..........42 S t o p s ...................... ...........42 Fricatives.......... 47 Affricates............................49 S e m i v o w e l ............................51 N a s a l s ..................... 51 vii viii TABLE OF CONTENTS— Continued Page Vocoid Phones .............. ....... Vocoids ............................... Prosodic Features and Boundary Phenomena Nasalization .......... ............ Boundary Markers .................. .. Stress ................... .......... T o n e ................................. Intonation ........................... L e n g t h ............ .................. Summary ............ ..................... 4. PHONOLOGY AND ITS RELATION TO GRAMMAR AND LEXICON IN W M A ........................... .. 57 Conditioning Environments ............ 57 Phonologically Conditioned Variation and Distribution ........................... 58 Grammatically Conditioned Variation and Distribution ........................... 61 WMA Morphology ....................... 62 Phonological Variants Conditioned by Grammatical Classes ................ 70 Lexically Conditioned Variation and Dis­ tribution ............................... 73 Lexical Environments in WMA Phonology . 77 S u m m a r y ..................................