Haruo Aoki

NEZ PERCE VOWEL HARMONY AND PROTO-SAHAPTIAN VOWELS

Nez Perce vowel harmony involves two groups of co-occurring vowels: /i e u/ and /i a o/. Most words contain only one of the two groups of vowels. Certain morphemes are variable and may have vowels of either group, while others have only the second group. The latter type of morpheme, whether stem or affix, dictates the vowel harmony. Three analyses, one in terms of prosody, and two in terms of distinctive features, are given, in an attempt to derive the modern Sahaptian vocalic systems from that of Proto-Sahaptian. 1. The Nez Perce vowels are /i e a o u/. Their norms are [i e a o u m]. /o/ is always rounded; /i e a/ never are. There is considerable individual variation in the degree of rounding of /u/. 2. Among various grammarians of the Nez Perce language, including Smith 1846, Ainslie 1876, Morvillo 1888 and 1891, Phinney n.d. and 1934, Swadesh n.d., and Velten 1943, Morvillo was the first to mention vowel harmony. Boas, Phinney, Velten, and Rigsby have briefly discussed it,2 and have correctly stated that, with a few exceptions, the set /i e u/ or the set /i a o/ is found in a Nez Perce word.

Nez Perce and Northern Sahaptin: A Binary Comparison

1. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the phonological and lexical correspondences for Northern Sahaptin and Nez Perce. In 1891, Powell named Chopunnish (Nez Perce), Klikitat, Paloos, Tenaino, Tyigh, Umatilla, and Walla Walla, as the principal tribes of the Shahaptian family.1 In 1931, Melville Jacobs suggested that Powells Shahaptian, together with Lutuamian and Waiilatpuan, be tentatively designated a stock, called Sahaptin, and that Shahaptian be divided in linguistic terminology as follows: 1. northern Sahaptin, including the northwest Sahaptin, Warmsprings, waluila-palus, and Umatilla; 2. the Nez Perce groups.2 Further, Jacobs noted that Northern Sahaptin and Nez Perce are not mutually intelligible.3 Since then, H. V. Velten in 1943 noted some possible Sahaptin cognates in his analysis of the Nez Perce verb affixes,4 Morris Swadesh stated provisional consonant correspondences including Nez Perce and Northern Sahaptin in 1956,5 and in 1957 D. H. Hymes referred to continuative elements in Northern Sahaptin and Nez Perce.6 We do not yet have a statement

On Sahaptian-Klamath Linguistic Affiliations

1. The relationship of Klamath to Nez Perce and Northern Sahaptin appears to have been more often assumed than demonstrated. Gatschet, in discussing the linguistic affinities of Klamath, cited eighteen resemblant lexical pairs, and noted that the Sahaptin and Wayiletpu families are the only ones with whom a distant kinship is not altogether out of the question. Sapir classified both Sahaptin and Lutuami (Klamath-Modoc) under Plateau Penutian.2 Jacobs accepted the inclusion of Lutuamian and Sahaptian in one family.3 Velten noted the relationship between the North Sahaptin-Nez Perce family and the Klamath and Molale groups to be no less apparent, though decidedly more remote, than the affinity between Nez Perce and Northern Sahaptin.4 The purpose of this paper is to note some lexical resemblances between Klamath and Northern Sahaptin or Nez Perce. The source for Klamath is an unpublished dictionary and grammar by Phillip R. Barker, Survey of California Indian Languages, Department of Linguistics, Univer-

Reduplication in Nez Perce

1 Linguistic works on the Nez Perce language include the following: G. Ainslie, Notes on the Grammar of the Nez Perces Language. Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, Washington, 2.271-7 (1876). Anthony Morvillo, Grammatica linguae numipu. Desmet (1891). Archie Phinney, Nez Perc6 Texts. Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology XXV. New York, (1934). L. van Gorp, A Dictionary of the Numipu of Nez Perce Language. St. Ignatius, (1895). H. V. Velten, The Nez Perce Verb, Pacific Northwest Quarterly 34.271-92 (1943). For her invaluable advice and encouragement, I wish to express my sincere thanks to Mary R. Haas. carcass); tawn to guess in stick-game; c6*wEew ghost; kuyc nine; lqupqup back; ?61le? sons child (of a man) (voc.); sis broth; xaxa-nin cowhide; .xaac grizzly bear; h-sus head; mitat three; naqc one; lepit two; 16plep butterfly; wayat far; yaka brown bear. Both length //, and primary stress // appear to be phonemic, e.g., si-s broth, sis navel; m6qe? snow, meqe? paternal uncle; saqan top of head, saqan canyon.

Nez Perce and Proto-Sahaptian Kinship Terms

I wish to extend my grateful thanks, first to Melville Jacobs, without whose pioneering work in Sahaptin linguistics the present paper would be impossible; then to Mary R. Haas, William F. Shipley, Nelson H. H. Graburn, Bruce J. Rigsby, Jesse 0. Sawyer, and Karl E. Zimmer, for their invaluable comments on an earlier draft of this paper; then to William W. Elmendorf, whose insightful comments in the field during the summer of 1962 were most instructive. 2 Melville Jacobs, Northern Sahaptin Kinship Terms, AA 34.688-93 (1934). 3 A sociological and behavioral study was made by William W. Elmendorf and Henry P. Lundsgaarde. Here I limit myself to a few linguistic notes.

From Japanese Publications

S AND TRANSLATIONS which is now to be called a bound structure. The first word in such a structure, i.e. the A word, must be the bound form of a word, and the last word in the structure, i.e. the B word, must be either the free form of a word or its substitute, and such a substitute may be either a final suffix or a nominal structure; indeed a bound structure can itself substitute for the free word in the