Document 6421496

University of California
Berkeley
archaeological institute of
PAPERS
OF THE
SCHOOL OF AMERICAN
ARCHAEOLOGY
Dumber
A KEY
TO THE NAVAHO ORTHOGRAPHY EMPLOYED BY
THE FRANCISCAN FATHERS
THE NUMERALS "Two" AND "THREE"
IN
CERTAIN
INDIAN LANGUAGES OF THE SOUTHWEST
BY
JOHN
P.
HARRINGTON
1911
TKE EM'CFOFT UEFA-FY
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST,
[Reprinted from the
A Key to
Vol. 13, No.
i,
Jan.-Mar., 1911.]
Navaho Orthography Employed by the Franciscan Fathers.
Dr Goddard's recent review 1 of the accurate and
important Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language published last
2
year by the Franciscan Fathers of St Michaels, Arizona, 1 was disappointed
the
In glancing through
a key of some sort which would give the equivalents of the
by the Fathers in more standard phonetic
that
in
a
is,
symbolism,
symbolism which has been adopted by great European
in not finding
peculiar letter-values adopted
phoneticians.
The Fathers have nowhere in the Dictionary tabulated
Navaho sounds, nor have they described their manner
systematized the
production
where
in
feeling
scientific
the
or
of
Linguists and ethnologists are every
language.
need of a standardizing key to the Fathers' orthog
raphy.
Although a mere beginner
in the
work out the accompanying
as to
study of Navaho,
I
have been so bold
table of equivalents in the
hope that until
superseded by a similar key such as our authority on Athapascan phon
it is
Dr Goddard, could
etics,
prepare,
it will
be of service to students.
I
would
out and paste it in their copies of the
and
that
the
Fathers examine it and accept such
Ethnologic Dictionary,
suggest that those interested cut
letter-values as they
making
deem
it
good, for use in their future publications, thereby
the orthography of the
Navaho language more
nearly correspond
to that in which the other languages of the Southwest are being recorded.
am
merely trying to
worthy work.
I
One
Each
will find,
of these
and to aid the Fathers
assist students
given below,
symbols
all of
followed
is
the symbols employed
in their praise
by the Fathers.
by an English or German word which
contains a similar sound or by some other explanation as given
Fathers, in parenthesis; and each
symbol suggested by me,
is
also
by the
accompanied by an equivalent
in brackets.
i.
ORINASAL VOWELS
but orinasal) [#]; e (debt, very short, but orinasal)
i (pm, very short, but orinasal) [J]; a (art, very short, but orinasal)
6 (d6ne, very short, but orinasal) [p]; # (pull, very short, but orinasal)
(bat, very short,
[$];
[$];
[j*]; 35
1
(bad, long, but orinasal) [*']; e (date, long, but orinasal)
Pliny Earle Goddard, American Anthropologist, Vol. 12, No.
2,
[e']; i
(pique,
April-June, 1910,
pp. 3II-3I52
The Franciscan
Fathers,
St. Michaels, Arizona, 1910.
An
Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language,
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST
165
but orinasal) [*"]; a (far, long, but orinasal)
[0*]; u pool, long, but orinasal) \tt'].
long,
[x. s., 13,
[g,']\
1911
o (note, long, but
orinasal)
ORAL VOWELS
2.
very short) [];
(bat,
a
very short)
(art,
e (debt,
very short)
o (done, very short)
[#];
I
[e\]
u
[0];
medium long?) [a]; e (debt, medium long?) [e}\ i
a (art, medium long?) [a]; o (done, medium long?)
(bat,
[/];
(note, long)
[o'];
(pool, long)
[*];
[M];
<rt
medium long?)
u (pull, medium
(pin,
[0];
[i'];
a
(far,
[w*].
CONSONANTAL VOWELS
(yield) [j]; iv (will) [w].
LARYNX CONSONANTS
4.
'
h (hemp)
to
u
[0'];
3.
y
very short)
very short)
(bad, long) [a*]; e (date, long) [e'];i (pique, long)
long?) [];
long)
(pin,
(pull,
[&];
h,and even
("a fairly gutteral exhalation which at times
Frequently
h]\
("abrupt close of the vowel," i. e., complete glottal stop)
preceding a vowel," i. e., light glottal stop) ['].
q.
is
equivalent
sound has been rendered with h")
this
'
I (gig) Id;
gutteral g to
(clicked k)
which the
q (German lachen)
h
or kh, or kq (ken)
[k']-r k,
rolling
sound of
r is
added,"
i.
[k
e.,
or kh}\ gh ("a
open
g) [q or R]\
FRONT OF TONGUE CONSONANTS
A
(clicked
[d}\
or
("hiatus
[x].
6.
d (den)
['];
BACK OF TONGUE CONSONANTS
5.
V
h
[
'
t)
tq
[/'];
[/
or
th]\
z
(zone)
[z\;
s
zh
(sit)
[s}\
i. e.,
voice
v
(azure)
less
[z};
[/];
1)
sh (shall)
dz (adze)
[
];
/
(like)
[dz\\ ts'
(clicked
or tsh]-J (judge)
[dz]; ch' (clicked
&
tth]',
dl [dl]-
[tf];
//[*, or
7.
b (been) [0];
m
t ("strongly aspirated 1,"
[/];
ts)
ch)
n (man)
[te'j;
[/.?'];
ch,
ts,
or
tsq,
or ds (pretzel)
H
[ts
,
or chq (church) [ts\ or tsh]\
[n].
FRONT OF TONGUE SOUNDS
(man)
[m].
by the Fathers we ought to mention n
i.
an
accented
a
n,"
e.,
("indicates
syllabic n) [n, or n'}\ 'n ("sound of dn, as
in dnieper," i. e., n preceded either by glottal stop or opening of nose passage
As
additional sounds recorded
by lowering velum)
(when)
It
[n. or
'n,
or
l
n\\
kw
(quick) [kw]\
wh (ghw)
[qw\;
qn
[xw].
appears from the text of the Dictionary that the Fathers distingiush
three lengths of oral vowels but only two lengths of orinasal vowels, although
a definite statement to this effect
is
nowhere to be found.
ANTHROPOLOGIC MISCELLANEA
The
review
The
writer cannot agree with
1
Dr Goddard when he
66
says in the recent
that the Fathers' "treatment of nasalized vowels seems happy."
1
use of circumflexes and tildes over vowel characters to indicate different
combinations of length and nasalization seems to
and confusing.
They
indicated three lengths?
diacritical
Would
And if
marks?
tinguish lengths?
me
very unhappy,
illogical,
How
would they have
By using circumflexes, tildes, and some other
two
indicate only
lengths.
many varieties of mark as they dis
they abandon this principle, placing, say, the
they use as
over every nasalized vowel, and yet retain their system of indicating
tilde
length and stress of unnasalized vowels, and apply that system to the nasalized
vowels
some
also,
characters will have three diacritical s
of their vowel
up above them.
piled
And
as
it
is,
the combinations of vowel character
plus tilde plus acute accent are with such difficulty distinguishable from the
combinations of vowel character plus macron plus acute accent that the
Professor Brugmann and other foremost
eyes are continually strained.
linguists settled the question as to writing nasalization several years ago,
adopting the Polish method of placing a hook open to the right under a
letter.
Examine the usage in the standard Grundris der vergleichenden
Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen by Brugmann and Delbriick.
exposition of the reasons why the subscript hook is the best method of
An
writing nasalization would cover several pages, and would here be out of
May
place.
little
I
add only that the use
or nothing to
recommend
it;
it
u
after a vowel has
of superior
n
is
sprawls the word in an
illogical,
(
)
ungainly fashion, and pure nasalization of vowels such as we have in manyIndian languages has nothing more to do with n than with
or "ng".
I differ from Dr Goddard in the opinion that
"probably a strict alpha
m
betical
arrangement would have been more available."
read, page after page.
Xavaho
universe.
In logical sequence
The book
is
it
This
is
a book to
introduces us to the whole
provided with an excellent and complete
An index of Navaho words might
alphabetically arranged English index.
well be added.
the
Roman
Should the Navaho words in such an index be arranged in
in an order more scientific and yet very
alphabetical order, or
readily learned?
JOHN
The Numerals "Two" and "Three"
P.
in Certain Indian
HARRINGTON.
Languages
Southwest.
LANGUAGE
RECORDER
"Two"
"THREE"
Tepehuan
Tarahumare
Charencey
Charencev
gaok
oka
baech
Goddard,
loc. cit., p. 314.
baica
of the
167
Cora
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST
[N. s., 13,
1911