Week 9 (Halq’emeylem and Austronesian Languages)

Halq’emeylem lip rounding

Halq’emeylem contrasts rounded vs unrounded uvular and velar consonants.

Halq’emeylem lip rounding minimal pairs

Ejectives

Popping sounds → IPA: C' (e.g. p', t', k', q’, k^w’, q^w’)

Ejectives ≠ Clicks! → They sound similar, but the air moves in

opposite directions

Halq’emeylem ejective consonants

[p’], [t’], [k’], [q’], [k^w’], [q^x’]

Glottal stop

A sound that serves as a distinctive feature word-internally in Halq’emeylem.

Full Halq’emeylem consonant chart

Halq’emeylem summary (6 things)

• Uvula is used to make C's (q, χ)

• Voice NOT used distinctively (e.g. no s vs. z)

• Lip rounding distinguishes certain sounds (k^w q^w x^w χ^w )

• Glottal stop is distinctive word-internally

• Has the ‘hissy l’ (voiceless lateral fricative)/ɬ/

• Ejective vs. non-ejective contrasts for all stops (except glottal stop)

Innate contrasts in language

The ability of babies to hear phonetic contrasts that are not present in their native language.

UBC sucking experiment discovery

Discovered that babies are able to hear contrasts, even the ones that are not in their native language. But as they get older, they forget about these contrasts.

Evidence for contrast are innate

Why is this class studying Austronesian language family?

Main case study in adaptations and borrowings

Austronesian language family

Thought to have originated in Taiwan, but now severely endangered in Taiwan, but is spoken in many other places around the world.

Where did the Austronesian language family originate?

Taiwan

What branch is Hawaiian part of?

Malayo-Polynesian Branch

Speakers of Native Hawaiian vs. Hawaiian Pidgin

20,000 vs 600,000

Some Austronesian languages

1. Javanese

2. Tagalog

3. Malay/Indonesian

4. Fijian

5. Maori

6. Hawaiian

Hawaiian language

Arrived in Hawaiian Islands around 300-400 A.D.. It is in the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family. It was banned in schools in 1893. It nearly died out entirely.

How did Hawaiian language recover from almost being extinct?

Recent generations have started immersion schools in Hawaiian language…

RESULT: today more than 20,000 fluent speakers

Hawaiian Pidgin

It is a creole language that is also very popular in Hawaii. It is more popular than the original Hawaiian language.

Two native languages of Hawaii:

Two problems with borrowing words from other languages:

1. The word has sounds that are not present in your language

2. The sound sequence violates your language’s phonotactic constraints.

How to deal with problems from borrowings

Adapt borrowed words to your system

• e.g. q becomes k, psi becomes si, etc.

2 choices with borrowings and their implications

First, when people DO adapt, why do they make the exact changes they do?

Second, when people start ‘talking like foreigners’, for borrowed words, can this end up changing the whole language?

Traditional Hawaiian sound system - Consonants

Traditional Hawaiian sound system - Vowels

Hawaiian phonotactics

Hawaiian only allows simple CV syllables and simple V syllables.

• NO consonant clusters - all syllables are CV or V

• Vowel length is distinctive

• ʔ distinctive, even at start of word

Sound adaptation in borrowing

When a language adopts foreign words, it may substitute and modify sounds to fit its phonotactic constraints.

When borrowing from English, Hawaiian does 2 things

• Substitutes sounds - look for closest similar sound (usually /k/)

• Add vowels + syllabify - usually /i/ or /a/