Indigenous Linguistics 1100 Final Exam

Indigenous Linguistics - concepts of Linguistics

Semiotics (Arbitrary, Motivated, Symbol, Icon, and Index)

A sign in a relationship between a significant (a perceptible form) and a signed (a conceptual form)

Symbol = Convention code → Arbitary

Icon = Similarity → motivated

index = indexicality → motivated

what is Language Sustainability?

Definition: Efforts to preserve and revitalize languages.

Challenges: Language endangerment due to globalization & colonization.

    •    Revitalization:

Documentation (recording words, grammar, oral traditions).

Education programs (teaching younger generations).

Government policies (supporting Indigenous & minority languages).

Why it matters: Preserves culture, identity, and knowledge.

what is Speech surrogates?

A communication system based on language

what is Kinship Analysis in linguistics?

definition: Study of how languages classify family relationships.

Kinship Terminology → Words for family members.

Kinship Systems → Different ways cultures categorize kin.

Linguistic Relativity → Kinship terms shape social worldview.

Purpose: Shows cultural values & social structure through language

Non-verbal communication

Definition: Conveying messages without words.

 Channels:

    •    Gestures

    •    Facial expressions

    •    Body posture and movements

    •    Eye contact

 Role:

    •    Complements verbal communication

    •    Can operate independently to convey emotion, intent, or context

what is Writing in linguistics?

Definition: Representing language with visual symbols.

 Graphemics: Smallest units in writing (graphemes).

 Writing Systems: Alphabets, logograms, syllabaries, etc.

 Distinction: Writing is a different modality from speech.

 Influences: Shaped by cultural and historical factors.

what is Multilingualism?

definition: using two or more languages in your community other in society

Individual multilingualism: A person who can speak multiple languages (bilingual/trilingual)

societal multilingualism: Societies where several languages are used in daily life, education, or government

what is Language History?

Language history = study of how languages change over time

Language families → English is Germanic.

Sound changes → Knight used to have a “k” sound.

Word changes → Nice meant “foolish” before.

Grammar changes → Sentence structures evolve.

Language contact → English borrows from French.

•  Helps trace language roots and evolution.

What is taxonomy?

• Taxonomy is the science of classification, particularly in biology, where it involves categorizing organisms based on shared characteristics and relationships.

• organizes words and concepts, or sounds into hierarchies

  examples

• animal taxonomy: Animal → dog → Labrador

what is a Prefix in linguistics?

A prefix is an affix added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning.
- prefixes cannot stand alone as words

EXAMPLE

• Un - (not) — unhappy (not happy)

what is Logographic?

A writing system that uses logograms, which are symbols that represent words/morphmes

What is a symbol?

• a symbol is a sign with an arbitrary connection to its meaning

• meaning comes from Convention (agreed upon used)

  Examples

• words → dog, doesn’t look like dog.

• traffic signs → stop signs means “stop” because we agree it does.

• part of semiotics (study of signs)

What is an icon?

• an icon is a sign that resembles what it represents

• the connection is based on similarity (not arbitrary rules)

  EXAMPLES

• Photographs → look like the real thing

• Onomatopoeia → Buzz, meow (sound like what they mean

• emojis (a heart emoji can represent love)

  
  
  

What is an index?

A sign that has direct, casual, or contextual connections to what it represents (linked by association or evidence)

EXAMPLE

Smoke → fire (smoke indicates fire is present)

Pronouns (I, you) (their meaning depends on who is speaking

•contextual relationship •evidence-based connection

CASE STUDY - The Pueblo - Hopi

• lost city, hunter gatherer

• matrilineal - through mother lines

• clan structures - matrilineal

• matrilocal - live with the mothers side of the family

• exogamous

what does Exogamous mean?

can't marry inside your clan - has to marry outside the clan (avoids incest) (forges connections)

what does endogamous mean?

marrying within a specific social group, community, or ethnic group, as opposed to marrying outside of it.

what does Primogeniture mean?

a system of inheritance in which a person's property passes to their firstborn legitimate child upon their death

why and how is slang used??

• faster to say certain things

• more fun - social persona - don’t talk that way with your parents or grandparents but you do with your friends)

• appropriateness

Dialect Distinctiveness

Nomadic: Fuzzy boundaries

Sedentary: Distinct

Stratification: Distinct + Pritege langauge

Plains sign language - structure

Compunds: “White man” + “Soldier” = Infantry

- Largest record sign lexicon = 3500 signs; comparison to pidgins & creoles