JPH notes.

Rankin, Robert L rankin at ku.edu
Thu Jun 8 19:41:06 UTC 2006


> JPH was certainly busy!  I've been working on the UC Davis JPH Project, in particular his Rumsien Ohlone notes, as time permits.  About all that's now known of Rumsien Ohlone is in those notes that had been stored in garages for decades apparently since the 1930s!  I guess keeping the notes hidden on the many languages he worked on was his way of defiance for not being taken seriously as a linguist, from what I gather.
 
JPH was pretty paranoid about his field notes.  He expressed fears that Franz Boas would steal them and said so in rather anti-semitic terms.  He left his Peoria notes in the attic of the Quapaw tribal historian where they remained until the 1980's when she mentioned them to me.  Along with them were the remains of a partly eaten ham sandwich.
 
I have a xerox of his few notes on Omaha and it's notable that he transcribed both vowel length and all four series of stops consistently.  The guy was obviously a terrific practical phonetician.  
 
Bob



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