Handkerchiefs, old ladies, and unstable consonants

[Dave Robertson]

Lhaxhayam,

Another good example parallel to the Jargon incarnations of the English word 'handkerchief' (where a [f] turned into not necessarily the acoustically most similar sound ~ [xw] in Chinookan et al. but instead into the articulatorily most similar sound [m]) is:

/lamiyay/ or /lamiyey/ 'old lady'

This word comes from French <la vieille>, so it's clear that here too a labiodental got pronounced as a bilabial.  Again I'll muse aloud as to whether this sort of sound change was limited to the early contact period; the acoustically most similar sound to [v] in most of the region's indigenous languages may have been [w], and indeed we find contrasting instances where [v] => [w]:

E.g. /lawest/ 'vest', from French <la veste>.

If the [v] => [w] words do belong to a later layer of vocabulary in Chinook Jargon, it's interesting to consider what differences in the environment of cultural contact led to their being introduced into CJ only after the time of earliest contact.

There are other realizations of [v] in Jargon, at least in certain regions, as we all know from the commonly understood /biktoli/ for 'Victoria, BC'.  (Am I mistaken in thinking I've also seen ~ /mEktoli/ in one of the BC Native languages?)

Cheers,

Dave
--
"Asking a linguist how many languages she knows is like asking a doctor how many diseases he has!" -- anonymous



__________________________________________________________________
Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas. Experience the convenience of buying online with Shop at Netscape! http://shopnow.netscape.com/

Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/