Jerus Masia!

[Kevin Tuite]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
My assertion that the Chukchee /r/ has uvular articulation is based on the
Bogoras grammar in HAIL, which describes its pronunciation "as in French
(hard trill, 'roue')", contrasted to a "dental r with weak trill" (p 645).
(On the other hand, in a table on the preceding page, both /r/'s are
classed as "alveolar", god knows why). I had assumed that the Chukchi
"French r" would sound roughly the same as the uvular R of Eskimo.
Ralf-Stefan Georg kindly brought to my attention two recent grammars of
Chukchi which describe the sound in question as being, indeed, alveolar or
perhaps alveo-palatal ("perednejazychnyj, kakuminal'nyj"). I remain
intrigued by the sociolinguistic aspects of the Chukchi and French /r/ >
sibilant shifts, and in particular the association of both changes with
women's speech (Recall Erasmus' observation that the French shift was led
by the "mulierculae parisinae "). Could the sibilant articulation of an
earlier rhotic have "feminine" associations of the sort that Matthew Gordon
and Jeffrey Heath propose for vowel shifts (see the latest issue of Current
Anthropology, vol 39 #4)?
Kevin Tuite
 
PS Greetings to Alexis.
 
 
 
**************************************************************
Kevin Tuite                         514-343-6514      (bureau)
Département d'anthropologie         514-343-2494 (télécopieur)
Université de Montréal
C.P. 6128, succursale centre-ville
Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7      tuitekj at mistral.ere.umontreal.ca
**************************************************************