[Lexicog] augmentation and reconstruction in editing

Sat Nov 6 11:59:01 UTC 2004

Those involved with the languages of Tierra del Fuego might be 
interested in an article in (of all places)  Breizh ha Poblòu Europa / 
Bretagne et Peuples d'Europe / Brittany and Peoples of Europe, which is 
a festschrift to Per Denez edited by Herve ar Bihan (ISBN: 
2-910699-31-5 or 2-86847-391-1), 1999.
The article is 'Ona legends, tales etc., an unpublished manuscript by 
E. Lucas Bridges from the manuscript remains of Martin Gusinda SVD' 
(pp. 427-439) by Piotr Klafkowski.

The author describes Gusinda's papers, now kept in Bonn:

They remained untouched since Gusinde's death in 1969, and as I saw 
them, they formed - literally - a roumful (sic) of papers, photographs, 
and negatives, lumped together with no order or arrangement. Their 
physical volume is simply staggering ... The Fuegian papers in the 
collection cover all the three languages of Fireland: Yahgan/Yamana, 
Ona/Selk'nam, and Alakaluf ... Each language is represented by 
voluminous glossaries on cards, or in notebooks so large that they well 
deserve the name "dictionaries".

Regards,
Dewi Evans

yahganlang wrote:

>
><html><body>
>
>
><tt>
><BR>
>Yahgan isn't quite extinct yet, but the last two speakers (one of <BR>
>whom may be a semispeaker but I've not gotten live data from her <BR>
>yet) do not have knowledge of the full traditional lexicon as <BR>
>recorded by Rev. Bridges in the late 19th century. Many of the <BR>
>questionable items are from domains one would expect to be depleted <BR>
>in language obsolescence. <BR>
><BR>
>In such cases, the earlier documents can simply support each other, <BR>
>and where they also fail, that leaves only a "best guess" 
solution. <BR>
>For revitalization purposes, loss of such vocabulary items might not 
<BR>
>be that vital an issue- if they were still important they might have 
<BR>
>remained in use, but one wants to keep them as possibilities for the 
<BR>
>future as well as for the purposes of comprehensive documentation.<BR>
><BR>
>There have been changes in pronunciation as well that might be <BR>
>attributed to a variety of causes- dialect mixture, simplification <BR>
>(loss of tense/lax distinctions in both consonantal and vocalic <BR>
>inventories, simplification of consonant clusters and diphthongs), <BR>
>interferences (changed stress under pressure from Spanish), etc. <BR>
>which will have to be noted. <BR>
><BR>
>Bridges focussed on only one of the five known dialects in his work <BR>
>(lexically almost completely identical, but with sometimes radical <BR>
>differences in pronunciation). Plagues wiped out almost all of the <BR>
>group he based his writings on, so it is highly likely that the last 
<BR>
>speakers hail from one or more of the remaining dialect groups, <BR>
>though they themselves deny it.<BR>
><BR>
>So my entries may well have to contain a great deal of source <BR>
>information. The big question is where to put it- in with the <BR>
>entries themselves, or as footnotes, appendices, etc. Any advice <BR>
>here? Thanks for the response so far.<BR>
><BR>
>Best regards,<BR>
>Jess Tauber<BR>
>phonosemantics at earthlink.net<

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
$9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/HKE4lB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/