[Lingtyp] word for "pitch" in languages across the world

[Jess Tauber]

In Yahgan (a critically endangered genetic isolate from Tierra del Fuego)
singing was relatively simple, involving no instruments except a beat of
some sort, and songs with nonsense syllables. The normal generic word of
'to sing, chant' was ta:pvlisana.(v is here schwa, and colon marks
tenseness of preceding vowel.  -ana is a verbalizer Then 'to sing with a
deep, steady, and lengthened strain' is u:tu:me:ata. Analysis of this form
is unclear. Normally u:- is a permissive-causative, and -ata is an
Aktsionart marker (semelfactive).

Jess Tauber

On Sun, Mar 7, 2021 at 7:10 PM Alex Francois <alex.francois.cnrs at gmail.com>
wrote:

> hi Adam,
>
> In Mwotlap (Oceanic, Vanuatu; non-tonal), the word for "pitch" or "melody"
> is a noun *tiltil*.
>
> This is initially a spatial metaphor:  the verb *til*
> <https://marama.huma-num.fr/Lex/Mwotlap/t.htm#%E2%93%94til%E2%93%971> (whence
> *tiltil *is derived by nominalization) has a polysemy
> “be anchored (at sea);  be located somewhere;  orientate oneself in space”
> — plus, a figurative use when referring to one's voice:
> “orientate (o.'s voice) up or down”
>
> The derivative noun *tiltil* thus has two meanings:  (1) directional
> system;  (2) pitch, melody.
> >> see the entry *tiltil*
> <https://marama.huma-num.fr/Lex/Mwotlap/t.htm#%E2%93%94tiltil> in my
> online Mwotlap dictionary:
>  [image: image.png]
> <https://marama.huma-num.fr/Lex/Mwotlap/t.htm#%E2%93%94tiltil>
> best
> Alex
> ------------------------------
>
> Alex François
>
> LaTTiCe <http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/> — CNRS–
> <http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html>ENS
> <https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094>
> –Sorbonne nouvelle
> <http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
> Australian National University
> <https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a>Academia Europaea
> <https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/François_Alexandre> – Academia.edu
> <https://cnrs.academia.edu/AlexFran%C3%A7ois>
> Personal homepage <http://alex.francois.online.fr/>
> ------------------------------
>
>
> On Sun, 7 Mar 2021 at 20:12, Adam James Ross Tallman <
> ajrtallman at utexas.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>> No worries Juergen.  Actually, there might be a covert point in your
>> slide that I overlooked. It seems that the word  is highly polysemous and
>> context dependent and all the answers I've gotten so far have multiple
>> meanings. Maybe there is a Chacobo word for it in the right context after
>> all (perhaps we need recordings of elders teaching traditional songs to
>> find the right equivalent rather than just eliciting the notion out of the
>> blue).
>>
>> best,
>>
>> Adam
>>
>> On Sun, Mar 7, 2021 at 7:55 PM Bohnemeyer, Juergen <jb77 at buffalo.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Adam — I definitely fall into the category of people you tried to
>>> discourage from replying :-) I couldn't resist because it just so happens
>>> that I routinely use *pitch* in my classes to illustrate how lexical
>>> meanings are built up from intersecting chains of metaphorical and
>>> metonymic extensions. I’m attaching a screenshot of the slide I use for
>>> this purpose. Sorry! — Juergen
>>>
>>> On Mar 7, 2021, at 1:05 PM, Adam James Ross Tallman <
>>> ajrtallman at utexas.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello everyone,
>>>
>>> I'm wondering how many languages across the world have a word for
>>> "pitch". In a meeting the Chacobo once offered a novel word which roughly
>>> translated to 'speech's song', joi᷄ quëquëti᷄  but it likely wouldn't be
>>> understood without explanation(as far as I know!) and it's obviously not
>>> lexicalized.
>>>
>>> I'm wondering what cultures/languages have lexicalized this notion?
>>>
>>> best,
>>>
>>> p.s. You probably don't have to respond to this if you are going to tell
>>> me that some Standard-Average-European language (for example) has a
>>> lexicalized word for pitch. Unless you can tell me something about how the
>>> notion may have arisen historically.
>>>
>>> Adam
>>>
>>> --
>>> Adam J.R. Tallman
>>> Post-doctoral Researcher
>>> Friedrich Schiller Universität
>>> Department of English Studies
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Lingtyp mailing list
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>>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
>>> Professor, Department of Linguistics
>>> University at Buffalo
>>>
>>> Office: 642 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus
>>> Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260
>>> Phone: (716) 645 0127
>>> Fax: (716) 645 3825
>>> Email: jb77 at buffalo.edu <jb77 at buffalo.edu>
>>> Web: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/
>>>
>>> Office hours will be held by Zoom. Email me to schedule a call at any
>>> time. I will in addition hold Tu/Th 4-5pm open specifically for remote
>>> office hours.
>>>
>>> There’s A Crack In Everything - That’s How The Light Gets In
>>> (Leonard Cohen)
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Adam J.R. Tallman
>> Post-doctoral Researcher
>> Friedrich Schiller Universität
>> Department of English Studies
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>> Lingtyp mailing list
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>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>>
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