a phonetic mystery

[Louanna Furbee]

With respect to Jimm's comment about Chiwere phaa ~   [paa (~paa'ge)]
= nose of human; head of an animal  vs pha~   [pa	= bitter]
and thaan(~)i ~   [taa'ñi  = winter] vs. than(~)i   ~   [ta'ñi   =
soup/ deer meat soup]:  I was admonished by Bob to look out for
length at the start of the field work.  Although I listened long and
hard, heard some differences in vowel length in the course of
interviewing, and discussed candidate pairs often with Jill, Lori,
and Dave, in the end I found no systematic differences.  That is not
to say that the contrasts might not have been there, but it is
possible that we just didn't have the skill to find them, and it is
also possible that the speakers that remained, or their models before
them,  had lost the distinction. There is without a doubt a stress
distinction associated with number of moras in some lexical items (it
is one of the distinguishing features between the two dialects), and
length is probably associated with that stress, but length alone as a
phonemic distinction, I cannot claim for Chiwere.  Length is
sufficiently pervasive in the family that I cannot but think that it
existed in Chiwere, but I can't say with certainty that it existed at
the time that I studied the language.  Louanna
--
Prof. N. Louanna Furbee
Department of Anthropology
107 Swallow Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO  65211 USA
Telephones: 573/882-9408 (office)
	   573/882-4731 (department)
	   573/446-0932 (home)
	   573/884-5450 (fax)
E-mail:  FurbeeL at missouri.edu