Pitch Accent

[R. Rankin]

> On Mon, 26 Jan 2004, Rankin, Robert L wrote:
> > Actually Deloria says Dakotan speakers listen primarily for pitch.  I
> > ran across her statement in B&D 1941.

> Aha!

I *may* have cited this by page number in the paper in the WORD volume.  It was
in the draft I read in Melbourne.  Checking it now, the wording isn't quite as I
had remembered, but here it is.  I think it makes a pretty good case for pitch
accent.  From the version of the Word paper I read in Melbourne:

Languages of the Mississippi Valley Siouan subgroup have most often been
described as having "stress", with the implication that accent in Dakotan and
Dhegihan is amplitude-based.  Boas and Deloria (1941:21) state that "Stress
accent plays an important role in Dakota."  However they go on to point out that
"Syllables bearing the main accent have a high pitch.  In rapid speech
discrimination between accented and unaccented syllables or those having a
secondary accent may be recognized more readily by pitch than by stress.  Miss
Deloria decides in all doubtful cases the question whether the syllables are
accented or not, by pitch."

Bob