Yaghan language

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Yaghan/Yámana Háusi Kúta
Spoken in:	Chile
Region:	Tierra del Fuego
Total speakers:	1
Language family:	language isolate Yaghan/Yámana
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`sai`
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	`yag`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

Yagán (variously spelled as Yahgan, Yaghan, Jagan, Iakan), also known as Yámana and Háusi Kúta, is one of the indigenous languages of Tierra del Fuego, spoken by the Yagán people. It is regarded as a language isolate, although some linguists have attempted to relate it to Kawésqar and Chon.

Only one elderly speaker remains, though there is reportedly some interest in reviving the language among Yagán descendants. Along with other Fuegian languages, it was among the first South American languages to be recorded by European explorers and missionaries.

1 Phonology
- 1.1 Vowels
- 1.2 Consonants
2 Grammar
3 Bibliography
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

There are many analyses of the phonological system of Yamana, they differ in many details from one another.

The older analysis is from the 19th century (prephonological era) and corresponds to Thomas Bridges(1894); from the middle of the 20th century Haudricourt (1952) and Homer (1953); towards the end of the 20th century, the last phonological studies were made on this moribund language: Guerra Eissmann (1990), Salas y Valencia (1990) and Aguilera (2000).

	Front	Central	Back
Close	/i/		/u/
Mid	/e/	/ə/	/o/
Open	/æ/	/a/

[edit] Consonants

	Labial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatoalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p		t	tʃ		k	ʔ
Fricative	f		s	ʃ		x	h
Rhotic			ɾ
Approximant	w	l	ɻ		j

The alphabet in use is as follows [1]: a, æ, ch, e, ö, f, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, š, t, u, w, x

[edit] Morphophonology

[edit] Stress

[edit] Sound symbolism

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Syntax

[edit] Grammaticalization

[edit] Pronouns

[edit] Demonstratives

[edit] Adjectives

[edit] Adverbs

[edit] Nouns

The physical environment the Yaghan people lived in was relatively poor in land resources. It is understandable, then, that the vocabulary reflects this. There are many fewer names for animals and plants than one might expect based on what is found in other languages from other, richer natural environments. The sea coast was a different matter, and the language had many terms for birds and ocean life.

Yaghan emphasized interconnected parts over unanalyzed wholes. Body parts are finely differentiated, as are social relationships. The vocabulary contained a vast number of deverbalized nouns.

Subject nouns take no overt case marking (subject coreference is on the verb instead). Nouns can be marked for accusative, genitive, dative, locative, instrumental and other cases. Geographical information can be incorporated into the string, as can information about number, collectivity, definiteness, etc. Most of these marks are suffixal.

[edit] Verbs

Verbs in Yaghan are often compounded ("serialized"). Bound subject pronouns, unmarked for number, are prefixed, coming before voice prefixes (passive, active, indirective, etc.). Aspect, tense, and mood (generally in that order), etc. are suffixal. Number within the verb can be encoded by overt marking (once, twice, several times, etc.) or distinct plural verbs.

A handful of verbs form doublets where one of the pair seems to have an unproductive reversitive suffix.

In addition to normal serialization Yaghan also exhibits complex verb stems of a type relatively common in western North America, where the main verb is flanked by instrument/body part manner of action prefixes and pathway/position suffixes. The prefixes are part of a larger, more open system of elements marking various kinds of causes or motivations, grading off into more grammaticalized voice marking. Many of the path/position suffixes (especially posture verbs) do double duty as sources for more grammaticalized aspectual morphology. Tense suffixes seem to derive historically from horizontal motion verbs, and together with the more vertical postural aspect forms, make an interesting Cartesian-style coordinate system for dealing with the temporal dimension.

There is little or no reduplication evident on the Yaghan verb, and sound symbolism of the augmentative/diminutive type appears to be largely lexicalized. On the other hand, Yahgan exhibits a good deal of remnant sound symbolism in the verb, similar to what one sees in English.

[edit] Bibliography

Aguilera Faúndez, Óscar (2000): "En torno a la estructura fonologica del yagán. Fonología de la palabra". Onomazein, Santiago, vol. 5, pp. 233—241.

Bridges, Thomas (1894): "A few notes on the structure of Yahgan". Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Londres, vol. 23, pp. 53—80.

Golbert de Goodbar, Perla (1977): "Yagan I. Las partes de la oración". Vicus, Amsterdam, vol. 1, pp. 5—60.

Golbert de Goodbar, Perla (1978): "Yagan II. Morfología nominal". Vicus, Amsterdam, vol. 2, pp. 87—101.

Guerra Eissmann, Ana M. (1990): "Esbozo fonológico del yagán", en Actas del Octavo Seminario Nacional de Investigación y Enseñanza de la Lingüística. Santiago: Universidad de Chile y Sociedad Chilena de Lingüística, vol. V, pp. 88—93.

Guerra Eissmann, Ana M. (1992): "Las fluctuaciones de fonemas en el yagán". Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada, Concepción, vol. 30, pp. 171—182.

Haudricourt, André (1952): "Yamana", en Antoine Meillet y Marcel Cohen (eds.): Les langues du monde. París: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, pp. 1196—1198.

Holmer, Nils M. (1953): "Apuntes comparados sobre la lengua de los yaganes (Tierra del Fuego)". Revista de la Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias, Montevideo, vol. 10, pp. 193—223, y vol. 11 (1954), pp. 121—142.

Salas, Adalberto, y Valencia, Alba (1990): "El fonetismo del yámana o yagán. Una nota en lingüística de salvataje". Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada, Concepción, vol. 28, pp. 147—169.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

South American Missionary Society : Tierra del Fuego, 1898:
- Tekenika: young Yaghan women
- Tekenika: Mr. Pringle with young Yaghan men
Ethnologue report
Lenguas Australes
Yagán (Universidad de Chile)
Lengua Yagán (Universidad de Chile)
Waata Chis, a discussion list on the Yaghan people, their language, and their culture
Moribund 'Savages' of Tierra del Fuego

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