Here you go.
Lesson One: The Apostrophe Marking Gemination; Automatic Devoicing; Rhythmic Lengthening; Double Vowel Length with Automatic Gemination and Rhythmic Length; Review of Uses for the Apostrophe; Automatic Gemination Due to ?hatted e?; and Enclitics. (Sorry - absolutives and simple verbs will have to wait until the next installment due to time constraints [read: bedtime].)
1. The Apostrophe Marking Gemination
The apostrophe in Yup?ik orthography has about five or six uses, but the most common is indicating gemination. Since doubling of letters is already taken (indicating voiceless frictives), the consonant to be geminated has an apostrophe written after it. Compare the word
Yup?ik [jup:ik] ?Yup?ik? with
pupik [pu.pik] ?skin sore?.
2. Automatic Devoicing
In Yup?ik, consonant clusters rarely have a combination of unvoiced and voiced consonants. There are four main rules outlining automatic devoicing:
1. A fricative written next to a stop is written single (i.e. in its voiced form) and pronounced voiceless. (For example, compare
qilugaa [qi.lu.Ga:] ?it ?s barking at her? with
qilugtuq [qi.lux.tuq] ?it?s barking? and
ekvik [@k.fik] ?riverbank?.)
2. A fricative following a voiceless fricative is written single and pronounced voiceless. (Compare
asriq [az.Riq] ?naughty child? with
issran [is.Xan] ?grass tote bag? and
inarrvik [i.naX.fik] ?sleeping bag?.)
3. Initial <s> and final <r> are written single but pronounced voiceless. (as in
necuar [n@.tSu.aX] ?little house? and
suugiuq [su:.Gi.uq] ?she?s scrubbing the floor? with
luusitaq [lu:.zi.taq] ?horse?)
4. A nasal following a stop or voiceless fricative is written without an accent mark but pronounced voiceless.
When consonant clusters do vary in voicing, the constituents are separated by an apostrophe to indicate this. For example, compare
tep?lek [
t@p.l@k] ?one having an odor? with
tepluni [
t@p.Ku.ni] and
at?nguuq [at.Nu:q] ?he?s getting a name? with
cavutnguuq [tSa.vut.N_0u:q] ?it?s an oar?.
3. (Syllabification and) Rhythmic Lengthening of Vowels
Yup?ik syllables have a nucleus consisting of one or two like or unlike vowels, always begin with a consonant (excepting word-initial syllables, which may begin with a vowel), and may optionally end in a consonant. Thus, a syllable may take the shapes CV, CVV, CVC, or CVVC anyplace in a word and the shapes V, VV, VC, or VVC at the beginning of a word only. Syllable division points fall first between adjacent consonants (C/C) and second between adjacent vowels and consonants (V/C).
For example, the word
arnaq [aR.naq] ?woman? is divided
ar/naq;
nuna [nu.na] ?land? is divided
nu/na; and
talliq [ta.Kiq] ?arm? is divided
ta/lliq (NOT
tal/liq ? remember, doubled consonants are unvoiced fricatives and not geminates!). Words with media or final syllables containing two vowels as their nuclei are syllabified thus:
ukatiini [u.ka.ti:.ni]
u/ka/tii/ni ?on this side of it?;
ikamrapialiciqnilua [i.kam.Ra.pia.li.ciq.ni.lua]
i/kam/ra/pia/li/ciq/ni/lua ?saying that I will make an authentic sled?. Words with a (virtually) silent initial
e count that as a syllable, even if it?s not pronounced ? see
elituq [li:.tuq]
e/li/tuq ?he is learning? and
elaturraq [la:.tu.Xaq]
e/la/tu/rraq ?enclosed porch?.
Rhythmic lengthening of vowels occurs in what the grammar aptly terms simple open syllables (those of CV or V [word-initial only] form). (It says that the ?simple? in the term refers to the single-vowel nucleus, and the ?open? because they don?t end in a consonant.) Rhythmical lengthening isn?t explicitly indicated orthographically. About all you need to know pronunciation-wise is that rhythmically lengthened syllables are pronounced a bit longer and louder than adjoining syllables.
The rule for rhythmic lengthening is:
In a sequence of simple open syllables, every second one receives lengthening unless it ends the word.
Given
nalluyagucaqunaku ?don?t forget it?, you would syllabify it
na/llu/ya/gu/ca/qu/na/ku, and pronounce it [na.Ku:.ja.Gu:.tSa.qu:.na.ku] (remembering that rhythmic lengthening never applies to the last syllable of a word). Pay attention to breaks in the pattern, though: observe
qayalitaraqama [qa.ja:.li.ta:.Ra.qa:.ma] ?whenever I?m going to make a kayak?;
angyalitaraqama [aN.ja.li:.ta.Ra:.qa.ma] ?whenever I?m going to make a boat?; and
qayaliciqngatuten [qa.ja:.li.tSiq.N_0a.tu:.t@n] ?it seems like you will make a kayak?.
4. Double Vowel Length with Automatic Gemination and Rhythmic Length
Consider the words
tekituq [t@.ki:.tuq] ?he came? and
tekiituq [
t@k.ki:.tuq] ?she doesn?t have earwax?. Both [i:]s are pronounced the exact same ? the only difference between the two words, in fact, is the geminate [k] in the second. Quoth the book: ?[It may seem perverse to] ?show a difference in consonant length (gemination) by writing a difference in vowel length [?].?Although it?s not explicitly stated in the book, the rule for automatic gemination seems to be:
Consonants are automatically geminated before a cluster of like or unlike vowels.
In the rare case that a consonant cluster doesn?t cause gemination of the preceding consonant, an apostrophe is written separating the two vowels to indicate this. See
pika?antuq [pi.ka:n.tuq] and
apa?urluq [a.pauR.luq]. (NB: Apparently, it doesn?t matter if the vowel cluster is in an open or closed syllable ? it will still cause gemination unless marked as an exception by the dreaded apostrophe.)
5. Review of Uses for the Apostrophe
1. between consonants, separating [n] from [g] to avoid confusion (compare
tan?gurraq [tan.Gu.Xaq] ?boy? with tang! [taN] ?look!; over there!?)
, or to separate a voiced fricative or nasal from a stop or voiceless consonant which otherwise would devoice it
2. between a consonant and a vowel to indicate gemination
3. between two vowels to indicate that a preceding consonant is not geminated
4. at the end of a word in which a segment has been optionally deleted (in
qaill? [qaiK], a shortened form of
qaillun [qai.Kun] ?how??)
5. in transcribing speech in which a final stop [k] or [q] is spirantized to [G] or [R] when followed by a vowel-initial word (
arnar? una [aR.naR.u.na] ?this woman?,
arnag? ukuk [aR.naG.u.kuk] ?these women?)
6. Automatic Gemination Due to Retention of ?hatted e?
I?ve diverged from the book in that in transcribing this chapter I?ve not marked rhythmically lengthened vowels with ?hats? (circumflexes) over them. However, to avoid making up a new term, the term ?hatted
e? refers to an
e [@] in rhythmically lengthened position (although the vowel
e [@] itself is never pronounced lengthened).
As we shall see, a hatted
e is generally deleted in constructing a word. However, if a hatted
e separates two identical or nearly identical consonants, it is retained and the second of the two consonants is geminated (
tumemi [tu.m@m:i] ?in the footprint?). This is in line with the observation that
e cannot be doubled; in general,
e doesn?t lengthen, either rhythmically or by being doubled.
7. Enclitics
Enclitics are particles which attach to the end of a word. They don?t follow normal pattern of stress or rhythm, and I?ll have to cover that more in-depth later, when I?ve got time. Enclitics are written with an equals sign separating them from the word (as on
nuna=qaa [nu.naq
![:a:](//twemoji.maxcdn.com/2/svg/1f170.svg)
] ?the land? (yes/no question)? and
kuigpagmi=llu=gguq [kuix.paG.mi:.Ku.xuq] 'and in the big river, they say'), and are always written with voiceless initial fricatives (doubled letters instead of single).
8. Hypenation in English Words
A hyphen is used to separate an English word with English spelling from a Yup?ik suffix:
call-aqsaituq [ka.laq.sai.tuq] ?she hasn?t called yet?,
vote-artuq [vo.taX.tuq] ?she?s voting?.
I'll try not to take six or seven weeks to post the next part, in all seriousness. Do enjoy! <3
Oh, and if you find an error in the SAMPA or you need something clarified, tell me and I'll attempt to rectify the problem.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Make it a point to bother me about bringing back a Yup'ik thread so I won't let it die this time.
AND: If you have stairs in your house, let me know. (Three of you thus far!)