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Eyak: a preliminary report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Michael E. Krauss*
Affiliation:
University of Alaska

Extract

This paper is an informal summary preview of Eyak structure, with a minimum of exemplification and a maximum of structural tables and diagrams. Included are a number of historical and comparative remarks with reference to Athapaskan and Tlingit. There are still three persons capable of serving adequately as informants for Eyak. The following is a summary report of the results of field-work with these persons, up to July 10, 1964, on a grant from the National Science Foundation. The phonology of Eyak is now well understood, as is, more surprisingly, the verb. In addition, the list of morphemes is approaching exhaustiveness. The consonant inventory is shown in Table I:

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1965

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References

1 Krauss, Michael E., “Proto-Athapaskan-Eyak and the Problem of Na-Dene: The Phonology,” IJAL 30 (1964), 11831 Google Scholar.

2 Li, Fang-Kuei, “Chipewyan,” in Hoijer, H. et al., Linguistic Structures of Native America (New York, 1946), 398423 Google Scholar.

3 Hoijer, Harry, “The Apachean Verb,” IJAL 11 (1945), 193203; 12 (1946), 113, 519; 14 (1948), 24759; 15 (1949), 1222 Google Scholar.

4 The s of this morpheme usually becomes š by assimilation when a consonant of the dž-series is present in the stem. The s of the 1st pers. sg. objective-possessive never thus assimilates, however.

5 “Chronology of the Athapaskan Languages,” IJAL 22 (1956), 219-32.