LINGUIST List 6.590

Fri 21 Apr 1995

Qs: Mystery lg, Colors in Native American lgs, Survey

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Alexis Manaster Ramer, Q: Another Mystery Language
2. , Colors in Native American Languages
3. Alex Eulenberg, Sentence Connective Survey

Below is the vocabulary, from Strahlenberg (1730), of a "mystery"
language. It was presumably spoken in Siberia, and is identified
by him as "Lamuti Tongus", but is in fact not any kind of Tungus.
Any help identifying this language would be greatly appreciated.

Omokon 1
Nadan 2
Dagalkun 3
Ullan 4
Degen 5
Gedin 6
Dgiur 7
Diaar 8
Dgiur-Diar 9
u"llan-Diar 10
Yyunicha winter
Mukula summer
Kungakan boy
Bucha ear
Konga coat
Dseleki cap
Amar god
Aschatka sister
Toyaga woman
Muiga fire
Gadar water
Diularan mountain
Tziugga sun
Murun moon
Kinakin horse
Tollokin dog
Laptiti lake
Ongockto wind
Onkokoll beard
Niuruchta mouth
Ineran house
Sziagabu sable
Gilaka ermine
Kokollda glove
Gilgada tree
Argan foot

Alexis Manaster Ramer

Greetings!
I am currently working on establishing a set of lexical items in Shawnee (
an Algonquian language) which refer to colors in the language. What I am
particularly interested in concerns 1) how other Amerindian languages express
color terms and 2) what are the "basic" color terms in a particular
language.
For 1), I already have a copy of a paper that Karen Booker presented last
year at AAA and that focusses on Muskogean languages. I'd like to look at
how other Amerindian language families, esp. other Algonquian languages,
express colors.
For 2), I'll give an example from Shawnee:

skipakya "it's blue/it's colored blue"
halemskipakya "it's green/it's colored green"

The halem morpheme occurs with other color terms in order to express a
color for which no comparable lexical item exists in Shawnee. For example,
halem also precedes the color term for red in order to express the color brown.
So, what I'm interested in is the "basic" color terms of a particular
Amerindian language and the mechanism by which that language expresses colors
for which no lexical item exists. If you have some examples or references
which might be helpful, please reply directly to me. If there's interest,
I'll post a summary. Thanks.

amoena norcross
tri-county technical college
pendleton, sc
anorcrosstricty.tricounty.tec.sc.us

Linguists! I'm doing a little research for a dictionary of English
sentence connectives, and I need some expert judgements! If you've got a
few minutes, please complete the following survey and send it to me at
(aeulenbeindiana.edu). All participants will be sent a "soft"
(computer file) copy of my current dictionary of sentence connectives as a
bonus and a token of my appreciation. Please forward this survey to
anyone not on the list that you think might want to participate.

Instructions: This survey consists of eighteen sentences where you have a
choice between two sentence connectives. You are asked to choose which one
you would put -- which one sounds better, given the context. If it appears
to you that both are acceptable, choose the one that you would be most
likely to write. Always choose one or the other. Do not worry if you feel
you are "just guessing". But do take your time, reading the whole sentence
all the way through for each of the two possibilities, and go with your
intuitions. Do not feel compelled to distribute your answers "evenly" if
you have a strong preference for one word over the other regardless of
context.

To answer this questionnaire, reply by email to me at
(aeulenbeindiana.edu), including this message with the reply. Before
sending the letter, of course, you must fill in the answers. I'm
processing the answers by computer, so you have to answer in a special
way. Fortunately, it is the easiest possible way. You do it by typing the
first letter of the appropriate word after the prompt. For example if you
saw:

 _0. Roses are ( r)ed / g)reen), violets are blue.
 #0-

you would send back:

 _0. Roses are ( r)ed / g)reen), violets are blue.
 #0-r

because the correct answer is "red". You may type your answer in upper or
lower case. It's OK if your editor has added little ")" marks before
every line in the survey. You don't need to delete them. For the personal
information section, you may type in an entire line of text after the
prompt if necessary.

And now, without further ado...

SURVEY

Part I. Personal information (will be kept confidential).

_A. Enter your name
#A-

_B. Age?
#B-

_C. Sex?
#C-

_D. How many years have you been speaking or writing English?
#D-

_E. What is your first language?
#E-

_F. What variety of English do you use? (If "American", state region)
#F-

Part II. Pick the best word.

_1. You should eat carrots. They're good for your eyes, and ( b)esides /
w)hat's more), they taste great!
#1-

_2. Don't go out! The wind is howling, and ( b)esides / w)hat's more),
there's vicious thunder and lightning.
#2-

_3. Mary is certain to win the Guitar-Vocalist of the Year award. Her
song, "Blue Tulips", was a hit with young and old alike. ( B)esides /
W)hat's more), she wrote that song herself, proving herself to be an
adept composer as well as singer.
#3-

_4. I don't recommend swimming there. It's an indoor pool, and ( b)esides
/ w)hat's more) it's not even heated.
#4-

_5. Carrots are wonderful. They're good for your eyes, and ( b)esides /
w)hat's more), they taste great!
#5-

_6. Jimmy spat out the carrot. It was bitter, and ( b)esides / w)hat's
more), it was rubbery.
#6-

_7. You should write her a letter. It's her birthday, and ( b)esides /
w)hat's more), she's turning "sweet sixteen".
#7-

_8. Let's walk into that restaurant. I want to use their phone and call
the police. There's a man behnind us who's been following us for the past
fifteen minutes. ( B)esides / W)hat's more) I could use a soup and
sandwich.
#8-

_9. I can highly recommend the pool we have here. It's an outdoor pool,
and ( b)esides / w)hat's more) it's heated.
#9-

_10. What a frightful storm! The wind is howling, and ( b)esides / w)hat's
more), there's vicious thunder and lightning.
#10-

_11. Mary is certain to win the Guitar-Vocalist of the Year award. Her
song, "Blue Tulips", was a hit with young and old alike. ( B)esides /
W)hat's more), her uncle is one of the judges.
#11-

_12. Carrots are fun to eat. They're sweet, and ( b)esides / w)hat's more
), they're crunchy.
#12-

_13. Jimmy ate the pie with gusto. It was baked just right, and ( b)esides
/ w)hat's more), it was his favorite flavor -- rhubarb.
#13-

_14. Don't go out! There's vicious thunder and lightning, and ( b)esides /
w)hat's more), you promised me you'd fix the chair.
#14-

_15. I usually don't enjoy swimming there. It's an indoor pool, and (
b)esides / w)hat's more) it's not even heated.
#15-

_16. You'd better watch out -- he's got a gun. And ( b)esides / w)hat's
more) he's not afraid to use it.
#16-

_17. Let's walk into that restaurant. I want to use their phone and call
the police. There's a man over there who's been following us for the past
fifteen minutes. ( B)esides / W)hat's more) I think he's got a gun.
#17-

_18. You should write her a letter. It's her birthday, and ( b)esides /
w)hat's more), she's probably wondering what you're up to.
#18-

Part III Impressions:

Before taking this survey, had you ever had any thoughts about what the
differences between the words in question might be? Explain.

In taking this survey, have you reached any conclusions about what the
differences between these words are? Explain.

Would you like to participate in another survey with different connectives?