Basic Yurok grammar

76 Pages·1.956 MB·English

by  Garrett Andrew.

Basic Yurok grammar
Andrew Garrett
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Berkeley
November 2010
Edition1.1printedon16November2010
BasicYurokgrammar|November2010
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Definitionsandsymbols 2
2.1 Grammaticaltermsandsymbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 ClassicalandModernYurok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.3 Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 Writingandpronunciation 4
3.1 Basicintroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2 DifferencesfromtheYurokAlphabet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.3 Pronunciationrules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.4 Twentiethcenturypronunciationchanges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4 SevendifferencesbetweenEnglishandYurok 11
4.1 ConsonantsnotfoundinEnglish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2 Thevowelsaando . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.3 Longvowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.4 Glottalstop(’)andhaftervowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.5 Glottalizedstops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.6 Word-finalkw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.7 Stresspatterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5 Wordclasses 15
5.1 Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.2 Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.3 Nouns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.4 Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.5 Interjections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.6 Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6 Nouns 18
6.1 Pluralnouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6.2 Possessednouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6.3 Dependentandindependentnouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7 Articles 23
7.1 Thearticleskueandk’ee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.2 Articlesandpossessives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
8 Formingverbs 25
8.1 Non-inflectedverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
8.2 Singularverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
8.3 Plurals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
8.4 Tableofverbinflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
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BasicYurokgrammar|November2010
9 Subjunctiveverbs 32
9.1 Basicpatterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
9.2 Usingsubjunctives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
10 Expressing“be”,“have”,andrelatedmeanings 34
10.1 Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
10.2 Having . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
11 Timereference 37
11.1 Preverbsofpasttime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
11.2 Preverbsofpresenttime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
11.3 Preverbsoffuturetime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
11.4 Preverbcombinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
12 Negation 46
12.1 Emphaticandordinarynegation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
12.2 Negationandtimereference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
13 Associatedmotion 52
13.1 Undirectedmotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
13.2 Directedmotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
14 Questions 56
14.1 Yes–noquestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
14.2 Contentquestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
15 Commands,requests,andexhortations 62
15.1 Commandsandrequests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
15.2 Exhortations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
16 Basicwordorder 64
16.1 Generalpatterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
16.2 Nounsandverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
17 Numeralsandcolorterms 66
17.1 Numerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
17.2 Colorterms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
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BasicYurokgrammar|November2010
List of Tables
1 Speakersandsourcescited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 Yurokvowelphonemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3 Yurokconsonantphonemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4 Shortandlongvowelpairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5 Glottalstop(’)andhaftervowels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6 Glottalizedandnon-glottalizedconsonantpairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
7 Word-finalkwandk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
8 Stressedvowelsafterclosedsyllables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
9 Nounswithspecialpluralforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
10 Nounswithpossessiveprefixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
11 Possessiveprefixesandnounsbeginningwithh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
12 Third-personpossessiveprefixes:TheKMPWrule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
13 Dependentkinshipterms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
14 Independentkinshipterms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
15 Dependentbodypartterms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
16 Twopossessednounpatterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
17 SomecommonYuroknon-inflectedverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
18 Imperativesofverbsin-onemek’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
19 Irregularcollectiveplurals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
20 Singularandpluralpatternsfore-class,o-class,andoo-classverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
21 Basicsubjunctivesingularforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
22 Basicpreverbsoftimereference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
23 Somenumeralsfrom1to10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
24 Classificatorycolorterms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
25 Colortermswithtwoforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
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BasicYurokgrammar|November2010
List of Figures
1 Yurokbaskets
:A.L.Kroeber(PhoebeHearstMuseumofAnthropology,15–1335) . . . . . . . . . 16
2 RobertSpottin1907
:A.L.Kroeber(PhoebeHearstMuseumofAnthropology,15–3838) . . . . . . . . . 23
3 ThreehousesinWahsek
:A.L.Kroeber(PhoebeHearstMuseumofAnthropology,15–1421) . . . . . . . . . 35
4 Fishnetsdrying
:RuthRoberts(HumboldtStateUniversity
Library,RobertsPhotographCollection,RX17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
5 AawokwAileenFigueroa
:AndrewGarrett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6 DomingoofWeitchpec
:A.L.Kroeber(PhoebeHearstMuseumofAnthropology,15–2713) . . . . . . . . . 52
7 AliceSpottin1907
:A.L.Kroeber(PhoebeHearstMuseumofAnthropology,15–3832) . . . . . . . . . 56
8 YurokImmersionCamp,2010
:NinaSurbaugh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
9 Yuroklanguageandcultureteachers
:LeoCanez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
10 FlorenceShaughnessy
:DianaHeberger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
11 AawokwGeorgianaTrull
:AndrewGarrett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
BasketdesignillustrationsarereproducedfromA.L.Kroeber,BasketdesignsoftheIndiansofnorthwestern
California(1905).
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BasicYurokgrammarx1|November2010
1 Introduction
ThisbookletprovidesinformationaboutbasicgrammaticalpatternsintheYuroklanguage.Thepatterns
coveredareidentifiedbytheYurokTribeaselementsof“basic”Yurokforteachercertificationpurposes.
Anyoneiswelcometousethis,butteachersandfutureteachersaretheintendedaudience.Pleasekeep
in mind that languages are best learned by speaking and listening, not by reading; this is meant as a
supplementtothespokenlanguage.
Among the many topics  covered here are bipersonal verbs, attributive verbs, locative nouns, and
othermoreelaboratesentencepatterns.Theseandotherimportantareasofgrammarwillbeincluded
inintermediateandadvanceddescriptionsofYurokgrammar.Advancedstudentsmaywishtoconsult
R.H.Robins’sTheYuroklanguage:Grammar,texts,lexicon(1958),writteninarathertechnicalstylefor
professionallinguists,aswellasthepublicationsofYurokLanguageProjectparticipantsatUCBerkeley.
Thesepublicationsarelistedonourwebsite:http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/(cid:24)yurok.
Thankstomanypeople:
(cid:15) Participants in the Yurok Language Institute and many grammar workshops over several years
havemadehelpfulcommentsandsuggestionsongrammarandhandouts;theparticipantsinthe
2010 Yurok Language Institute gave valuable feedback on a draft of this booklet. The language
programstaff—JamesGensawSr.,CaroleLewis,BarbaraMcQuillen,andKathleenVigil,aswell
astheircolleagues,helpers,andinterns—aregoodfriendsandinspiringteachers.
(cid:15) MycolleagueJulietteBlevinsandmystudentsLisaConathan,JamesMartin,AlysounQuinby,and
Tess Wood, among many other Berkeley students, have greatly improved my understanding of
Yurokgrammar.
(cid:15) WewouldnotknowwhatweknowaboutYurokwithoutthepatientworkofmanygenerationsof
fluentspeakerswhoneverstoppedteachingtheirlanguage.Ipersonallyhaveworkedwithaawokw
AileenFigueroa,aawokwJimmieJames,aawokwGlennMoore,Sr.,aawokwGeorgianaTrull,and
ArchieThompson,butIhavealsospentcountlesshourslisteningto,andreadingtranscriptsof,
the voices of Florence Shaughnessy, Alice Spott, Robert Spott, and many other elders of earlier
generations.Allofthemhavegenerouslysharedwhattheyknowsothattheirlanguagecanendure
withitspeople.
Ifyouhavequestionsorsuggestionsaboutthisbooklet,orifyoufinderrorsinit,pleasedon’thesitateto
[e-mail]ssisthefollowing:
AndrewGarrett
DepartmentofLinguistics
UniversityofCalifornia
1203DwinelleHall
BerkeleyCA94720-2650
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BasicYurokgrammarx2|November2010
2 Definitions and symbols
2.1 Grammaticaltermsandsymbols
Youdonotneedtoknowspecialterminologytospeakalanguagefluently.Yurokchildrenlearnedtheir
languageperfectly,andeldershavespokenmasterfullyandsubtlyinthelanguage,forcenturieswithout
anyhelpfromlinguists.Butlinguisticterminologyissometimeshelpfulintalkingaboutthestructure
ofalanguage,anddescribinghowalanguageisused.Thefollowingtermswillcomeupfrequently:
Singularandplural. Asingularnounorverbreferstoonepersonorthing;apluralnounorverbrefers
tomorethanone.(Onthetermsandseex5.)
Subjectandobject. Almost every sentence has a subject: the person or thing that does the action or
is in the state expressed by the sentence. In English, for example, that rock is the subject of the
sentences Yesterday that rock fell on my car and That rock was big. Some sentences also have an
object:thepersonorthingaffectedortargetedbytheaction.So,inEnglish,thatrockistheobject
ofthesentencesIsawthatrockandIthrewthatrock.InYurok,itiscommonforsubjectsandobjects
tobeunderstoodbutnotactuallyexpressedinsentences;forexample,inTo’keekemnewochek’
“Iwillseeyouagain”,thesubject(“I”)andobject(“you”)areunderstood.
1st,2nd,3rdperson. Verbformsaresaidtobefirst-,second-,orthird-personforms:1stpersonmeans
thatthesubjectis“I”or“we”;2ndpersonmeansthatthesubjectis“you”(singularorplural);and
3rdpersonmeansthatthesubjectis“he”,“she”,“it”,or“they”.
Prefixandsuffix. Prefixesandsuffixesarepiecesoflongerwords.Aprefixisaddedtothebeginningof
aword(likeEnglishun-inunhappy),whileasuffixisaddedtotheendofaword(likeEnglish-ness
inhappiness).
Twospecialsymbolsareoccasionallyused.Adaggerorobelisk(y)marksphrasesorsentencesthatare
impossible in a language (unacceptable to fluent speakers). For example, in English yMan the old is is
impossible;inYurokyoucannotsayyKeechsaawelek’ochkaa.Anasterisk(*)beforeawordorphrase
marksYurokexpressionsthatarealmostcertainlypossible,butthatdonothappentobedocumented
inrecordingsofspeakers.
2.2 ClassicalandModernYurok
Alllanguageschangeallthetime;Yurokisnoexception.Itisoccasionallyhelpfultodistinguishtheusage
patternsoftwosetsofYurokspeakersatdifferenttimes:
ClassicalYurok. This term will refer to the usage of Yurok speakers recorded in the first half or two
thirdsofthe20thcentury,thosebornbeforeabout1900–1910.
ModernYurok. This term will refer to the usage of Yurok speakers recorded late in the 20th century
andinthe21stcentury,thosebornafterabout1900–1910.
Itisimportanttostressthatthedifferencesovertimearerealbutverysmall,andthatthedescription
of both periods is based on the usage of fluent first-language speakers who grew up speaking Yurok.
Notealsothatthedatesgivenaresomewhatarbitrary;ineveryperiodofeverylanguage,therearesome
speakerswhospeakinanolderstyleandotherspeakerswhospeakinanewerstyle.Thepointhereis
thatitisoccasionallyhelpfultodistinguishtheolderandnewerstylesusedbyfluentspeakers.
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BasicYurokgrammarx2|November2010
2.3 Abbreviations
Nearly all the example sentences cited in this booklet are quoted from first-language Yurok speakers,
recorded sometime during the long period of Yurok language documentation from the 1880s to the
presentday.Whereverpossible,thespeakerandyeararenotedaswellasthesourceofthequotation.1
CitationsusetheabbreviationsinTable1below.2

AF AileenFigueroa JJ JimmieJames
AS AliceSpott LB LowanaBrantner
AT ArchieThompson LBy LameBilly
BF BessieFleischman LT LucyThompson
DW DomingoofWeitchpec MM MaryMarshall
FD FrankDouglas MR MinnieReed
FS FlorenceShaughnessy RS RobertSpott
GM GlennMoore,Sr. VM VioletMoore
GT GeorgianaTrull

AG recordingsbyAndrewGarrett LC recordingsbyLeoCanez
ALK notesandrecordingsbyA.L.Kroeber MRo recordingsbyMargoRobbins
AQ recordingsbyAlysounQuinby PJS recordingsbyP.J.Shinahan
ES notesbyEdwardSapir PP recordingsandnotesbyPaulProulx
GR notesbyGladysReichard RHR recordingsandnotesbyR.H.Robins
JB recordingsbyJulietteBlevins WB recordingsandnotesbyWilliamBright
JC notesbyJeremiahCurtin YL R.H.Robins,TheYuroklanguage(1958)
JP recordingsbyJeanPerry YLCB Yuroklanguageconversationbook(2003)
Table1:Speakersandsourcescited
Ofcourse,manyotherYurokspeakershaveworkedonlanguagedocumentationovertheyears;thislist
includesonlythosewhosesentenceshappentobequotedhere.
1Becausesomespeakerswererecordedanonymously,thisisnotalwayspossible.
2MostofthesourceslistedinTable1consistofunpublishednotesorrecordings.Theseunpublishedmaterialsaremostly
heldinthefollowingarchives:theAmericanPhilosophicalSocietyinPhiladelphia;theNationalAnthropologicalArchivesin
Washington,D.C.;and,attheUniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley,theBerkeleyLanguageCenter,theSurveyofCaliforniaand
OtherIndianLanguages,theBancroftLibrary,andthePhoebeHearstMuseumofAnthropology.
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