Stress in Yucatec Maya
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Emily Kidder
Abstract
Yucatec Maya (YM) is an indigenous language of Mexico which displays phonemic tonal distinctions and phonemic vowel length. These features are primarily associated with the phonetic cues of pitch and duration, which are also considered the primary correlates of stress in language. Though scholars have noted the existence of stress or accent since it was first documented centuries ago, no detailed account of stress as either a separate or related entity to tone or length has been made. In this paper, I analyze the phonetic changes evident in a series of loan words into YM from Spanish, a language without tone or length distinctions, found in elicited and conversational data as an initial step in diagnosing stress patterns in YM.
Abstract
Yucatec Maya (YM) is an indigenous language of Mexico which displays phonemic tonal distinctions and phonemic vowel length. These features are primarily associated with the phonetic cues of pitch and duration, which are also considered the primary correlates of stress in language. Though scholars have noted the existence of stress or accent since it was first documented centuries ago, no detailed account of stress as either a separate or related entity to tone or length has been made. In this paper, I analyze the phonetic changes evident in a series of loan words into YM from Spanish, a language without tone or length distinctions, found in elicited and conversational data as an initial step in diagnosing stress patterns in YM.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Preface xi
- Introduction xxi
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Section 1. Approaches to the study of the indigenous languages of the Americas
- The diachrony of Ute case-marking 3
- Language contact as an inhibitor of sound change 29
- Stress in Yucatec Maya 53
- The phonetic correlates of Southern Ute stress 85
- Revisiting Tohono O’odham high vowels 107
- Head-marking inflection and the architecture of grammatical theory 133
- A case-study in grass roots development of web resources for language workers 175
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Section 2. Approaches to the study of voices and ideologies
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Language contact, shift, and endangerment – implications for policy
- Spanish in contact with indigenous tongues 203
- How can a language with 7 million speakers be endangered? 229
- A documentary ethnography of a Blackfoot language course 257
- Syncretic speech, linguistic ideology, and intertextuality 291
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Racism in discourse – analyses of practice
- Narrative discriminations in Central California’s indigenous narrative traditions 321
- The voice of (White) reason 339
- Double-voicing in the everyday language of Brazilian black activism 365
- Uptake (un)limited 389
- The silken cord 415
- Afterword 425
- Language index 431
- Subject index 433
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Preface xi
- Introduction xxi
-
Section 1. Approaches to the study of the indigenous languages of the Americas
- The diachrony of Ute case-marking 3
- Language contact as an inhibitor of sound change 29
- Stress in Yucatec Maya 53
- The phonetic correlates of Southern Ute stress 85
- Revisiting Tohono O’odham high vowels 107
- Head-marking inflection and the architecture of grammatical theory 133
- A case-study in grass roots development of web resources for language workers 175
-
Section 2. Approaches to the study of voices and ideologies
-
Language contact, shift, and endangerment – implications for policy
- Spanish in contact with indigenous tongues 203
- How can a language with 7 million speakers be endangered? 229
- A documentary ethnography of a Blackfoot language course 257
- Syncretic speech, linguistic ideology, and intertextuality 291
-
Racism in discourse – analyses of practice
- Narrative discriminations in Central California’s indigenous narrative traditions 321
- The voice of (White) reason 339
- Double-voicing in the everyday language of Brazilian black activism 365
- Uptake (un)limited 389
- The silken cord 415
- Afterword 425
- Language index 431
- Subject index 433
