Investigating Allomorphy in a Coordinating Conjunction: A Corpus Study of Hiaki (Yaqui) Into(k(o))

Location

King Building 327

Document Type

Presentation

Start Date

4-28-2017 3:00 PM

End Date

4-28-2017 4:20 PM

Abstract

Hiaki (Yaqui) is an endangered Uto-Aztecan language spoken in Sonora, Mexico and Arizona, USA. In Hiaki, the coordinating conjunction ‘and’ appears in three iterations: into, intok, and intoko. The presence of such variation often suggests a form of allomorphy, with each morpheme appearing in a predictable environment as in the case of English ‘a’ and ‘an’ variation (the former consistently precedes consonant-initial words; the latter, vowel-initial words). A cursory look at into(k(o)) suggests that a similar process is at play here, with scholars offering a variety of interpretations for into(k(o)) variation. To determine the motivating factors underlying into(k(o)) distribution, we subjected a corpus of Hiaki data to a battery of tests. We examined phonological factors, syntactic constraints, and semantic patterns. Ultimately, this barrage of tests failed to yield a dependable motivation for into(k(o)) variation. This finding suggests that into(k(o)) is in free variation.

Keywords:

linguistics, Hiaki, coordinator, allomorphy, Oberlin College Linguistics Lab

Notes

Session II, Panel 12 - Switching | Discourse
Moderator: Jason Haugen, Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Major

Olivia Hay, Anthropology
Mattea Scheiber Koon, English

Advisor(s)

Olivia Hay: Jason Haugen, Anthropology

Mattea Scheiber Koon: Jason Haugen, Anthropology; Gillian Johns, English

Project Mentor(s)

Jason Haugen, Anthropology

April 2017

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Apr 28th, 3:00 PM Apr 28th, 4:20 PM

Investigating Allomorphy in a Coordinating Conjunction: A Corpus Study of Hiaki (Yaqui) Into(k(o))

King Building 327

Hiaki (Yaqui) is an endangered Uto-Aztecan language spoken in Sonora, Mexico and Arizona, USA. In Hiaki, the coordinating conjunction ‘and’ appears in three iterations: into, intok, and intoko. The presence of such variation often suggests a form of allomorphy, with each morpheme appearing in a predictable environment as in the case of English ‘a’ and ‘an’ variation (the former consistently precedes consonant-initial words; the latter, vowel-initial words). A cursory look at into(k(o)) suggests that a similar process is at play here, with scholars offering a variety of interpretations for into(k(o)) variation. To determine the motivating factors underlying into(k(o)) distribution, we subjected a corpus of Hiaki data to a battery of tests. We examined phonological factors, syntactic constraints, and semantic patterns. Ultimately, this barrage of tests failed to yield a dependable motivation for into(k(o)) variation. This finding suggests that into(k(o)) is in free variation.