“Yurok language”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The Yurok language (also Chillula, Mita, Pekwan, Rikwa, Sugon, Weitspek, Weitspekan) is an Algic language.^[1] It is the traditional language of the Yurok of Del Norte County and Humboldt County on the far north coast of California, most of whom now speak English. The last native speaker died in 2013.^[1] As of 2012, Yurok language classes were taught to high school students, and other revitalization efforts were expected to increase the population of speakers.^[2]

The standard reference on the Yurok language grammar is by R. H. Robins (1958).^[3]

Name

Concerning etymology of Yurok ({{sc|aka}} Weitspekan), this below is from Campbell (1997):

History

Decline of the language began during the California Gold Rush, due to the influx of new settlers and the diseases they brought with them. Native American boarding schools initiated by the United States government with the intent of incorporating the native populations of America into mainstream American society increased the rate of decline of the language.^[4]

Current status

The program to revive Yurok has been lauded as the most successful language revitalization program in California.^[5] As of 2014, there are six schools in Northern California that teach Yurok - 4 high schools and 2 elementary schools. Rick Jordan, principal of Eureka High School, one of the schools with a Yurok Language Program, remarks on the impact that schools can have on the vitality of a language, "A hundred years ago, it was our organizations that were beating the language out of folks, and now we're trying to re-instill it - a little piece of something that is much larger than us".^[6]

The last known native, active speaker of Yurok, Archie Thompson, died March 26, 2013. "He was also the last of about 20 elders who helped revitalize the language over the last few decades, after academics in the 1990s predicted it would be extinct by 2010. He made recordings of the language that were archived by UC Berkeley linguists and the tribe, spent hours helping to teach Yurok in community and school classrooms, and welcomed apprentice speakers to probe his knowledge."^[7]

Linguists at UC Berkeley began the Yurok Language Project in 2001. Professor Andrew Garrett and Dr. Juliette Blevins collaborated with tribal elders on a Yurok dictionary that has been hailed as a national model.^[5] The Yurok Language Project has gone much more in depth than just a printed lexicon, however. The dictionary is available online and fully searchable. It is also possible to search an audio dictionary - a repository of audio clips of words and short phrases. For a more in depth study, there is a database of compiled texts where words and phrases can be viewed as part of a larger context.^[8]

As of February 2013, there are over 300 basic Yurok speakers, 60 with intermediate skills, 37 who are advanced, and 17 who are considered conversationally fluent.^[5] As of 2014, nine people are certified to teach Yurok in schools. Since Yurok, like many other Native American languages, uses a master-apprentice system to train up speakers in the language, having even nine certified teachers would not be possible without a piece of legislation passed in 2009 in the state of California that allows indigenous tribes the power to appoint their own language teachers.^[6]

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Yurok has a anticipatory vowel harmony system where underlying non-high vowels /a/, /e/, and /ɔ/ are realized as [ɚ] if they precede an /ɚ/.^[12]

The glottalized approximants {{IPA|/ˀl ˀɻ ˀj ˀw/}} may be realized as creaky voice on the preceding vowel, a preceding glottal stop, or both. They are often devoiced when they occur at the end of a word.{{citation needed|date=February 2014}}

Yurok has front-, central-, and back-closing diphthongs. The second element of the diphthongs is considered a consonant or semivowel. This is because Yurok diphthongs are falling diphthongs and behave similarly to nasal and approximates following a vowel and preceding a pause or voiceless non-glottalized consonant.^[3]

All Yurok Syllables begin with a consonant and contain at least one vowel. Here are some examples of the different kinds of syllable structure:^[3]

V:V can only be {{IPA|/oːo/}} or {{IPA|/uːu/}} and is signaled by a change in pitch between the vowels.

Morphology

Yurok morphological processes include prefixation, infixtion, inflection, vowel harmony, ablaut, consonantal alternation,{{clarify|date=February 2014}} and reduplication.^[3]

Prefixation and infixation occur in nominals and verbals, and occasionally in other classes, although infixation occurs most frequently in verbals.

Vowel harmony occurs for prefixes, infixes, and inflections, depending on the vocalic and consonantal structure of the word stem. Internal vocalic alternation involves three alternating pairs: {{IPA|/e/~/i/}}, {{IPA|/e/~/iʔi/}}, {{IPA|/e/~/u/}}.

Reduplication occurs mostly on verb stems but occasionally for nouns and can connote repetition, plurality, etc. Reduplication occurs on the first syllable, and sometimes a part of the second syllable:

Classifications

Numerals and adjectives can be classified according to the noun grammatically associated with them.^[13]

Tense and aspect

Tense - Yurok has no way to differentiate tense through verbal inflection. Past, present and future may be inferred through both linguistic and nonlinguistic context.

Aspect - Aspect in Yurok is indicated by preverbal particles. These occur either directly or indirectly before a verb. These can combine with verbs and other particles to indicate time and many other aspects.

Some preverbal particles include: ho (past time); kic (past but with ongoing effects); wo (past after a negative, or in "unreal conditions"); ?ap (past with the implication of starting some action); etc.^[14]

Basic syntax

The most common form of sentence structure consists of a Nominal + Verbal. Indeed, most other, seemingly more complex sentence structures can be viewed as expanding on this fundamental type.^[15]

Sentences can also be composed of one or more verbals without nominals as explicit arguments.

The same is true for nominals and nominal groups, which can stand alone as complete sentences, following a similar pattern to the equational sentences already mentioned.

Complex sentences are formed along similar principles to these, but with expanded verbals or nominals, or verbals and/or nominals connected by coordinators.

Word order is sometimes used to distinguish between the categories of subject and object.

However, if the morphological inflections are sufficiently unambiguous, it is not necessary to maintain a strict word order.

In the sentences composed of a subject and a verb, the two are often interchangeable.

References

1. ^Campbell (1997:152)
2. ^Atherton (2010)
3. ^¹²³Robins, Robert H. 1958. [https://archive.org/details/rosettaproject_yur_book-1 The Yurok Language: Grammar, Texts, Lexicon]. University of California Publications in Linguistics 15.
4. ^{{Cite web| title = The Yurok Tribe Home Page| accessdate = 2014-05-07| url=http://www.yuroktribe.org/culture/culture.htm}}
5. ^¹²Romney, Lee. (2013, February 6). Revival of nearly extinct Yurok language is a success story. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 7, 2013
6. ^¹{{Cite news| last = Onishi| first = Norimitsu| title = In California, Saving a Language That Predates Spanish and English| work = New York Times| date = April 12, 2014| accessdate = 2014-04-15| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/us/in-california-saving-a-language-that-predates-spanish-and-english.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=1}}
7. ^¹²³{{Cite news| last = Romney, Lee| title = Archie Thompson dies at 93: Yurok elder kept tribal tongue alive| work = Los Angeles Times| accessdate = 2013-04-08| date = 2013-04-07| url = http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-archie-thompson-20130407,0,1929379.story}}
8. ^http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~yurok/web/search.php
9. ^{{cite web|title=Yurok Sounds|url=http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~yurok/web/sounds.php|website=Yurok Language Project|publisher=UC Berkeley|accessdate=7 January 2017}}
10. ^{{cite web|title=Yurok vowels|url=http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~yurok/web/vowels-2.php|website=Yurok Language Project|accessdate=7 January 2017}}
11. ^{{cite web|title=Yurok consonants|url=http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~yurok/web/consonants.php|website=Yurok Language Project|publisher=UC Berkeley|accessdate=7 January 2017}}
12. ^{{cite web|title=Yurok|url=http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/languages/yurok.php|website=Survey of California and Other Indian Languages|publisher=UC Berkeley|accessdate=7 January 2017}}
13. ^"Yurok" by R. H. Robins, Lingua. vol. 17
14. ^The Yurok Language by R. H. Robins
15. ^Robins, Robert H. 1958. The Yurok Language: Grammar, Texts, Lexicon. University of California Publications in Linguistics 15.