A grammar of Euchee (Yuchi)

569 Pages·2001·12.638 MB·English

by  Mary Sarah Linn

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Mary Sarah Linn
l' /
B.A., Wichita State University. 1985
M.A.. University of Kansas, 1993
Submitted to the Department of Linguistics and the
Faculty of the Graduzrte School of the University of
Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Date defended: -br G
MAY Z 0 2001
UMI Number: 3018513
UMI Microform 3018513
Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company.
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The Euchee language is an American Indian language isolate. It is the
language of the Euchee people, who originally lived in the North American
Southeast and now live in the state of Oklahoma. This is the first comprehensive
grammar of their language. It includes a description of the phonology, the
morphology. and the syntax. The data is presented so that it is immediately
accessible to linguists of any theoretical persuasion. The presentation should also
make the information accessible to lay readers, in particular to interested
members of the Euchee Tribe. It is written in the proposed Euchee orthography.
The data used for this grammar were gathered primarily through elicitation of
-
grammatical fonns and texts with native speakers.
Euchee has a large inventory of sounds. There are 38 consonants and I I
vowels. The consonants include a series of glottalized stops, fricatives, and
resonants. The vowels include nasal contrasts. The syllable structure is a fairly
rigid CV, but the phonology is distinguished by contraction of syllables. There
are two major dialects of Euchee today.
Euchee is largely a polysynthetic language. However, the morphemes are
not as bound as formerly thought. Instead, many affixes are independent
panicles which cliticize to their host in unstressed contexts. Euchee recognizes
four main parts of speech. the noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. However. the
formal criteria for ihese are difficult to establish. Euchee has basic SOV word
order and is head-marking, and so the morphology is largely made up of suffixes
and post-clitics. The exception is pronominal agreement. which are all prefixes
on noun and verbs. Particles, including postpositions, follow the head.
Euchee is a stative-active language. Verbs that are states (stative) are
distinguished from verb that are events (active). The pronominal agreement
reflects the semantic role of the core participants. State verb require a patient
pronominal as their sole participant. Event verbs require actor pronominal
prefixes as their sole participant, and an actor and patient pronominal for two-
place verbs. Adding participants or reducing the number of participants is shown
by valence prefixes on the verb. Since panicipant information is encoded on the
verb, the nouns may be freely dropped in discourse. Euchee also has a rich
mood system, where mood panicles are highly combinatorial for subtle nuances
in meaning.
This dissertation includes two texts. One is an example of formal,
ceremonial speech. The other is a short sermon ending in a prayer. There is
also a small collection of proverbs.
K'asosoci Yuciha hknrj hihlowii. Yuciha hinb kele hbfede,
nade h6w~lek hehe 'abe. Y uciha 'ahe hega 'ya, k'asosoci ded hWow8.
I dedicate this book to the Euchee peopie, to the Euchee who are here
now, and those who have gone before. To the Euchee who will come
here, I give this book to you as well.
This dissertation would not have been possible without the financial and
technical support from many people and institutions. I would like to thank Dr. T.
Dale Nicklas for his support of student field linguists at KU and his help with
computer programs. Grants from Phillips Fund of the American Philosophical
Society, The California American Indian Languages Fund, and Yale University's
Endangered Language Fund provided me with the much-needed equipment and
travel support. The Yuchi Class of Sapulpa, through a cultural grant from the
United Methodist Church, helped finance many of my trips from Lawrence to
their classes. The University of Kansas Summer Fellowship, the Applied English
Center, and particularly the Department of Linguistics have all provided me with
support. My last year of fieldwork was fully funded through a National Science
Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (NSF 98-10886). I would
like to thank the Center for Research, Inc. (CRINC)a t the University of Kansas
for their help in writing and administering my NSF grant. Finally. this
dissertation is under the patronage of the International Council for Philosophy
and Humanistic S!udies, UNESCO, United Nations. I commend all of these
institutions for their suppon of field linguists and maintenance of endangered
languages.
As in all creations, this dissertation did not occur in a void. Many
linguists and anthropologists working on American Indian languages have helped
me over the years, and I owe them much for their insights and direction. In
particular, I thank Lewis Ballard, Marcellino Berardo, Jack Martin, Margaret
Mauldin, Ken Miner, Marianne Mithun, Pamela Munro, Dale Nicklas. Giulia
Oliverio, Robert Rankin, Keren Rice, David Rood, William Sturtevant, and David
Skeeter. I wish to especially thank Jason Baird Jackson, for being such a
wonderful colleague in the field, for being such a staunch supporter of my work,