Research Centre for Linguistic Typology

http://search.latrobe.edu.au/search/index.cgi?query=fortescue&x=33&y=13&collection=Latrobe

Distinguished Fellow Profile
Professor Michael Fortescue




Group Photo of 2001 Workshop Participants

From Left to Right:

Back Row:
Prof Randy LaPolla, Dr Tim Curnow, Connie Dickinson, Prof Ago Künnap, Dr Elena Maslova,
Prof. Lars Johanson, Prof Michael Fortescue, Dr Willem J. De Reuse, Dr Vjacheslav Chirikba
Middle Row:
Pilar Valenzuela, Prof. Brian Joseph, Prof. Sally McLendon, Prof. Victor Friedman
Front Row:
Ms Abby Chin, Prof Sasha Aikhenvald, Prof Bob Dixon

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/Workshops/2001/2001photopage.htm

The Department of General and Applied Linguistics
 University of Copenhagen
Njalsgade 80, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark.
Phone: +45 353 286 40, Fax: +45 353 286 35








IAAS -- Institut for Almen og Anvendt Sprogvidenskab -- IAAS

Michael Fortescue
Email: mf@cphling.dk
Office: 5.1.15
Direct Phone: (+45) 353 286 67
Department of Eskimology
University of Copenhagen
Strandgade 100H
1401 Copenhagen K
Denmark

Present research: Preparation of the 2nd edition of the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary 
Since the appearance of the first edition of the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary (see 1994b above), much new lexical material has come to light that needs to be integrated into the projected second edition of this large dictionary (1st edition: 630pp.). This includes new data on 'Naukanski' Yupik from the Asian side of Bering Strait, gathered from informants and field workers by the co-editors at Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, which is currently being organized into an independent dictionary of that lexically poorly represented variety of 'Siberian' Eskimo.   
From Canada there is new data from Arctic Quebec (partly based on the native Inuktitut-Inuktitut dictionary of Taamusi Qumaq), and material for a comprehensive dictionary of the western Canadian dialects by Duncan Pryde. This was left in the hands of the Institute of Eskimology after the author's recent death specifically for the purpose of integrating the hitherto unpublished data there into the CED (there was only limited access to part of it for the first edition). It is in the form of several thousand library cards with hand-written - but reliable - entries for a wide range of Canadian Inuit dialects and sub-dialects. This is a particularly welcome addition, since the western Canadian dialects have been relatively under-documented until recently and since they are much more conservative than the easterly Inuit dialects they are important for the comparative endeavour: individual forms from Pryde's material have confirmed a number of suspected cognates and caused the reformulation of others. There is also new East Greenlandic data to be integrated.   
Besides filling the lacunae in the dictionary for these languages/dialects, there are numerous adjustments, additions and corrections to the dictionary that need to be made at this point (including the expansion of the indexes). In the process nearly two hundred new proto-Eskimo (or proto-Inuit or proto-Yupik) cognate sets have already been unearthed or separated out. The wide range of semantic change from Proto-Eskimo to the modern dialects is also intended as a resource for the general study of language change and is not only aimed at specialists. The format is devised to make reference easy also for 'ordinary' speakers of these languages interested in the historical sources of the words they use. In principle the dictionary can be used to check the etymology of - for example - any modern West Greenlandic word that is also found in the related languages of North America; with the new additions the coverage and detail will be significantly enhanced.

eskimo words for snow derby

From: sderby@crick.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu (Stuart P. Derby) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban Subject: Eskimo words for Snow Date: 2 Nov 1994 22:54:58 GMT
Discussion
Does "Eskimo" REALLY have some megaboss number of words for snow? Well that depends on what "megaboss" means, of course. And it also depends on what language you decide is "Eskimo". The dialects spoken by coastal native peoples from the east of Siberia to Greenland are classed as Eskimo, but many scholars divide them into two languages, Yupik and Inuit, with some scholars further sub-dividing these dialects. Inuit (also called Inupik) is the best candidate from a folkloric point of view, being spoken most widely, from Greenland to northeastern Alaska, having been written earlier (1742), having about twice as many speakers, and having had longer and greater contact with "Western Civilization". (Greenlandic Inuit contains 4 words borrowed from medieval Norse.[1])
Another complication to the issue is simply the notion of "word". Languages vary quite drastically in how the base units of meaning (morphemes) are combined into words, if they're combined at all, and our common notion of "word" needs clarifying. For example, in English, are "book" and "books" two SEPARATE words? I would guess that most of us would think not. (What about "book", "handbook", "guidebook", "workbook"?) However, many languages are "isolating", wherein one word corresponds to one element of the situation, and would use two separate words to say "books". A speaker of such a language might well regard "book" and "books" as two separate words. The Eskimo languages are at the other extreme, and are the prototypical example of a polysynthetic language[2], wherein one word contains several elements of the situation. This allows very complex ideas to be expressed in one word, e.g. 'tikitqaarminaitnigaa' "he(1) said that he(2) would not be able to arrive first"[1]. Thus "my snow", "your snow", etc., would each be one word in Inuit, a stem form with a possessive affix. The Eskimo languages use derived words extensively, and there are fewer than 2,000 base stems in the West Greenlandic dialect[1] With all that said, I'll just present some word lists and let everyone come up with their own opinion...
10 words for ice and snow from Labradoran Inuit[3]
This word list is extracted from an Eskimo to English "dictionary" and is definitely not comprehensive. This was the worst such compilation I have ever worked with; among other problems, the compilers' attempts to alphabetize things, even short indices, failed miserably (e.g. "snow" before "seasons"). Consider also this from the preface:
Be it noticed beforehand that the Eskimo are not agreed in the use of their language with reference to many words -- not only that in the South here and there other expressions are used, and also that to many a word another meaning is given than in the North, but even in one and the same place not infrequently such differences are found. And frequently the female sex has again its peculiar expressions. With regard to the latter, not much notice has been taken in composing this dictionary, because the men often only laugh about them; ...

1. 'ice' sikko
2. 'bare ice' tingenek
3. 'snow (in general)' aput
4. 'snow (like salt)' pukak
5. 'soft deep snow' mauja
6. 'snowdrift' tipvigut
7. 'soft snow' massak
8. 'watery snow' mangokpok
9. 'snow filled with water' massalerauvok
10. 'soft snow' akkilokipok

1. 'sea-ice' siku (in plural = drift ice)
2. 'pack-ice/large expanses of ice in motion' sikursuit, pl. (compacted drift ice/ice field = sikut iqimaniri)
3. 'new ice' sikuliaq/sikurlaaq (solid ice cover = nutaaq.)
4. 'thin ice' sikuaq (in plural = thin ice floes)
5. 'rotten (melting) ice floe' sikurluk
6. 'iceberg' iluliaq (ilulisap itsirnga = part of iceberg below waterline)
7. '(piece of) fresh-water ice' nilak
8. 'lumps of ice stranded on the beach' issinnirit, pl.
9. 'glacier' (also ice forming on objects) sirmiq (sirmirsuaq = Inland Ice)
10. 'snow blown in (e.g. doorway)' sullarniq
11. 'rime/hoar-frost' qaqurnak/kanirniq/kaniq
12. 'frost (on inner surface of e.g. window)' iluq
13. 'icy mist' pujurak/pujuq kanirnartuq
14. 'hail' nataqqurnat
15. 'snow (on ground)' aput (aput sisurtuq = avalanche)
16. 'slush (on ground)' aput masannartuq
17. 'snow in air/falling' qaniit (qanik = snowflake)
18. 'air thick with snow' nittaalaq (nittaallat, pl. = snowflakes; nittaalaq nalliuttiqattaartuq = flurries)
19. 'hard grains of snow' nittaalaaqqat, pl.
20. 'feathery clumps of falling snow' qanipalaat
21. 'new fallen snow' apirlaat
22. 'snow crust' pukak
23. 'snowy weather' qannirsuq/nittaatsuq
24. 'snowstorm' pirsuq/pirsirsursuaq
25. 'large ice floe' iluitsuq
26. 'snowdrift' apusiniq
27. 'ice floe' puttaaq
28. 'hummocked ice/pressure ridges in pack ice' maniillat/ingunirit, pl.
29. 'drifting lump of ice' kassuq (dirty lump of glacier-calved ice = anarluk)
30. 'ice-foot (left adhering to shore)' qaannuq
31. 'icicle' kusugaq
32. 'opening in sea ice imarnirsaq/ammaniq (open water amidst ice = imaviaq)
33. 'lead (navigable fissure) in sea ice' quppaq
34. 'rotten snow/slush on sea' qinuq
35. 'wet snow falling' imalik
36. 'rotten ice with streams forming' aakkarniq
37. 'snow patch (on mountain, etc.)' aputitaq
38. 'wet snow on top of ice' putsinniq/puvvinniq
39. 'smooth stretch of ice' manirak (stretch of snow-free ice = quasaliaq)
40. 'lump of old ice frozen into new ice' tuaq
41. 'new ice formed in crack in old ice' nutarniq
42. 'bits of floating' naggutit, pl.
43. 'hard snow' mangiggal/mangikaajaaq
44. 'small ice floe (not large enough to stand on)' masaaraq
45. 'ice swelling over partially frozen river, etc. from water seeping up to the surface' siirsinniq
46. 'piled-up ice-floes frozen together' tiggunnirit
47. 'mountain peak sticking up through inland ice' nunataq
48. 'calved ice (from end of glacier)' uukkarnit
49. 'edge of the (sea) ice' sinaaq

Etudes Inuit Studies

NYHEDER FRA DET GRØNLANDSKE HUS I ÅRHUS

På denne side kan du læse det redaktionelle indhold af vores nyhedsbrev "Qivi".
Ønsker du at modtage nyhedsbrevet med posten bedes du rette henvendelse til en 
af vores kultur- og informationsmedarbejdere.
Denne side er bygget op således, at det seneste nummer af nyhedsbrevet ligger først, hvorefter op til tre tidligere numre ligger i omvendt rækkefølge med de nyeste først.
 
...

Qivi

Nyhedsbrev fra Det Grønlandske Hus i Århus Nr. 1 Januar 2001    3. årgangµ

Oqaasileriffeeraq ? sproghjørnet
Den forsvundne lampe og andre ord.
Det almindelige, grønlandske ord for en lampe er egentlig et sært ord. Qulleq betyder i dag en lampe, uanset om det er en elektrisk lampe, en petroleumslampe, eller en gammeldags tranlampe. Det sære ved ordet er, at det bogstavelig talt betyder "den øverste". Det er sammensat af stammen *qut- der betyder "oppe" (jf. qummut, opad, qutsinneq, den der er øverst, qulaa, ovenpå)  og tilhænget ?leq der betyder "den, der er mest i den retning". Jf. avalleq, den yderste, kujalleq, den sydligste, ilorleq, den inderste).
Der er en god og praktisk forklaring på, at en lampe på grønlandsk kaldes "den øverste". I de gamle sten- og tørvehuse i Grønland, og i de canadiske snehytter havde man et system med ikke mindre end tre slags lamper. En lampe nede på gulvet, tæt ved det hul, hvor man kravlede ind i huset fra husgangen. Denne lille lampe blev kaldt alleq, "den nederste". En stor lampe, der stod oppe på en forhøjning ved briksen, blev brugt til både at varme huset og koge mad over. Denne lampe kaldes qulleq, "den øverste", og det er dette ord, der er bevaret. Den tredje lampe blev kaldt kilulleq, "den inderste". Denne lille lampe stod i en niche i væggen ved fodenden af briksen (kilu), så kvinder, der sad på briksen og syede, også kunne få lys bagfra. 
Men det virker som om der mangler et ord for selve begrebet en lampe. Findes der et eskimoisk ord, der betyder lampe, uanset hvilken størrelse og hvor den er placeret i huset? Ja, vi skal som altid til Det Store Moderland Alaska for at få en forklaring. I bygderne på Seward Halvøen, og i landsbyerne langs Kotzebue Sound og op langs de mægtige floder Kobuk og Noatak hedder en lampe den dag i dag naneq. 
Da grønlændernes forfædre, Thulefolket, for ca. 800 år siden vandrede mod øst og bemægtigede sig hele den arktiske kyst fra Alaska over Canada til Grønland, havde de utvivlsomt ordet naneq med i deres sproglige bagage. Men af en eller anden grund forsvandt ordet naneq ud af sproget, og man brugte kun tilføjelsen qulleq, den øverste, alleq, den nederste, kilulleq, den inderste som betegnelse for de forskellige slags lamper. 
Men lampe-ordet naneq sneg sig alligevel med og eksisterer også i det moderne sprog. I østgrønlandsk hedder en lampepind naneriit. Det er den pind, man bruger til at passe vægen i en tranlampe med. Pinden blev også brugt som en lille prås, en fidibus, en lille fakkel til at tænde andre lamper med, eller til at tænde en pibe tobak. Derfor er det ikke så mærkeligt, at et stearinlys på vestgrønlandsk i dag hedder naneruut. Dette kan være det oprindelige ord for lampepind, som så er blevet brugt alene som betegnelse for et stearinlys. Mens lampepinden har fået nyt navn; taqqissuut.

* * *  Thulefolkene kogte ofte deres mad i en gryde af fedtsten, der blev hængt op over lampen med snore i hvert hjørne af gryden. En gryde kaldes i dag i Vestgrønland for iga. Men heller ikke her er dette det oprindelige ord. Den oprindelige betydning af iga er ikke en gryde, men det lille køkkenrum, man sommetider byggede i husgangen, så det kun var husmoderen, der skulle døje med røgen og osen fra kogelampe eller bål. I moderne vestgrønlandsk hedder et sådant lille køkkenrum igaleq. 

I Østgrønland hedder en gryde uutsit, og allerede i Canada møder vi ordet ukkusik for en gryde, og dette ord bruges i dag hele vejen vestover til Alaska, hvor udtalen er utkusik. Men ikke i Vestgrønland, hvor ukkusik jo er blevet erstattet med iga. 
Og alligevel kan vi finde gryde-ordet ukkusik som en blind passager i vestgrønlandsk, nemlig i ordet ukkusissaq, der betyder "fedtsten", men er sammensat af ukkusik+ssaq = materiale til en gryde. I Thule har de deres helt egen udtale af ukkusissaq, nemlig ukkuhikhaq, men det er det sædvanlige med folk i Thule, der siger -h-, hvor almindelige mennesker siger -s-.
Disse ord for lampe og gryde er typiske eksempler på, at Thulefolket ved udvandringen i Alaska omkring år 1200 startede med et fælles sprog, som vi i dag kalder inupik, i modsætning til de helt anderledes eskimoiske sprog yupik i det sydlige Alaska  og det østligste Sibirien, og aleutisk på de Aleutiske Øer. 
Canada til Grønland medførte ændringer i udtale, ordforråd og grammatik. Undervejs mødte Thulefolket så forskellige økosystemer, at både deres teknik og deres sociale kultur måtte tilpasses de nye forhold, og det kan ikke undgå at give sig til kende også i sproget. 
Nogle mennesker har søgt at forklare de nuværende forskelle mellem dialekterne i inupik-sproget ved at påstå, at andre sprog har blandet sig med inupik under vandringen mod øst. Fx at østgrønlandsk er så forskelligt fra vestgrønlandsk, fordi østgrønlandsk skulle indeholde elementer af de gamle Dorset-folks sprog. Det er en spændende tanke, men den holder ikke.
Som vi har set i ovenstående eksempler, og som masser af andre eksempler kan vise, er det de samme gamle ordstammer, der bruges overalt i inupik, men med små skift i betydning og anvendelse. Hvis der virkelig skulle være Dorset-sprog blandet ind i østgrønlandsk, så ville vi finde ordstammer i østgrønlandsk, der slet ikke kan genfindes i de andre dialekter, og det er ikke tilfældet. SK Se selv efter: Frantz Boas: The Central Eskimo, 1888 (1964). Robert E. Spencer: The North Alaskan Eskimo, 1959. Donald H. Webster & Wilfred Zibell: Iñupiat Eskimo Dictionary, 1970. Jonathan Petersen: OrdbogêraK, 1951. Erik Holtved: Polar Eskimo Etnography, 1967.  Michael Fortesque: Inuktun, en introduktion til Thulesproget, 1991. Grønlands Landsmuseum: Gustav Holm Samlingen, 1985. Chr. Berthelsen m.fl.: Oqaatsit, 1990.      ...

Michael Fortescue
Résumé: La source historique et la position typologique de l'ergativité dans les langues esquimaudes.
Cet article propose un scénario qui ne prend pas de parti théorique pour rendre compte de la forme ergative en groenlandais de l'Ouest et en d'autres langues esquimaudes. On analyse les couches successives de la morphologie transitive qui cachent la situation originelle. Il s'agit essentiellement de présenter, en termes diachroniques simples, le parallélisme entre les flexions verbales transitives et celles de la forme nominale possessive qui a suscité de nombreux débats théoriques dans le passé.
Abstract: The historical source and typological position of ergativity in Eskimo languages.
This article presents a theory-free scenario for the genesis of the ergative clause in West Green-landic and other Eskimo languages. The successive historical layers of tran-sitive verbal morphology that obscure the original situation are analysed. The aim is to account in simple diachronic terms for the paral-lelism between tran-sitive verbal inflection and possessed nominal inflections that has led to so much theoretical controversy in the past.

 
ROSTAING, Jean-Pierre Native regional autonomy: the initial experience of the Kativik Regional Government
MARY-ROUSSELIERE, Guy Une remarquable industrie dorsétienne de l'os de caribou dans le nord de Baffin
SCHEFFEL, David From polygyny to cousin marriage? Acculturation and marriage in 19th century Labrador Inuit Society
DUFOUR, Rose L'otite chez les enfants inuit: une question de mode alimentaire?
FORTESCUE, Michael The origin of the I-Dialect phenomenon in Greenland
DORAIS, Louis-Jacques La recherche sur les Inuit du Nord québécois: bilan et perspectives
PAINE, Robert J. and R. GRAHAM Non-hierarchical alternatives in northern resource management

 

Functional Grammar and the demise of the representation

Michael Fortescue
Department of Eskimology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Persistent signals from contiguous cognitive disciplines suggest that static representations of 'meaning' may be devoid of any psychological reality, but linguists engaged with their models and modules continue blithely about their business as before. Does it really matter how such things are actually instantiated in the mind/brain? I believe it does matter, at least for linguistic models such as FG which take psychological adequacy seriously. Just as the 'emics' of our grammatical models should mesh with the 'etics' of the pragmatic deployment of language, so they should be capable of meshing with the results coming in from neurolinguistics and cognitive psychology.
The news seems to be that linguistic behaviour does not, as linguists have long assumed, start with some fully determinate representation of a chunk of reality tagged for a discrete intentional illocution (or result in such a structure during comprehension). Neither 'chunks of reality' nor 'intentions' are fully determinate and thus available for deterministic representation. Although linguistic models can only have an indirect, metalinguistic relationship to the dynamic reality of brain/mind activity, some approaches will be better able to adjust to new Chaos-infused views of cognition than will others. Now might be the time to reconsider the direction one's particular bandwagon is creaking along in.
In order to spell out some of the consequences for Functional Grammar in particular, I shall examine a standard FG representation of a single contextualized utterance. It seems a priori doubtful that the formal structures of FG could tell us anything much about how an utterance might, for instance, be stored in individual memory. Nevertheless, it can be argued that its layered predicational structure, understood in a certain way, is a pretty accurate indication of what kind of information needs to be integrated into pre-existing memory schemata on receipt of an utterance. The last stage on the FG 'conveyor belt' (in the comprehension mode) can be envisaged not as a full semantic representation but as a continuation beyond the end of the belt where all the disassembled nuts and bolts of the grammatical scaffolding fall away to leave just a handful of 'bracketed' and unlabelled content words (or gestures towards their phonological realization). Such a contextually interpretable congeries of instructional information could be stored as such, converted to other (sensory) modalities, or subjected to inferencing  M