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refractory
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 02/05/05
Posts: 1233
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Re: Native North Americans
03/19/09 08:52 PM
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I studied aspects of the Haisla and related Kwakiutl/Kwakwala language (more at dialects all around) about 20 years ago. Interesting because their word-root system is highly iconic, and of course they also have extensive use of nominal suffixes, which can 'harden' or 'soften' the pronunciation of previous material. In addition almost all words can be interpreted as verbs, even things that in English would be considered nouns, adjectives, etc.
I've sometimes wondered what areas of language are influenced by the structure of the life of the people (and vice versa). For instance one linguist I knew (since deceased) analyzed a mesoamerican language family and found that its iconicity was oriented around an underlying and abstract model they had of their universe, with various levels of reality.
Many languages also have extensive directional systems oriented towards cardinal points spatially, or on landforms (rivers, the coast, mountains, etc.), or even on the human body as a model. People orient their buildings and communities around these models (for instance Yahgans almost always tried to put the doors of their wigwams facing west, except temporarily when weather was coming in from that direction). But each culture does it differently (with commonalities). The larger field of 'geography' studies this stuff. (look up Yi Fu Tuan).
Peoples of course use natural cycles to time their activities and movements (especially if they are migratory).
All lots of fun stuff, and most of it dying out as everyone adopts 'modernity'.
Jess Tauber
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