Cynthia I. A. Hansen ‘99
Brothers and body parts: Making sense of the Iquito numeral system
Thursday, October 2, 2008 12pm in 102 Reed
Recent work on endangered numeral systems has shown that numeral systems are not only highly susceptible to language contact (Comrie 2005), but that they can also be used to chart language contact within a region (Epps 2006). This paper describes ongoing work on the numeral system in Iquito, an endangered Zaparoan language spoken in the northern Peruvian Amazon, and discusses ways that language contact is evident within this system.
Iquito exhibits ‘fraternal’ forms in the terms for 3 and 4, where 3 correlates with not having a sibling and 4 correlates with having a sibling. This strategy is considerably rare as a numeral strategy cross-linguistically, but at least one fraternal form is found in a number of unrelated Amazonian languages, which Epps (2006) attributes to areal diffusion from Tukanoan. Although Iquito is not in direct contact with the Tukanoan languages, I argue that the Iquito fraternal strategy as well as a body part tally strategy used for numerals higher than five are a result of this areal diffusion. I will discuss some possibilities for how these strategies entered into Iquito from Tukanoan and underscore the need for additional research in this area. This work broadens our understanding of language contact within Amazonia as well as the typology of numeral systems.
The Program in Linguistics and Cognitive Science is pleased to introduce our newest professor, Dr. James N. Stanford. Dr. Stanford received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from Michigan State University through the University Distinguished Fellowship program, and then taught linguistics for a year at Rice University before coming to Dartmouth. Dr. Stanford also has a Bachelor of Science (Physics) from Calvin College, and he learned Mandarin Chinese and Sui, a language of Guizhou, China (Tai-Kadai family), living in China for seven years before returning to the U.S. for graduate school. He is involved in linguistic field research of Sui and other underrepresented language communities, including Hmong communities in the U.S. He is interested in sociolinguistics of less commonly studied languages, dialects, language variation and change, language and identity, tone, linguistic contact, sociophonetics, clan-based societies, Sui and other Tai-Kadai languages.
The Program in Linguistics and Cognitive Science would also like to introduce Christiane Donahue from the writing program. Professor Donahue will begin as the New Director for the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric at Dartmouth on September 1st with an appointment in Linguistics as well. Professor Donahue has been working in higher education in France and the United States since the 1980s. She began her interest in writing and teaching writing as an undergraduate writing tutor at Northeastern University in 1981, pursued a BA degree in English and Education as well as an MA in Linguistics and Writing.
To learn more about Professor Donahue, please visit the writing programs website at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/program/donahue-news.html.
Please join us in extending a warm welcome to both Professor Stanford & Professor Donahue
