Re: What's your favorite sounding word in any language?

On Thursday, December 18, 2003, at 12:25  PM, Amanda Babcock wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 18, 2003 at 08:23:44AM -0700, Dirk Elzinga wrote:
>
>> _tepa_ ["t1Ba] 'pine nut' (Shoshoni)
>>
>> Not so much for the sound (which *is* lovely), but for the mini-lesson
>> it provides in Shoshoni phonology, grammar, and culture. If any word
>> can be said to "summarize" a language, it's this one for Shoshoni.
>
> By all means, please elaborate!
[1] (high, central, unrounded vowel) is a typical Numic vowel (Numic is
the language family Shoshoni belongs to -- it's a branch of
Uto-Aztecan) and is very prominent in Shoshoni.

[B] (voiced bilabial fricative) is a predictable variant of [p] which
occurs intervocalically. The Numic languages are well-known for their
consonant alternations. In Shoshoni, voiceless stops alternated with
voiced stops following nasals; with voiceless fricatives following /h/;
and with voiced fricatives intervocalically. There is also a geminated
series which is morphologically conditioned; the word [t1Ba] itself
triggers gemination of an immediately following stop or nasal:

        /t1pa -pa?i/ ["t1Bappa?i] 'have pine nuts'

The pine nut was a staple for precontact Shoshonis and Goshutes in the
Great Basin. One of their major yearly gatherings was the pine nut
harvest. The husked pine nuts were dried, pounded into flour, and then
stored. The flour was eaten by adding water to make "gravy".

So the word _tepa_ is a reminder to me of a great many things which are
useful and interesting to know about Shoshoni.

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga
Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so
simple we
couldn't.                                                     - Lyall
Watson