University of California Berkeley archaeological institute of PAPERS OF THE SCHOOL OF AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY Dumber A KEY TO THE NAVAHO ORTHOGRAPHY EMPLOYED BY THE FRANCISCAN FATHERS THE NUMERALS "Two" AND "THREE" IN CERTAIN INDIAN LANGUAGES OF THE SOUTHWEST BY JOHN P. HARRINGTON 1911 TKE EM'CFOFT UEFA-FY AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, [Reprinted from the A Key to Vol. 13, No. i, Jan.-Mar., 1911.] Navaho Orthography Employed by the Franciscan Fathers. Dr Goddard's recent review 1 of the accurate and important Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language published last 2 year by the Franciscan Fathers of St Michaels, Arizona, 1 was disappointed the In glancing through a key of some sort which would give the equivalents of the by the Fathers in more standard phonetic that in a is, symbolism, symbolism which has been adopted by great European in not finding peculiar letter-values adopted phoneticians. The Fathers have nowhere in the Dictionary tabulated Navaho sounds, nor have they described their manner systematized the production where in feeling scientific the or of Linguists and ethnologists are every language. need of a standardizing key to the Fathers' orthog raphy. Although a mere beginner in the work out the accompanying as to study of Navaho, I have been so bold table of equivalents in the hope that until superseded by a similar key such as our authority on Athapascan phon it is Dr Goddard, could etics, prepare, it will be of service to students. I would out and paste it in their copies of the and that the Fathers examine it and accept such Ethnologic Dictionary, suggest that those interested cut letter-values as they making deem it good, for use in their future publications, thereby the orthography of the Navaho language more nearly correspond to that in which the other languages of the Southwest are being recorded. am merely trying to worthy work. I One Each will find, of these and to aid the Fathers assist students given below, symbols all of followed is the symbols employed in their praise by the Fathers. by an English or German word which contains a similar sound or by some other explanation as given Fathers, in parenthesis; and each symbol suggested by me, is also by the accompanied by an equivalent in brackets. i. ORINASAL VOWELS but orinasal) [#]; e (debt, very short, but orinasal) i (pm, very short, but orinasal) [J]; a (art, very short, but orinasal) 6 (d6ne, very short, but orinasal) [p]; # (pull, very short, but orinasal) (bat, very short, [$]; [$]; [j*]; 35 1 (bad, long, but orinasal) [*']; e (date, long, but orinasal) Pliny Earle Goddard, American Anthropologist, Vol. 12, No. 2, [e']; i (pique, April-June, 1910, pp. 3II-3I52 The Franciscan Fathers, St. Michaels, Arizona, 1910. An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language, AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 165 but orinasal) [*"]; a (far, long, but orinasal) [0*]; u pool, long, but orinasal) \tt']. long, [x. s., 13, [g,']\ 1911 o (note, long, but orinasal) ORAL VOWELS 2. very short) []; (bat, a very short) (art, e (debt, very short) o (done, very short) [#]; I [e\] u [0]; medium long?) [a]; e (debt, medium long?) [e}\ i a (art, medium long?) [a]; o (done, medium long?) (bat, [/]; (note, long) [o']; (pool, long) [*]; [M]; <rt medium long?) u (pull, medium (pin, [0]; [i']; a (far, [w*]. CONSONANTAL VOWELS (yield) [j]; iv (will) [w]. LARYNX CONSONANTS 4. ' h (hemp) to u [0']; 3. y very short) very short) (bad, long) [a*]; e (date, long) [e'];i (pique, long) long?) []; long) (pin, (pull, [&]; h,and even ("a fairly gutteral exhalation which at times Frequently h]\ ("abrupt close of the vowel," i. e., complete glottal stop) preceding a vowel," i. e., light glottal stop) [']. q. is equivalent sound has been rendered with h") this ' I (gig) Id; gutteral g to (clicked k) which the q (German lachen) h or kh, or kq (ken) [k']-r k, rolling sound of r is added," i. [k e., or kh}\ gh ("a open g) [q or R]\ FRONT OF TONGUE CONSONANTS A (clicked [d}\ or ("hiatus [x]. 6. d (den) [']; BACK OF TONGUE CONSONANTS 5. V h [ ' t) tq [/']; [/ or th]\ z (zone) [z\; s zh (sit) [s}\ i. e., voice v (azure) less [z}; [/]; 1) sh (shall) dz (adze) [ ]; / (like) [dz\\ ts' (clicked or tsh]-J (judge) [dz]; ch' (clicked & tth]', dl [dl]- [tf]; //[*, or 7. b (been) [0]; m t ("strongly aspirated 1," [/]; ts) ch) n (man) [te'j; [/.?']; ch, ts, or tsq, or ds (pretzel) H [ts , or chq (church) [ts\ or tsh]\ [n]. FRONT OF TONGUE SOUNDS (man) [m]. by the Fathers we ought to mention n i. an accented a n," e., ("indicates syllabic n) [n, or n'}\ 'n ("sound of dn, as in dnieper," i. e., n preceded either by glottal stop or opening of nose passage As additional sounds recorded by lowering velum) (when) It [n. or 'n, or l n\\ kw (quick) [kw]\ wh (ghw) [qw\; qn [xw]. appears from the text of the Dictionary that the Fathers distingiush three lengths of oral vowels but only two lengths of orinasal vowels, although a definite statement to this effect is nowhere to be found. ANTHROPOLOGIC MISCELLANEA The review The writer cannot agree with 1 Dr Goddard when he 66 says in the recent that the Fathers' "treatment of nasalized vowels seems happy." 1 use of circumflexes and tildes over vowel characters to indicate different combinations of length and nasalization seems to and confusing. They indicated three lengths? diacritical Would And if marks? tinguish lengths? me very unhappy, illogical, How would they have By using circumflexes, tildes, and some other two indicate only lengths. many varieties of mark as they dis they abandon this principle, placing, say, the they use as over every nasalized vowel, and yet retain their system of indicating tilde length and stress of unnasalized vowels, and apply that system to the nasalized vowels some also, characters will have three diacritical s of their vowel up above them. piled And as it is, the combinations of vowel character plus tilde plus acute accent are with such difficulty distinguishable from the combinations of vowel character plus macron plus acute accent that the Professor Brugmann and other foremost eyes are continually strained. linguists settled the question as to writing nasalization several years ago, adopting the Polish method of placing a hook open to the right under a letter. Examine the usage in the standard Grundris der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen by Brugmann and Delbriick. exposition of the reasons why the subscript hook is the best method of An writing nasalization would cover several pages, and would here be out of May place. little I add only that the use or nothing to recommend it; it u after a vowel has of superior n is sprawls the word in an illogical, ( ) ungainly fashion, and pure nasalization of vowels such as we have in manyIndian languages has nothing more to do with n than with or "ng". I differ from Dr Goddard in the opinion that "probably a strict alpha m betical arrangement would have been more available." read, page after page. Xavaho universe. In logical sequence The book is it This is a book to introduces us to the whole provided with an excellent and complete An index of Navaho words might alphabetically arranged English index. well be added. the Roman Should the Navaho words in such an index be arranged in in an order more scientific and yet very alphabetical order, or readily learned? JOHN The Numerals "Two" and "Three" P. in Certain Indian HARRINGTON. Languages Southwest. LANGUAGE RECORDER "Two" "THREE" Tepehuan Tarahumare Charencey Charencev gaok oka baech Goddard, loc. cit., p. 314. baica of the 167 Cora AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 13, 1911