Patwin Phonemics, Phonetics, and Phonotactics

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the phonemics, phonetics, and phonotactics of the Patwin language, using archival data sources. Patwin is a member of the small and underdescribed Wintuan language family. Although there is extensive archival material available for the Patwin language, little has been published about Patwin and there are no publications at all which deal with Patwin phonetics, phonemics, or phonotactics in a detailed way. It is therefore desirable to analyze the available archival data in the light of modern methodology and scholarship, and to create a defnitive description of Patwin phonemics and phonetics. The goal of this paper is similar to the goals of the “Phonetic Structures of. . .” papers by Matthew Gordon, Peter Ladefoged, and colleagues, but with an archival data source and therefore a more philological methodology.