Seri Dictionary: People and Kinship Terms

Abstract

A subset of a Seri-English bilingual dictionary (in preparation) is presented that includes terms referring to people, kinship terms, and verbs closely related to them. This version includes an English-to-Seri dictionary with 61 basic terms and variants, and a Seri dictionary with both Spanish and English glosses. It uses a practical orthography that has long been in use. (MSE) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the ori inal document. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office cd Educational Research and Improvement EDUcATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. CI Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Seri Dictionary: People and Kinship Terms Mary B. Moser and Stephen A. Marlett PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY R-)A94Z %A-7 'IZA\vo TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC). A subset of the Seri bilingual dictionary (in preparation) is presented which includes terms referring to people, kinship terms, and verbs that are closely related to them. This version includes English glosses in addition to the Spanish glosses, and an English-toSeri reversal. The Seri language of Mexico contains an unusually large number of kinship terms. These have been described in detail in Moser and Marlett 1989 (in Spanish) and Moser and Marlett 1993 (in English), and were included in Moser and Marlett 1996. In this article we present these same terms once again and also other vocabulary items that refer to people (including verbs related to these terms). Unlike the previous works, which were more technical in nature and oriented toward an academic audience, this article is essentially a small part of the Seri bilingual dictionary (SeriSpanish, Spanish-Seri) which is currently in preparation. Our intention is that it will be the first of several small publications focusing on various semantic domains.' While the Seri dictionary in preparation will not contain English, these smaller pre-publication editions will differ in that they will in fact include English as well as Spanish. The first section will be English to Seri, and the second section will be Seri to Spanish and English. We trust that this presentation will make information on this unique language accessible to a wider audience than other publications have made or will make. This article utilizes a practical orthography that has been in use, with slight modifications, for more than forty years. The following tables give a simplified explanation of the meaning of the symbols.' While an accent is not typically used in Seri literature, in the dictionary it is included on words that are accented on a non-initial syllable. Consonants Practical p t c, qu co f 1 s z j 6j x x6 m n P r4 h IPA p t k kw 1 s x exxwmn 1 r 2 Vowels Practical a, aa e, ee i, ii o, oo IPA a, a: ze, ze: i, i: o, o: ' Many people have contributed data and helped in various ways with the contents of this article. We gratefully acknowledge the recent input of Maria Luisa Astorga de Estrella and Lorenzo Herrera Casanova. We also thank Monina Watson for her gracious help in checking the Spanish translations. We take responsibility for all remaining errors and deficiencies. = A discussion of Seri phonetics is given in Moser and Moser 1965; discussion of the phonology of Seri may be found in Marlett 1981 and Marlett 1988. ' This sound rarely occurs, and primarily in archaic words. ' This sound occurs in a few loanwords. Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session 1997 Volume 41 Online. URL: http://www.und.nodak.edu/dept/linguistics/wp/1997Moser-Marlett.pdf Copyright