Alaskan Yupik Research Articles

He Suffocates Me: A Playful Dimension of Exact Transcription, and of Being an Iluraq

A fragment of conversation is presented demonstrating Joel Sherzer's premise that discourse is ‘the nexus, the actual and concrete expression of the language‐culture‐society relationship’. The passage passes from commentary to metacommentary and from humor and teasing, to personality, social and cultural relationships among intimates and strangers, respect, and even philosophies of language and linguistic representation. The fragment was recorded in 1978 in Chevak, Alaska during my initial linguistic documentation of the Cup'ik variety of Central Alaskan Yupik that is spoken there. It took place among elders in a traditional communal men's house that had just been built there. The passage begins with humorous skewering of my eagerness to transcribe every sound and noise in texts I had recorded, evoking both local and academic ideologies of language and philology. It continues as the eldest man comically challenges his iluraq (male cross‐cousin of a male), typically a joking relationship, who in turn challenges his own iluraq. These parts of the text, and subsequent reflections on whether the teasing might be too harsh, nicely express the emotional flavor of the relationship, as well as its boundaries. They also show a kind of interaction often described but infrequently presented as a linguistic text.

Ergativity in Alaskan Yupik Eskimo

Ergativity in Alaskan Yupik Eskimo

Sequence-based typing of HLA class I alleles in Alaskan Yupik Eskimo

In comparison to South America, native North Americans tend to be less diverse in their repertoire of HLA class I alleles. Based upon this observation, we hypothesized that the Yupik Eskimo would exhibit a limited number of previously identified class I HLA alleles. To test this hypothesis, sequence-based typing was performed at the HLA-A, -B and -C loci for 99 Central Yupik individuals from southwestern Alaska. Two new class I alleles, A∗2423 and Cw∗0806, were identified. While A∗2423 was observed in only one sample, Cw∗0806 was present in 26 of the 99 individuals and all of the Cw∗0806 samples contained B∗4801. Allele Cw∗0806 differs from Cw∗0803 by a single nucleotide substitution such that Cw∗0803 may be the progenitor of Cw∗0806. Allele Cw∗0803 was originally characterized as unique to South America, but detection of Cw∗0803 in the Yupik indicates that Cw∗0803 was a founding allele of the Americas. The presence of new alleles and previously unrecognized founding alleles in the Yupik population show that natives of North America are more diverse than previously envisioned.

Helicobacter pylori and Iron Deficiency

Gastric infection with<i>Helicobacter pylori</i>is common throughout the world. Usually acquired in childhood, this infection causes a chronic active gastritis. Chronic infection is usually asymptomatic, but its presence predisposes infected individuals to peptic ulcer disease.¹Unlike gastropathies associated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or alcohol, which are erosive and hemorrhagic,<i>H pylori</i>gastritis is nonerosive and nonhemorrhagic,²the pathology of which is not visible through an endoscope. Thus,<i>H pylori</i>gastritis would not be considered a satisfactory explanation for chronic gastrointestinal blood loss or iron deficiency. However, in this issue, Yip et al³report in a cross-sectional study of Alaskan Yupik Eskimos (Yupiks) a high prevalence of See also p 1135. erosive-hemorrhagic gastritis, gastrointestinal bleeding, iron deficiency, and gastric<i>H pylori</i>infection. Is erosive-hemorrhagic gastritis with chronic gastric bleeding leading to iron deficiency another consequence of chronic<i>H pylori</i>infection? If so, is this manifestation unique

The development of morphophonemic complexity in Eskimo languages

Abstract As I have recently argued (Fortescue, forthcoming 1992), the Eskimo-Aleut languages appear to have developed from an earlier, more agglutinative stage towards full-blown polysynthesis hand in hand with increasing mor-phophonemic complexity, the latter having today reached - especially in Alaskan Yupik - a daunting degree of complexity. I discuss there in “teleological” terms why this perhaps unexpected linkage might have come about without generalization of individual allomorphs having continually counteracted the complications resulting from normal phonological drift. The purpose of the present article is to sketch the route whereby this state of affairs was reached. The reconstruction is based upon the now virtually complete first version of the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary (Fortescue et al., forthcoming) and the recent comparative Eskimo-Aleut work by Knut Bergsland (especially Bergsland 1986 and 1989).

Native American Discourse: Poetics and Rhetoric

Preface 1. Introduction Joel Sherzer and Anthony C. Woodbury 2. Tonkawa poetics: John Rush buffalo's 'Coyote and Eagle's daughter' Dell Hymes 3. Warm Springs Sahaptin narrative analysis Virginia Hymes 4. Poetic structuring of Kuna discouse: the line Joel Sherzer 5. Hearing a voice in an ancient test: Quiche Maya poetics in performance Dennis Tedlock 6. Rhetorical structure in a Central Alaskan Yupik Eskimo traditional narrative Anthony C. Woodbury Indices.

Graded Syllable Weight in Central Alaskan Yupik Eskimo (Hooper Bay-Chevak)

Graded Syllable Weight in Central Alaskan Yupik Eskimo (Hooper Bay-Chevak)

The functions of rhetorical structure: A study of Central Alaskan Yupik Eskimo discourse

AbstractDiscourse structure in Central Alaskan Yupik Eskimo (CAY) narrative and conversation is examined, and a general notion ofrhetorical structureis proposed, growing out of recent work in the poetics of Native American oral literature. Rhetorical structure in a given language would consist of prosodically and intonationally signaled phonological phrasing along with whatever other significant formal features consistently pattern or interact with it (minimally surface syntactic constituency, typically also the system of sentence adverbs and conjunctions, further intonational features, and patterns of parallelism and repetition). Findings for CAY as well as other works in the literature indicate at least four important communicative functions for rhetorical structure in addition to its role in verbal art: organization of information, expression of affective meaning, indexing of genre, and regulation of dialogic interaction. (Discourse, syntax–phonology–discourse interaction, ethnopoetics; Native America, Alaska, Yupik Eskimo)

A comparative manual of affixes for the Inuit dialects of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska

The information gathered in the present work is aimed at use both by students of the Eskimo languages and by Inuit speakers wishing to comprehend and communicate more directly with speakers of dialects other than their own. Productive affixes for fourteen dialect areas from East Greenland to North Alaska are presented for the first time in one place and in common orthographical form. These morphological elements, often difficult to isolate and subject to continual innovation within individual dialects, represent one of the most problematic areas for mutual comprehension.Particular emphasis has been placed on divergences from Central West Greenlandic in three other cardinal dialects, namely Tarramiut for the eastern Canadian Arctic, Copper for the western Canadian Arctic (where the author carried out field work in the summer of 1980), and North Slope Iriupiaq for Alaska. For each of these dialects comprehensive lists containing morphophonemic information and English glosses are arranged in parallel columns according to twenty-six easily comparable semantic groups. Divergences from the main lists for the remaining ten dialects are presented in alphabetical lists. The introductory sections describe the phonological correspondences between the dialects (plus important grammatical differences) and explain how the book can be used in practical terms. To this end a translation into West Greenlandic is included. Linguistic isogloss maps and examples of usage of affixes with no direct equivalent in West Greenlandic are supplied, as is a short sample text for each dialect treated (with English glosses). Further, there is included an overview of the various orthographic systems to be encountered for material in Canada and Alaska, an essay on successive affix ordering, and, for the sake of comparison, a similarly organized list of affixes for Central Alaskan Yupik.