What is a noun?
The concept of a noun is fairly well defined forPossession
Nouns in Tlingit can be divided into two open classes, possessable and unpossessable. This division is based on whether a particular noun may have a possessed relationship with another noun, both syntactically and semantically. In Tlingit the names for people and places, called proper nouns in English grammar, are unpossessable, other nouns may be either optionally or obligatorily possessed. Words for kinship and body parts must be possessed because they always exist in relationship to someone or something. The possessive pronouns are used with the inalienable nouns while the alienable nouns gain a possessive prefix. Possessable nouns are marked for possession in the form of the possessed case using the ''-ÿi'' possessed suffix. It is a manner opposite of the EnglishPossessive pronouns
*indefinite human possessive pronoun meaning someone’s/somebody’s = ḵaa The suffix -i shows that the noun is possessed or owned, or connected to another noun. For words that end in a vowel, insert /y/ before adding the ending -i For example: * ax̱ dóoshi = my cat * haa héeni = our river * ax̱ l’ee x’wáni = my socksAllomorphy
As is apparent in the previous examples, the ''-ÿi'' suffix has a number ofAlienability
In Tlingit, nouns are subject to the concept of alienability. Most nouns in Tlingit are alienable, i.e., they may be used alone or may be possessed by another noun. When possessed they are marked with the ''-ÿi'' possessed suffix discussed above. The term “alienable” refers to the idea that these words can be used on their own, thus conceptually they can be alienated from other nouns. All inalienable nouns have an obligatory possessed relationship with another noun. They generally refer to kinship, body parts, and spatiophysical relationships. They are most commonly associated with a possessive pronoun as the possessor, e.g. ''axh tláa'' “my mother”, ''du xh'é'' “his mouth”. They may however belong to any noun, e.g. ''dóosh jín'' “cat's paw”. Occasionally they are compounded into more complex nouns, e.g. ''du jintáak'' “his palm” from ''du jín'' “his hand” and ''at táak'' “its inside surface”. A notable feature of inalienable nouns is that they are not normally marked for possession, i.e. they do not take the possessed ''-ÿi'' suffix. The possessive relationship in this case is implicit in the meaning of the noun and thus need not be syntactically marked. It is however possible to add the possessed suffix to an inalienable noun, particularly those referring to body parts. In this case the meaning changes from being part of a body into being a body part that is somehow separated from the rest of the body. This is analogous to the same process of optional possession in English, thus ''xóots shá'' means “a bear’s head”, but ''xóots shayí'' means “a bear head” or “a bear’s head detached from its body”. Citation forms of inalienable nouns are usually indicated with a preceding dummy possessor noun. For human possession this is ''du'' “his, its” or ''khaa'' “person's”, and for all other nouns it is ''at'' or ''a'' “its”. If an inalienable noun is not distinguished in this manner it is difficult for nonnative speakers to determine the noun's class. In dictionaries the dummy possessor noun is ignored for alphabetic sorting.Adnominal modifiers
There are two types of adnominal modifiers, the prenominal and postnominal modifiers. These are words or clitics which are positioned before or after a noun or noun phrase and which modify its meaning or syntactic function in some manner.Prenominal modifiers
Prenominal modifiers include the numbers, possessive pronouns, and a small group of other descriptive modifiers which can be comfortably called adjectives.Prenominal adjectives
The list below is taken from Leer et al. (2001, p. 21)Leer, Jeff; Hitch, David; & Ritter, John. (2001). ''Interior Tlingit Noun Dictionary: The dialects spoken by Tlingit elders of Carcross and Teslin, Yukon, and Atlin, British Columbia''. Yukon Native Language Center: Whitehorse, Yukon. . * ''ch'a aanínáxh'' — ordinary, common, everyday * ''shich'' — female * ''yées'' — new, young, fresh * ''khustin, khudziteeyi'' — giant * ''aak'é'' — good, fine * ''aatlein'' — much (amount or intensity), a lot, lotsNumbers
Possessive pronouns
Postnominal modifiers
The postnominal modifiers are morphologically diverse, consisting of enclitics, suffixes, and certain specialized possessive constructions. They usually postpose or attach to nouns, but can also apply to noun phrases. The nominal cases can also be analyzed as being postnominal modifiers, for which see below.Postnominal adjectives
A small closed class of adjectives exists as postnominal modifiers, e.g. ''tlein'' “big” and ''yéis'' “young”.Plural
A plural suffix ''-x' '' exists which may be attached to most nouns, however it is not usually used. A few nouns are treated as singular/plural pairs, e.g. ''khaa''/''khaax'w'' “person”/“people”, ''du yádi''/''du yátx'i'' “his child”/“his children”. In addition to the plural suffix ''-x' '' there are two postnominal modifiers which indicate plurality of kin terms (excepting “child” which takes ''-x' '' as above).Diminutive
The diminutive suffix ''-k' '' functions similarly to the plural suffix ''-x' ''. It may be suffixed to any noun, producing a diminutive form that indicates small size, endearment, or occasionally a derivative or dependent position.Nominal cases
Nominal cases in Tlingit are designated byErgative
The ergative postposition is ''-ch''. It marks the agent of a transitive verb with a definite object. The meaning is roughly “by means of” and is consistent with other split ergative languages. When discussing the two arguments of the verb in an ergative sentence, the marked agent is called the "ergative argument" and the definite object is called the "absolutive argument". Note that Tlingit lacks an absolutive case, instead the absolutive argument is not marked. In the following example the patient of the verb ''yajaakh'' “to kill” is the definite object ''xhat'' “me”, the agent is the subject ''tá'' “sleep”. This is a metaphor indicating that the speaker is tired, that the desire to sleep has overcome him. In the next example the patient of the verb ''si.ee'' “to cook” is the definite object phrase ''wéi dleey'' “that meat”, and the agent is ''Jáan'' “John”. In this instance the absolutive argument is postposed to follow the verb because it is topically unfocused. In the previous example the absolutive argument is a pronoun and hence does not need to be extraposed. A common use of the ergative in oratory and storytelling among other situations is the phrase ''ách áwé'' “because of that; following that; that's why”. This is also an example of the use of a demonstrative construction as a sort of copula.Punctual
The punctual postposition is ''-t''. The name is from Latin ''punctus'' “point”. When used with a positional imperfective it designates physical position, roughly meaning “(resting) at”. When used in aPertingent
The pertingent postposition is ''-xh''. It can mean an extended physical location or extended contact with an object, e.g. “(usually or always) at”. In another sense it indicates repetitive physical arrival, as in “repeatedly arriving at”, “always coming to”. In a third sense it indicates physical status, i.e. “in the form of”. Consider: In the above example the main clause is relativized. Its argument, optional in this case, is ''lingít'' “people”. It is probable that the adverb ''yáxh'' which indicates similarity of the subject with the object is originally derived from ''yá'' “face”. Thus ''yá'' + ''-xh'' > ''yáxh'' “like, similar”. This construction is used as follows: Using the proposed derivation of ''yáxh'' this example could literally be translated as “(its appearance or behavior) is in the form of the ‘face’ of a canoe".Locative
The locative postposition is ''-x with the variant forms ''-:'' (lengthened vowel), ''-0'' (phonologically null value), and ''-i''. It may indicate physical location, such as “at a place”, “by a place”, “in a structure”. It is extended by analogy to temporal location, such as “at a time”, “by a time”. The locative has allomorphs under the following conditions: * ''-:'' lengthened vowel after CÓ * ''-0'' null phoneme after long vowels CO: or CÓ: * ''-i'' after all consonants Note that the locative suffix in the form ''-x' '' is phonetically indistinguishable from the plural suffix ''-x' ''. This collision is less problematic than it might seem on the surface because the plural suffix is rarely used, and furthermore the two have different ordering with respect to the possessed suffix ''-ÿi''.Adessive
The adessive postposition is ''-ghaa''. Leer calls this ''vicinitative'' in his dissertation, but the typical term is adessive as used in e.g. Finnish and Hungarian. Its primary meaning indicates physical adjacency to place or object, such as “around ”, “by ”. By extension of this concept it may indicate physical succession, “(go) after something” or “(follow) something”, as well as the temporal associations of “(waiting) for something” and ”about (a time)”, “around (a time)”.Ablative
The ablative postposition is ''-dáxh'' with an allomorph ''-dxh'' after open (vowel-final) syllables. It marks the physical origin of an action, translated as “from (a place)” or “out of (a place)”. By temporal extension it means “since (a time)” or “from (a time)”.Prolative
The prolative postposition is ''-náxh''. Leer calls this ''perlative'' in his dissertation, and the same grammatical case is sometimes termed ''prosecutive''. It marks a course of physical translation by some action, translated as “along (a way)” or “via (a path)”. Temporal extension indicates the translation of an action along a duration of time, or the inclusion of a period of time, thus “during (some period)”, “including (some time)”. A frequent use is in describing speech or language. The noun phrase for language is generally ''(du) yoo xh'átángi'', but when speaking of a thing said in a particular language, the term is ''(du) xh'éináxh''.Allative
The allative postposition is ''-dei''. It marks a physical or temporal destination, translated as “to, toward” and “until”, respectively. It may also describe an analogical motion, “in the manner of“.Comitative-instrumental
The comitative-instrumental (or simply comitative) postposition is ''-tin'' with allophones ''-n'' and ''-.een''. It may describe either the instrumental “with (a utensil)”, “by means of (something)”, or the comitative “with (something, someone)”, “along with (something, someone)”.Locative-predicative
The locative predicative postposition is ''-u''. It functions as a postposition plus a nonverbal predicate.Relational postpositions
Similar to the nominal cases, and in many respects confused with them, are the relational postpositions. These are not properly speaking cases because they convert the phrase to which they are appended from an NP to a PP. Their behavior has more in common with the relational nouns than with nominal cases per se. The major relational postpositions are: * ''ghóot'' — “without” * ''nákh'' — “away from” * ''yís'' — “for” * ''yáxh'' — “like, as much as, according to” * ''yánáxh'' — “more than” * ''khín'' — “less than”Noun derivation
A large number of nouns in Tlingit are derived from verb stems and roots. There are a number of different processes by which noun derivation can occur. If divided based on suffix, five distinct paradigms can be counted.Conversion
The simplest deverbal noun derivation is conversion from a verb stem.Agentive ''-ÿi''
The agentive derivational suffix ''-ÿi'' is homophonous with the attributive verb suffix, however the agentive requires -I in the classifier as with the other derivational forms. The Tlingit agentive suffix has a similar meaning to the English agentive suffix ''-er'', as in the words “writer”, “speaker”, “seller”. The above form is distinct from the homophonous ''(du) yoo xh'atángi'' “(his) language; (his) speech” which is the possessed form of the conversion ''yoo xh'atánk''.Instrumentive ''-aa''
Story (1966) calls this derivational suffix the “instrumental”, however to avoid confusion with thePatientive ''-adi''
Fragmentive ''-dasi''
Borrowing
Borrowing from other languages into Tlingit is largely restricted to nouns, likely because the complex morphology of the Tlingit verb prevents the easy adaptation of foreign verbs. As a counterexample, there is at least the verb ''du-ÿa-spelled'', as seen in the spelling book ''Aan Aduspelled X'úx' ''. Prehistoric borrowing is essentially unstudied. It seems likely that Tlingit did borrow to some extent from neighboring languages such as Haida and Tsimshian, but to what extent is unknown. Historically, Tlingit has borrowed fromChinook Jargon
Chinook Jargon was a lingua franca widely used on the Northwest Coast by American traders (“Boston men”), British traders ("King George men"), laborers, miners, fishermen, loggers, and many Indian tribes. Borrowings into Tlingit from English and Chinook Jargon occurred contemporaneously until the early 20th century. Native English speakers would have some command of Chinook Jargon when immigrating from other places in the Northwest, and as a consequence would tend towards using it rather than English with monolingual Tlingit speakers. Oral history confirms that many Tlingit speakers in the late 19th and early 20th century were also fluent in Chinook Jargon, some even with native proficiency. Because the two languages coexisted, it is often difficult to tell whether a particular borrowing is taken directly from English into Tlingit, or instead whether it was imported through the intermediary of Chinook Jargon. Chinook Jargon phonology is much closer to Tlingit phonology than is English, and as such a direct borrowing from English into Tlingit is likely to closely resemble a borrowing from English into Chinook Jargon. Thus, a number of Tlingit nouns which are commonly assumed to be of English origin are more likely indirect imports through Chinook Jargon. A prime example is ''dáana'' “money, dollar, silver”, which superficially is similar to its English counterpart, but in fact has a semantic range that resonates with the Chinook Jargon ''dala'' “money, dollar, silver coin”. This relationship can be clearly seen in the Tlingit compound ''wakhdáana'' “eye glasses” (lit. “eye silver”) which is cognate with the Chinook Jargon ''dala siyawes'' “eye glasses” (lit. “silver eye”). Other examples such as ''Sándi'' “week, Sunday” conform more closely to Chinook Jargon phonology than to English phonology; compare Tlingit with CJ and American English – if borrowed directly from English the Tlingit form would approximate it more closely with or . Many derivations from Chinook Jargon account for what current Tlingit speakers consider to be opaque words that describe foreign concepts but which lack a clear English or Russian heritage. The opacity of these terms is because few speakers today have any familiarity with Chinook Jargon. The difficulty of reconciling Tlingit and Chinook Jargon phonology also contributes to the peculiarities of CJ derivations, considering that Tlingit merges CJ with , with , with or , with various phonemes such as and , and with or . Some derivations from Chinook Jargon are given below. Note that they mostly pertain to foreign animals and people, and foodstuffs which could be obtained through trade with Europeans. * ''doosh'' “cat” < CJ ''pushpush'' (northern var. of CJ ''puspus'' ) * ''wasóos'' “cow” < CJ ''moosmoos'' “cow, buffalo” * ''gishóo'' “pig” < CJ ''gosho'' < Fr. ''le cochon'' * ''wanadóo'' “sheep” < CJ ''lemoto'' < Fr. ''le mouton'' * ''gawdáan'' “horse” < CJ ''kiwutan'' < Sp. ''caballo'' + Sahaptian ''-tan'' ending * ''dáanaa'' “dollar, money, silver” < CJ ''dala'' < Eng. ''dollar'' * ''gút'' “dime, ten cents” < CJ ''bit'' < Eng. ''bit'' “ten cents, one eighth of a Spanish dollar” (seeReferences
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