When sounds go wild: Phonological Change and Syntactic Re-Analysis in Havasupai

WHEN SOUNDS GO WILD: PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE AND SYNTACTIC RE-ANALYSIS IN HAVASUPAI Leanne Hinton University of California, Berkeley A cross-generational study of speech in Havasupai, a Yuman language of Arizona, reveals a set of variable phonological rules, affecting person-agreement affixes, that have begun to operate in the last hundred years. These rules might seem obligatory for younger speakers; but closer investigation reveals that these speakers have instead re-analysed the paradigm. This re-analysis illustrates the principle that rules which do not allow surface evidence of the underlying form to be preserved cannot exist: obligatory application of such a rule must eliminate both the rule itself and the underlying form. The speech of the youngest children shows continuing change of the paradigm toward an internally-consistent, transparent system of person-agreement that differs radically from the original system.* This is a micro-study of linguistic change in a small American Indian community . There are only about 500 Havasupais, living together in a village situated in a tributary ofthe Grand Canyon; but all, including the children, speak Havasupai (a language ofthe Yuman family) as their first language. Thus the language thrives; yet, during the past hundred years, it has been undergoing some radical changes. This paper is a study of change in one small facet of the language. The changes discussed here are based on phonological processes that have been in operation since Proto-Yuman times. But I will demonstrate that, in this case, these processes have been freed from earlier morphological constraints, and have resulted in syntactic changes unprecedented in Yuman language history. 1. Theoretical framework: Assumptions and assertions. Essential to this paper is the variable model, as developed and expanded by Labov, the Sankoffs, Cedergren and others..1 The view of language used here is one which is basic to both generative theory and variation theory. It can be summarized as follows. Each individual develops his own internal model of his native language, based partly on his own continuous and largely unconscious efforts to impose patterns on the linguistic input he receives from other speakers. There is no theoretical necessity that any two speakers have precisely the same internal model of their language. Each individual probably develops a partially unique set of linguistic processes. Thus Havasupai—or any language—might be defined as a set of mutually intelligible idiolects spoken by a group of interacting people. Language change has * Many people have been helpful to me in the writing of this paper. I am especially grateful to William Bright, Paul Kay, William Labov, Margaret Langdon, Pamela Munro, and Karl Zimmer for their extremely valuable comments. Thanks also to Werner Winter, whose comments to me once, on some oddities of Hualapai and Havasupai verb phrases, stimulated the investigations that resulted in this paper. The greatest thanks, however, must go to members of the Havasupai tribe for their help and continuing tolerance of my research. To Gary Scott, I am grateful for emotional support and for help in preparing the manuscript. 1 Seminal papers include Labov 1969, 1971, Cedergren 1973, G. Sankoff 1974, and Cedergren & D. Sankoff 1974. 320 WHEN SOUNDS GO WILD321 occurred when the utterances of some members ofthat community have characteristics demonstrably different from those in utterances of previous generations. By observing the idiolects of living speakers of Havasupai, and by comparing these idiolects according to the ages of the different speakers, we can observe language change in progress. The cross-generational survey of Havasupai personmarking on verbs which was carried out for this study revealed a set ofphonological rules that are variable for older speakers, and that appear to have become completely obligatory—i.e., they apply at a level of 1007o—for younger speakers. However, certain interesting aspects of the situation indicate that we are not witnessing obligatory synchronic rules at all in the younger speakers: instead, we see the results of the development of new underlying forms. To generalize from these findings, it can be pointed out that the maintenance of underlying forms that differ from surface forms is dependent on the continued existence of clear alternations: either clear social or stylistic variability, or the maintenance of different forms in different environments.2 But...