Morphophonemics of Nisgha Plural Formation: A Step towards Proto-Tsimshian Reconstruction

• Published in: Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics
• Main Author: Tarpent, Marie-Lucie
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Kansas, Department of Linguistics 1983
• Subjects: Tsimshian language > Morphophonemics; Niska language; Niska; Nisgha; Tsimshian; Tsimshian*
• Online Access: https://journals.ku.edu/kwpl/article/view/17874; https://doi.org/10.17161/KWPL.1808.481

To the purely descriptive linguist the Nisghal system of plural formation appears to be of great complexity. On the other hand, a generative phonological analysis of that system, carried as far as the data will allow, recovers an underlying morphological simplicity which has often been buried under a multiplicity of morphophonemic rules and obscured by reformation. The depth of reconstruction possible in some cases gives promising hints of the possibilities for further internal and comparative reconstruction of Proto-Interior Tsimshian (underlying Nisgha and Gitksan) and ultimately Proto-Tsimshian, leading eventually to a much surer foundation for the tracing of areal and genetic relationships between the Tsimshianic and other language families.