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Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 39:2/3 (2012) ► pp.279–303

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On extremes in linguistic complexity

Phonetic accounts of Iroquoian, Polynesian and Khoesan

 | Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań
 | Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań
Published online: 23 November 2012
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.39.2-3.05kil
Summary
This article examines common motifs in the accounts of the sound systems of Iroquoian, Polynesian and Khoesan languages as the most well-known cases of extremes in phonetic complexity. On the basis of examples from European and American scholarship between the 17th and early 20th century, we investigate continuities in the description of their seemingly ‘exotic’ inventories and phonotactic structures when viewed from the perspective of European languages. We also demonstrate the influence of phonetic accounts on the interpretation of other components of language and their role in the construction of biased images of the languages and their speakers. Finally, we show that controversies in descriptions of ‘exotic’ languages concern issues that remain relevant in modern phonetic research, in particular complexity of phonological systems, while notions which were conceived as ‘misconceptions’ have re-emerged as unresolved research questions, e.g., the status of clicks and small and large consonant inventories.
Résumé
Cet article est consacré aux motifs communs dans les analyses des systèmes de sonorisation des langues : iroquoises, polynésiennes et khoïsan où on retrouve des occurrences, bien connues, de l’extrême complexité phonétique. Sur la base d’exemples, tirés de sources savantes européennes et américaines entre le XVIIe et le début du XXe siècle, nous étudions les continuités dans la description de leurs inventaires et de leurs structures phonotactiques, d’apparence “exotiques”, dans la perspective des langues européennes. Nous démontrons également l’influence des analyses phonétiques sur l’interprétation des autres composantes de la langue et leur rôle dans la construction des images biaisées des langues et de leurs locuteurs. Enfin, nous montrons que les controverses dans la description des langues ‘exotiques’ restent pertinentes dans la recherche de la phonétique actuelle, surtout en ce qui concerne la complexité des systèmes phonologiques. Par ailleurs, les notions qui ont été conçues comme des ‘idées fausses’ réapparaissent sous forme des questions non résolues de recherche, i.e., le statut des clics et les inventaires consonantiques petits et grands.
Zusammenfassung
Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht gemeinsame Muster in Bezug auf die Lautsysteme von den irokesischen und polynesischen Sprachen sowie Khoisansprachen als die bekanntesten Fälle von Extremen in ihrer phonetischen Komplexität. Anhand von den Beispielen aus der europäischen und amerikanischen Wissenschaft aus dem Zeitraum vom 17. bis zum frühen 20. Jahrhundert untersuchen die Autoren Kontinuitäten in der Beschreibung von ihren scheinbar ‘exotischen’ Konsonantenbeständen und phonotaktischen Strukturen aus der Perspektive der europäischen Sprachen. Sie zeigen auch den Einfluss der phonetischen Aspekte auf die Interpretation anderer sprachlicher Komponenten und ihre Rolle in der Konstruktion voreingenommener Vorstellungen von den Sprachen und ihren Sprechern. Schließlich zeigen wir, dass sich Kontroversen in der Beschreibung von ‘exotischen’ Sprachen auf die Themen beziehen, die in der modernen Phonetik-Forschung relevant bleiben, insbesondere auf die Komplexität phonologischer Systeme, während die als ‘falsche Annahmen’ aufgefassten Ansichten als ungelöste Forschungsfragen wieder aufgetaucht sind, z.B. der Status von Klicks und kleinen bzw. großen Konsonantenbeständen.
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Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Joseph, John E.
2022. Review of Kilarski (2021): A History of the Study of the Indigenous Languages of North America. Historiographia Linguistica 49:2-3 ► pp. 405 ff. DOI logo
Kilarski, Marcin
2018. American Indian Languages in the Eyes of 17th-Century French and British Missionaries. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 53:s1 ► pp. 295 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. A History of the Study of the Indigenous Languages of North America [Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 129], DOI logo

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