A description of the phonology, morphonology, morphology, syntax, historical, areal, and typological features of the Salish language of Bella Coola, British Columbia.

This book provides an authoritative survey of the several hundred languages indigenous to North America. These languages show tremendous genetic and typological diversity, and offer numerous challenges to current linguistic theory. Part I of the book provides an overview of structural features of particular interest, concentrating on those that are cross-linguistically unusual or unusually well developed. These include syllable structure, vowel and consonant harmony, tone, and sound symbolism; polysynthesis, the nature of roots and affixes, incorporation, and morpheme order; case; grammatical distinctions of number, gender, shape, control, location, means, manner, time, empathy, and evidence; and distinctions between nouns and verbs, predicates and arguments, and simple and complex sentences; and special speech styles. Part II catalogues the languages by family, listing the location of each language, its genetic affiliation, number of speakers, major published literature, and structural highlights. Finally, there is a catalogue of languages that have evolved in contact situations.

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.

These essays were drawn from the papers presented at the Linguistic Society of America's Summer Institute at the State University of New York at Oswego in 1976. The contents are as follows: Lyle Campbell and Marianne Mithun, "Introduction: North American Indian Historical Linguistics in Current Perspective" Ives Goddard, "Comparative Algonquian" Marianne Mithun, "Iroquoian" Wallace L. Chafe, "Caddoan" David S. Rood, "Siouan" Mary R. Haas, "Southeastern Languages" James M. Crawford, "Timucua and Yuchi: Two Language Isolates of the Southeast" Ives Goddard, "The Languages of South Texas and the Lower Rio Grande" Irvine Davis, "The Kiowa-Tanoan, Keresan, and Zuni Languages" Susan Steele, "Uto-Aztecan: An Assessment for Historical and Comparative Linguistics" William H. Jacobsen, Jr., "Hokan lnter-Branch Comparisons" Margaret Langdon, "Some Thoughts on Hokan with Particular Reference to Pomoan and Yuman" Michael Silverstein, ''Penutian: An Assessment" Laurence C. Thompson, "Salishan and the Northwest" William H. Jacobsen, Jr., "Wakashan Comparative Studies" William H. Jacobsen, Jr., "Chimakuan Comparative Studies" Michael E. Krauss, "Na-Dene and Eskimo-Aleut" Lyle CampbelI, "Middle American Languages" Eric S. Hamp, "A Glance from Now On."

An extensive dictionary (almost 1800 pages) of the Upriver dialects of Halkomelem, an Amerindian language of B.C.,giving information from almost 80 speakers gathered by the author over a period of 40 years. Entries include names and dates of citation, dialect information, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic information, domain memberships of each alloseme, examples of use in sentences, and much cultural information.

The concept of the 'onset', i.e. the consonant(s) before the vowel of a syllable, is critical within phonology. While phonologists have examined the segmental behaviour of onsets, their prosodic status has instead been largely overlooked. In fact, most previous accounts have stipulated that onsets are insignificant when it comes to the 'heaviness' of syllables. In this book Nina Topintzi presents a new theory of onsets, arguing for their fundamental role in the structure of language both in the underlying and surface representation, unlike previous assumptions. To capture the weight behaviour of onsets, a novel account is proposed that relates their interaction with voicing, tone and stress. Using numerous case-studies and data from a variety of languages and phenomena (including stress, compensatory lengthening, gemination and word minimality), the book introduces a model that reflects the true behaviour of onsets, demonstrating profound implications for syllable and weight theories.