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Huasteco Intonations and Phonemes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Raymond S. Larsen and
Eunice Victoria Pike
Raymond S. Larsen
Affiliation:
Summer Institute of Linguistics
Eunice Victoria Pike
Affiliation:
Summer Institute of Linguistics
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Extract

Ever since phonemic pitch was reported for Maya, the existence of similar phonemic pitch in the related languages has been an interesting possibility. The purpose of this paper is to investigate that possibility as it concerns Huasteco. We attempt to demonstrate (1) that vowel length is phonemic; (2) that the pitch heard is not that' of a ‘tone language’ but constitutes, rather, part of an intricate intonation system; (3) that stress is non-phonemic. Special attention is given to intonation, since the intonational pitch of American Indian languages has been but little investigated, and we have not seen elsewhere in reports of these languages a similar structure comprising a limited number of pitch levels united into a system of significant pitch sequences. In order that the reader may see the suprasegmental phenomena of Huasteco against the background of the segmental material, we give also a brief statement of the number and nature of the consonant and vowel phonemes.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 25 , Issue 3: July-September , September 1949, pp. 268 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © 1949 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Larsen worked with Huasteco in a series of field trips from 1942 to 1948. He is responsible for much of the lexical material, for the statement of the segmental phonemes, and for the data used in describing the distribution of phonemes. Pike gathered material on a field trip in September and October 1948. She is responsible for the analysis of intonation, stress, and vowel length, and for the present form of the paper.

2 Kenneth L. Pike, Phonemic pitch in Maya, IJAL 12.82–8 (1946).

3 Huasteco is a Mayan language spoken in the states of San Luis Potosí and Vera Cruz, Mexico. The dialect described in this paper is that of Otoñiel Oyarvide, an Indian community about 40 miles north of Tamazunchale, San Luis Potosí. Our chief informants were Tomás Martínez, José Santiago, and Juana Hernández, all about 20 years old.

4 For a description of phonemic pitch levels combining into meaningful sequences in English, see Kenneth L. Pike, The intonation of American English (Ann Arbor, 1945). The English intonational system is structurally analogous to the Huasteco, but much more complex.

5 Double slant lines enclose a transcription including pitch symbols.

6 We neglected to check the form of the other contours when they fall on a phrase-final monosyllabic word.

7 Nadine Weathers, Tsotsil phonemes with special reference to allophones of b, IJAL 13.108–11 (1947).