The fundamentals of Micmac historical morphology

Dawe, Audrey Marie (1986) The fundamentals of Micmac historical morphology. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

As no one has yet traced the historical derivation of the morphology of Micmac this study will attempt to do so but it does not claim to be a complete and comprehensive study of Micmac historical morphology. This thesis will study Micmac morphology (both nominal and verbal) with regard to its comparison with Proto-Algonkian with an aim to discover how much of the morphology Micmac has retained and how much innovation there has been. Data from other Eastern Algonkian languages such as Abenaki, Maliseet and Delaware will be studied to help give insight as to whether the innovations evident in Micmac are exclusive to Micmac or if they are more widespread. The presentation of the Eastern data does not entail taking a position on the controversy regarding Eastern Algonkian as a genetic subgroup. -- The goal of this thesis is to see how Micmac relates to other Algonkian languages and to see what light it can shed on some of the morphological problems evident in Algonkian. -- Chapter One will present a general introduction to the thesis. The main verbal morphology will be dealt with in Chapters Two-Four. Chapter Two will deal with the Animate Intransitive (AI) and the Inanimate Intransitive (II), Chapter Three will deal with the Transitive Inanimate (Tl) and the pseudo-Transitive Inanimate (psTI) and Chapter Four will deal with the Transitive Animate (TA). Within each of these verbal morphology chapters there will be a general discussion of the verbal types as well as any peculiarities of the type, followed by a more specific discussion of verbal tenses and modes with representative paradigms of each. The Proto-Algonkian forms will be given where they are known so that morphological comparisons can be made between Micmac and Proto-Algonkian. Data from other Algonkian languages (especially Eastern) will be presented where it is morphologically relevant to the discussion. -- Chapter Five will also deal with verbal morphology but with one specific formation - the negative. The Micmac forms of the independent indicative present will be examined and possible derivations from Proto-Algonkian noted. Comparisons will be made with other Eastern Algonkian languages. -- Chapter Six will deal with nominal morphology, special regard being given to possession. The nominal morphology of possession will also be compared with the verbal morphology of the subordinative mode to display the similarities which exist between these formations. -- The thesis aims to draw some major conclusions regarding the historical morphology of Micmac. On the surface Micmac appears to be very divergant when compared with the traditional Proto-Algonkian reconstructions of Leopard Bloomfield which were based solely on four of the Central languages -Fox, Cree, Menominee and Ojibwa. When a more detailed study of Micmac's phonological development from Proto-Algonkian is carried out it can be seen that this is where Micmac has a radical evolution as there are cluster reductions, vowel contractions, etc.. Consequently, even though the phonological evolution has been somewhat radical, Micmac seems fairly conservative with regard to its historical morphology. Micmac, in fact, retains much of the morphology of Proto-Algonkian.

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