open access

https://doi.org/10.14943/2115.99331

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/99331

Northern Northwest Coast Language Area and its Neighbours

日本語

迂言的所有構造

2026-03-20

日本北方言語学会

Northern Language Studies

16

25-44

特別企画：追悼 宮岡伯人先生

Among the linguistically diverse and complexly distributed languages of the northwestern coast of North America, Leer (1991) argued that a group of northern languages, Aleut(Eskimo-Aleut), Haida (a language isolate), and Eyak (Na-Dene), exhibit a set of unusual grammatical phenomena that define what he terms the Northern Northwest Coast language area. The principal traits attested to this area include: (1) a lack or paucity of labial obstruents, (2) promiscuous number marking in third-person pronouns by verbal elements, and (3) a periphrastic possessive construction. Because Haida and Eyak share the first two traits, they are regarded as the core of this language area. The Tlingit and Athabaskan language families are peripherally related. Further south lies the Central Northwest language area, proposed by Beck (2000), which includes the Salishan, Wakashan, and Chimakuan families. This paper provides an overview of the grammatical phenomena, particularly (2) and (3), that characterize the Northern Northwest Coast language area, drawing primarily on Leer (1991). It also investigates the historical background that contributed to the formation of this linguistic area and offers additional considerations regarding the relationship between the sociocultural characteristics of the Northwest Coast, linguistic contact, and possible routes of human migration into the North American continent.

紀要論文

Version of Record

2185-7121

AA12516968