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The Morphology and Phonology of Katajjait (Inuit Throat Games)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Bruce Bagemihl
Bruce Bagemihl*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
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Extract

A linguistic theory can be considered to have explanatory force if it may be extended to a body of facts considerably beyond the domain for which it was originally conceived. In general, the further the new domain is from the original, the greater the support that accrues to that theory. In this paper, a number of developments within current morphological and phonological theory will be utilized in the analysis of an extraordinary form of vocal behaviour, the katajjait (sg. katajjaq) or throat games of the Canadian Inuit. The result will be a revealing account of the structures of these katajjait, as well as a remarkable confirmation of principles of linguistic theory from a domain which has been hitherto unreported in the linguistic literature.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 1988 , pp. 1 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1988

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Footnotes

*

A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the 1987 meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association in Hamilton, Ontario. I am deeply indebted to Linda Walsh for her invaluable comments and criticisms, and for her spirit of intellectual openness which encouraged me to pursue this line of research. I would also like to thank Pat Shaw for suggestions concerning the phonological analysis of katajjait patterns, and Diane Rodgers, Kathy Hunt, and Nicola Bessell for additional comments and advice. Any errors are, of course, my own. This research was supported by a fellowship from the I.W. Killam Trust.

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