Editing Yahgan language (section)

==Phonology==
===Vowels===
There are three analyses of the [[phonology|phonological]] system of Yahgan, which differ in many details from one another. The oldest analysis is [[Thomas Bridges (Anglican missionary)|Thomas Bridges]]' dictionary (1894) based on the [[English Phonotypic Alphabet]]; from the middle of the 20th century by Haudricourt (1952) and Holmer (1953); and towards the end of the 20th century, by Guerra Eissmann (1990), Salas y Valencia (1990), and Aguilera (2000).

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Central vowel|Central]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
|{{IPAlink|i}}
|
|{{IPAlink|u}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|{{IPAlink|e}}
|{{IPAlink|ə}}
|{{IPAlink|o}}
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
|{{IPAlink|æ}}
|{{IPAlink|a}}
|
|}

All vowels are long in stressed syllables. Vowel {{IPA|/a/}} is the most frequent. It may be pronounced as a schwa {{IPA|[ə]}} in syllables in [[Stress (linguistics)#Phonetic realization|pretonic or post-tonic position]].<ref name="Salas, Adalberto 1990 pp. 147">Salas, Adalberto, y Valencia, Alba (1990): "El fonetismo del yámana o yagán. Una nota en lingüística de salvataje". Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Applicada, Concepción, vol. 28, pp. 147–169 (in Spanish).</ref> In final tonic syllables, vowels {{IPA|/i/}} and {{IPA|/u/}} may become a diphthong.<ref name="Salas, Adalberto 1990 pp. 147"/> Vowels {{IPA|/i/}} and {{IPA|/o/}} are very unstable in final unaccented syllables, alternating with {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/u/}} respectively.<ref name="Salas, Adalberto 1990 pp. 147"/>

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!
! [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Postalveolar consonant|Post-<br />alveolar]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! [[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
| {{IPAlink|m}}
| {{IPAlink|n}}
|
|
|
|-
! [[Plosive]]
| {{IPAlink|p}}
| {{IPAlink|t}}
| {{IPAlink|tʃ}}
| {{IPAlink|k}}
| {{IPAlink|ʔ}}
|-
! [[Fricative]]
| {{IPAlink|f}}
| {{IPAlink|s}}
| {{IPAlink|ʃ}}
| {{IPAlink|x}}
| {{IPAlink|h}}
|-
! [[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]]
|
| {{IPAlink|ɾ}}
| {{IPAlink|ɻ}}
|
|
|-
! [[Approximant]]
|
| {{IPAlink|l}}
| {{IPAlink|j}}
| {{IPAlink|w}}
|
|}

===Morphophonology===
Yahgan shows a number of [[sandhi]] effects on [[consonant]]s and [[vowel]]s. For instance, the terminal {{lang|yag|-i}} of {{lang|yag|teki}} 'to see, recognize' when [[affix]]ed by {{lang|yag|-vnnaka}} 'to have trouble/difficulty doing' becomes {{lang|yag|-e}}:- of {{lang|yag|teke:vnnaka}} 'have trouble recognizing/seeing'

In [[syllable]]s reduced through [[morphophonology|morphophonetic]] processes, terminal vowels ({{lang|yag|-a}}, {{lang|yag|-u:}}) of original bisyllables will often drop (except for {{lang|yag|-i}}, which tends to remain, leaving previous material unaffected), and resultant final stops will fricativize (r becomes sh). Aside from losing stress, any vowels preceding these shifted consonants will often shift from tense to lax. Ex. {{lang|yag|-a:gu:}} 'for self, with one's own' > {{lang|yag|-ax-}}. {{lang|yag|ata}} 'to take, convey' > {{lang|yag|vhr-}}, and so on. [[Present tense]] usually results in the dropping of the final vowel of the [[infinitive|infinitival]] form of the [[verb]] and associated changes as above, as does affixation by many, but not all, further [[Derivation (linguistics)|derivational]] and [[inflection]]al [[suffix]]es beginning with [[stop consonant|stops]], [[affricate]]s, and other consonants. Ex. {{lang|yag|aiamaka}} 'to fight' {{lang|yag|aiamux-tvlli}} 'to fight confusedly'.

The sounds m, n, and l are particularly labile in some environments. {{lang|yag|atama}} 'to eat' {{lang|yag|atu:-yella}} 'to leave off eating' (not {{lang|yag|atamayella}}). n from {{lang|yag|-Vna}} 'state' is often reduced to -V: when one would expect -Vn-. lt can disappear entirely before some consonants. {{lang|yag|vla}} 'to drink', {{lang|yag|vlnggu:}} or {{lang|yag|vnggu:}} 'to drink'. Initial h- in roots and affixes drops in many instances. Ex. {{lang|yag|kvna}} 'to float, be in boat'+ {{lang|yag|haina}} 'to walk, go' gives {{lang|yag|kvn-aina}}. ng (as in English 'hang') is purely morphophonetic, from terminal n before a velar consonant. Many instances of m before a labial consonant are similarly motivated. w after a passive/reflexive prefix {{lang|yag|m-}} often drops. w often vocalizes to u: or o: or drops (depending on preceding material): {{lang|yag|tu:-}} causative plus {{lang|yag|wvshta:gu:}} 'work' is {{lang|yag|tu:vshta:gu:}} 'make work'. y is also relatively labile- after reduced {{lang|yag|-ata-}} > {{lang|yag|-vhr-}} the suffix {{lang|yag|-yella}} 'to leave off' becomes {{lang|yag|-chella}}. In combination with preceding -a y often vocalizes: {{lang|yag|ki:pa}} 'woman' plus {{lang|yag|yamalim}} 'plural animates/people' becomes {{lang|yag|ki:paiamalim}}.

===Stress===
In recent analyses of the speech of remaining speakers, [[stress (linguistics)|word stress]] was felt to be [[minimal pair|nondistinctive]]. However, in the mid-19th century Yahga Strait dialect (which is likely not the ancestor of the surviving one) word stress was distinctive at least at the level of the individual [[morpheme]], with stress shifting in regular patterns during word formation. Certain otherwise identical [[root (linguistics)|word roots]] are distinguishable by different stress marking. No information is available about phrase or clause level stress phenomena from the Yahga dialect.

Some roots, particularly those with doubled consonants, exhibit stress on both vowels flanking the doublet. Diphthongs appear to attract stress when they are morphophonetic in origin, sometimes removing it from vowels on both sides that would otherwise be stressed. The first vowel -V- (influenced by the preceding terminal root vowel) in {{lang|yag|-Vna}} '(be) in a state' also appears to attract stress, while {{lang|yag|-ata}} 'attain' repels stress to the left. Thus the combination {{lang|yag|-Vnata}} 'get into a state' is harmonious. Diphthongal attraction often trumps {{lang|yag|-Vna}}, drawing stress further left, while two successive diphthongs often have the stress on the rightmost one (counterintuitively). Syllables reduced morphophonetically generally lose whatever stress they might have carried. The vast majority of 'irregular' stress renderings in Bridges' original dictionary manuscript seem to arise from just these five sources.

It may be that these effects help to preserve morpheme boundary and identity information. For instance, given the importance of derivation of verbs from nouns and adjectives using {{lang|yag|-Vna-}} and {{lang|yag|-ata-}}, shifted stress allows one to differentiate these morphemes from lexical {{lang|yag|-ata-}} (common enough) and those {{lang|yag|-na-}}'s that are part of lexical roots (also relatively common). {{lang|yag|-Vna}} itself will often lose stress and reduce to a tense vowel before other suffixes, leaving the shifting as a hint of its underlying presence.

Stress can also differentiate otherwise identical voice morpheme strings: {{lang|yag|tú:mu:-}} causative reflexive (get someone else to do/make one) from {{lang|yag|tu:mú:-}}(1) the causative of making oneself seem, or pretend to be in some state, and {{lang|yag|tu:mú:-}}(2) the circumstantial ({{lang|yag|tu:-}} allomorph before m-) of same (i.e. to seem/pretend at any specified time or place, with any particular tools, for any reasons, etc.). Circumstantial T has different allomorphs- some having following stressable vowel, others not- this also complicates matters for the learner but may also help disentangle morpheme boundaries for the listener.

===Sound symbolism===
There appears to be a great deal of remnant sound symbolism in the Yahgan lexicon. For example, many roots ending in -m encode as part of their senses the notion of a texturally softened positive curve (similar to -mp in such words as lump or hump in English), while an -l in similar position often shows up when the reference is to bloody core parts, often out from once safe confinement inside the body. Many roots with initial ch- refer to repeated, spiny extrusions, final -x to dry, hard-edged, or brittle parts, and so on.

The historical sources of these patterns cannot be known for sure, but it may be possible that there was at one time a shape and texture classifier system of some sort behind them. Such systems are rather common in South American languages.

There is little direct onomatopoeia recorded by Bridges, despite descriptions of highly animated imitative behavior on the part of speakers being recorded in the late 19th century. Several bird names are perhaps reduplications of calls (or other nonvocal behavior), and there are a couple of imitative cries and sound words. Most words denoting sounds end in an unproductive verb-deriving suffix {{lang|yag|-sha}} (in at least one case {{lang|yag|-ra}}, and r is known to alternate with sh), which may be derived from the Yahgan root {{lang|yag|ha:sha}} 'voice, language, uttered words, speech, cry', or {{lang|yag|vra}} 'to cry' — e.g. {{lang|yag|gvlasha}} 'to rattle'.

In the Bridges dictionary of the language one may note several otherwise identical terms differing only in whether they are spelled with an s or a ch — e.g. {{lang|yag|asela}}/{{lang|yag|achela}} 'skin'. It is not known whether this was dialectal, dialect mixture, ideolectal, gender-based usage or a real grammatical variation such as might occur with augmentative/diminutive sound symbolic shifting.