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International Journal of American Linguistics.
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80 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AMERICAN LINGUISTICS VOL. XXXVI
discussion. Mlle. Guyot has bothered to centric fashion, for the undemanding require-
draw brief but cogent comparisons with the ments of ethnological field notations, and
mythological traditions of such neighboring attuned to a lay German ear. The Umlaut
peoples as the Araucanians and Patagonians vowel series [a, e, 6], for example, does not
(195-197). As well organized as the book is, exist in the Selk'nam inventory (cf. Glossary,
I would recommend that it be read in the 203-209). The most gross oversight on Mile.
following manner: first, the Introduction Guyot's part was to attempt to adapt the
(7-20); then the section on aims and meth- Yamana phonological inventory from Hes-
ods (Buts et M6thodes, 21-27); and then termann and Gusinde (1933) and use it (1)
skip immediately to the concluding chapter for both Yamana and Selk'nam, apparently
(191-197) before consulting the body of the unrelated languages. In addition to the
text (29-189). Umlaut vowel series, present in Yamana
Art is not to be scrutinized too closely. but absent in Selk'nam, the consonant [z] is
While not meaning to depreciate its scien- absent in Selk'nam; and in Yamana appears
tific value, I described this work in another only in the environment [r-], which makes
review (American Anthropologist 71. 523- me think this is one phonemic unit, actually
525) as something akin to art in the neatness a retroflex, voiced, groove spirant, or /z/.
of style of its analysis and formal presenta- Additionally, [b], absent in Selk'nam but
tion. It is only with respect to those details present in Yamana, is not included in Mile.
of analysis which weigh so heavily in the Guyot's table; and [n] and the glottal ['],
scales of professional linguists that this work present in the glossaries for both languages,
is due for adverse criticism: the technical are also omitted. Nor is stress, which is indi-
handling of the phonology and orthography cated for some words and not for others in
is atrocious. I began to compile some ex- both tongues, specified as to whether it is
amples of errata when it dawned on me that true, phonemic stress or some sort of pitch
the whole matter had been so ill handled accent. And, as though to crown a sorry mess
that it could not be adequately evaluated with a supreme irony, the table, which pur-
without debunking it entirely and plunging ports to list "the principle phonemes of this
for a fresh start into the troublesome in- system," does not even mention the vowel
tricacies of Fuegian phonology. Perhaps [a]-the most prevalent in both languages.
ethnologist Guyot is not to be criticized too Of such is the stuff which irritates lin-
harshly, for she has borrowed wholly from guists, although in broad perspective it is
the orthography and phonological analysis of perhaps of petty concern in light of the major
F. Hestermann and M. Gusinde.5 Never- theoretical contributions of this work to the
theless, there are numerous flaws for which semiotic structural study of myth and mean-
she cannot be excused, despite her unques- ing in cultural analysis.
tioning dependence upon erring tradition. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,BERKELEY
The system is patently pre-phonemic, and
at best could be described as a broad INTRODUCTION TO THEORETICAL LIN-
phonetic transcription, adequate, in its ec- GUISTICS.By John Lyons. London and New
6 F. Hestermann, in, Thomas Bridges, Yamana- York: Cambridge University Press, 1968.
English, A Dictionary of the Speech of Tierra del Pp. x, 519.
Fuego, for private circulation only. Modling:
Hestermann and Gusinde, 1933. Cf. also F. Hester- D. TERENCE LANGENDOEN
man, Zur Transkriptionsfrage des Yahgan, This is the decade of the redress of past
Journal de la Soci6t6 des Am6ricanistes de Paris
10.27-41 (1913). Cf. also M. Gusinde, Das Laut-
imbalances. This book attempts to com-
system der Feuerlandischen Sprachen, Anthropos pensate for the relative overemphasis on
21.1000-1024 (1926). phonology and morphology and underem-
NO. 1 NOTES AND REVIEWS 81