How to Swear in Maliseet-Passamaquoddy and Penobscot

In the Eastern Algonquian languages Maliseet-Passamaquoddy and Penobscot, evaluative forms of verbs are derived by inserting one of several morphemes, not meaningful in themselves, within the verb stem. Corresponding derivatives of nouns and particles are formed by suffixation. This article document...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Anthropological linguistics 2009-04, Vol.51 (1), p.1-37
Main Authors: LeSourd, Philip S., Quinn, Conor McDonough
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
American languages
Anger
Causal inference
Comparative analysis
Comparative linguistics
Descriptive studies and applied theories
Dictionaries
Ethnolinguistics
Ethnosemantics
Expletives
Hell
Lexical stress
Linguistic anthropology
Linguistic research
Linguistics
Maliseet-Passamaquoddy
Morpheme
Morphemes
Morphology
Nouns
Penobscot
Suffixes
Swear words
Verbs
Vowels
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Summary:In the Eastern Algonquian languages Maliseet-Passamaquoddy and Penobscot, evaluative forms of verbs are derived by inserting one of several morphemes, not meaningful in themselves, within the verb stem. Corresponding derivatives of nouns and particles are formed by suffixation. This article documents the shapes that these derivatives take and the ways in which they are used to express anger, scorn, impatience, or intensity. Comparative evidence suggests that the source of these formations is an old process by which morphemes making reference to intimate body parts and other off-color concepts were added to verbs and nouns.
ISSN:0003-5483
1944-6527
1944-6527
DOI:10.1353/anl.0.0003