Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Franz Boas
American Anthropologist, Vol. 2, No. 1. (Jan., 1889), pp. 47-54.
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Tue Nov 20 08:11:23 2007
Jan. 1889.1
ON ALTERNATING SOUNDS.
ON ALTRRNATINGC SOUNDS.
BY D R . FRANZ BOAS.
48
[VOI.IT.
Jan. 188g.I
ON ALTERNATING SOUNDS.
49
50
[VOI. 11.
Jan. 1889.1
ON ALTERNATING SOUNDS.
51
Operniving
Kikertlkdjua
NertsCdluk
Kafmut
Sadmia
Upernivik
Kekertikdjuak
Neqtsedluk
KaIvun
Cadmia
Uperdnivik
Kekertaktuak
52
V O ~ .11.1
rilr,
Jan. 1889.1
ON ALTERNATING SOUNDS.
53
covered only with the greatest difficulty when I heard the words for
"we" and "you" about twenty times without being able to discover the difference, the one being d'alengua, the otherdalengua. In
Kwakiutl I found frequently the combination gy, but finally discovered that there are really two peculiar sounds, which I render
by Ry' and u'. In Eskimo I found the same difficulty in distinguishing the gdC of Danish authors from the ordinary L
The second and better crucial test is to attempt to ascertain
whether individuals speaking one of these languages with " alternating sounds" hear sounds of our language as alternating sounds.
This is, in fact, the case. Last summer 3' asked a Tlingit to pronounce the English I. I found that he alternately pronounced the
exploded C of the northwest coast and y. In the same way he pronounced the Germangutturalr alternately as r, w , and g, and I may
add here that a Scotchman whom Iasked to pronounce the German
word sud pronounced alternately y a d and sia'd. I believe this
crucial test is decisive ; and it seems to me a sufficient explanation
of the phenomena of "sound-blindness," as well as of alternating
sounds," to assume that they originate by "alternating apperception. "
NEWYORK,November, 1888.
54
[Vol. 11.
* *
* * *."
-4.
I.
.I,