The development of morphophonemic complexity in Eskimo languages

Abstract

As I have recently argued (Fortescue, forthcoming 1992), the Eskimo-Aleut languages appear to have developed from an earlier, more agglutinative stage towards full-blown polysynthesis hand in hand with increasing mor-phophonemic complexity, the latter having today reached - especially in Alaskan Yupik - a daunting degree of complexity. I discuss there in “teleological” terms why this perhaps unexpected linkage might have come about without generalization of individual allomorphs having continually counteracted the complications resulting from normal phonological drift. The purpose of the present article is to sketch the route whereby this state of affairs was reached. The reconstruction is based upon the now virtually complete first version of the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary (Fortescue et al., forthcoming) and the recent comparative Eskimo-Aleut work by Knut Bergsland (especially Bergsland 1986 and 1989).

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