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Text setting in an Itelmen khodila: A phonological analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Jonathan David Bobaljik ,
David Koester ,
Chikako Ono  and
Georgi Dmitrievich Zaporotskij
Jonathan David Bobaljik*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
David Koester*
Affiliation:
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Chikako Ono*
Affiliation:
Hokkai-Gakuen University
*
Harvard University, Department of Linguistics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, [bobaljik@fas.harvard.edu]
[dckoester@alaska.edu]
[c-ono@hgu.jp]
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Abstract

We examine a traditional Itelmen song type (itl; Chukotko-Kamchatkan) from the perspective of text setting: the phonological correspondence between spoken language and sung text. We suggest that the algorithm that relates spoken text to song in Itelmen is unlike the majority of examples considered in the literature on English and other languages, in that linguistic stress and metrical prominence play no discernible role, nor does syllable weight. Instead, the driving force appears to be matching word edges to (half-)measure boundaries, resulting in predictable anaptyxis (vowel epenthesis) and lengthening. The process is paraphonological in that it is related to, but distinct from, the regular phonology of the language, both in the quality of the epenthetic elements and in their placement. While the algorithm makes use of (and thus may inform us about) Itelmen phonotactics, the relationship is not readily characterizable as being phonotactically motivated but is instead controlled by a pattern of mapping linguistic syllables to musical beats.

Keywords

paraphonologytext settingverbal artItelmenepenthesis

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Type
Research Report
Information
Language , Volume 99 , Issue 2 , June 2023 , pp. e108 - e134
Copyright
Copyright © 2023 Linguistic Society of America

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