Publications
Publication details [#15654]
Jackson, Jason Baird and Mary Linn. 2000. Calling in the Members: Linguistic Form and Cultural Context in a Yuchi Ritual Speech Genre. Anthropological Linguistics 42 (1) : 61–80.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
Indiana University
ISBN
0003-5483
Annotation
In the Yuchi ceremonial-ground communities of eastern Oklahoma, language shift from Yuchi to English has prompted a variety of changes in the form and function of several ritual speech genres. While extended orations are now delivered in English, certain shorter and more specialized genres continue to be performed in Yuchi.
In this article, we describe and interpret one of these genres: a set of announcements used to assemble the community in preparation for nighttime stomp dances. Known in English as “dance calls,” this genre is contextualized within a broader ethnography of Yuchi ritual speaking and examined for insights into the unique phonological and morphological characteristics of Yuchi ritual discourse. The case of dance-call performance also suggests more general patterns characteristic of the Yuchi language, of Yuchi ritual culture, and of the processes of language loss and maintenance.