Marrow

A Slip of the Tongue:  We are sure that the r in Mrs. Metcalf’s first try at saying this word is an outright slip of the tongue.  This is not the only time that an r slipped into a Milluk word in the interview.  Listen to the second time in the interview that she says the Milluk word that is a translation for ‘big’.  

Voiceless Un-aspirated Versus Slightly Voiced: In our table of transcriptions we do not phonetically transcribe Lolly’s first time saying this word in this interview segment, because it involves an outright slip of the tongue.  Nonetheless, we get something from hearing it as [ slakádu ], which we write here phonetically, minus the r.  The [ k ] in the first token is definitely an un-aspirated voiceless velar stop [ k ], not an aspirated one [ kʰ ].  That is worth noting, because it lends credence to our hearing a slightly voiced [ g ] in the second token.  That voicing, even if slight, qualifies that consonant as being what we call a ‘heavy pronunciation’ which matches the ejective in Mrs. Peterson’s pronunciation of this word.

That heavy pronunciation of what is otherwise an ejective and the regular sound correspondence of Coos Bay Milluk velar [ k ] and [ kʼ ] corresponding to uvular [ q ] and [ qʼ ], respectively, in Mrs. Peterson’s Milluk, tells us that another pronunciation of the word at South Slough could have been [ slak’adu ], as an old fashioned pronunciation of the word, with a velar ejective [ kʼ ] where Mrs. Peterson has a uvular ejective [ qʼ ].   

The Hanis Word Matching Mrs. Peterson’s Milluk Instead of Mrs. Metcalf's Coos Bay Milluk:  This would seem to be a case where Coos Bay Milluk stands on its own by having a velar consonant [ kʼ ] where we would expect a matching Hanis word also to have a velar consonant [ kʼ ].  Instead, Mrs. Peterson’s version of the Hanis word is [ slaqʼádau ].  With other words, South Slough Milluk (i.e. Coos Bay Milluk) and Hanis together have velar [ k ] or [ kʼ ] corresponding with Mrs. Peterson’s Milluk having uvular [ q ] or [ qʼ ], respectively.  

The u-au Sound Correspondence:  This is not the only Milluk word where Mrs. Peterson has [ au ] at the end of a word where Mrs. Metcalf has [ u ].  See the Milluk word that is a translation of ‘die’.  

Shortened Diphthongs:  There are quite a few examples in the Milluk texts where there is a word ending with [ aᵘ ], with an alternate pronunciation somewhere else in the Milluk texts of the same word ending with [ au ].  In order to get an idea of what a Milluk shortened diphthong sounds like, listen to how Lolly Metcalf consistently pronounces the Milluk word that is a translation of ‘back’, referring to someone’s back.