Selknam Language

This dictionary & grammar provide the only record which will soon be available of Selknam or Ona, a Tshon language spoken in Tierra del Fuego. The grammar is an impressive work. Presented in a modified generative framework, it is based on a voluminous corpus collected over three years. It contains five parts: (1) an introduction, giving an account of the speakers, typological traits, dialect variation, styles & taboos, (2) a collection of formational & transformational syntax rules, (3) a phonological account from phonetic realization to prosodic features, (4) examples of the interaction of syntactic & phonological rules, & (5) a bibliography. The dictionary contains about two hundred fifty roots listed according to the number of segments contained, complete with nominal & verbal expansions. An index is also included, listed in Spanish alphabetical order. The final section is a thematic index, containing headings such as "time," "space," & "body parts." Although there are some difficulties with the grammar, the importance of the works is not disputed. T. Lamb