Linguistics

4501. Brown, C. H. A WIDESPREAD MARKING REVERSAL IN LANGUAGES OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. Anthropological Linguistics. 1996, 38(3): 439-460. Across the southeastern United States, native American languages have linguistically accommodated the European-introduced peach by referring to it through the use of respective terms for the native plum. This has taken the form of marking reversals in which native words originally designating plum have shifted in reference to peach, with modified (overtly marked) 'peach' terms used to denote plum (e.g., 'little peach' = plum). Marking reversals were motivated throughout the region by a radical change in the relative cultural importance of the two referents, wherein the introduced peach surpassed the native plum in salience. The broad distribution of this nomenclatural feature is probably attributable both to diffusion and to independent development. Other widespread features involving words for introduced items are noted including a marking reversal in which the introduced pig and the native opossum are nomenclaturally linked. These lexical traits suggest the southeastern United States to be a post-contact linguistic area.