Recent publication on comparative Eskimo-Aleut

Michael Krauss brought my attention to a recent paper on comparative Eskimo-Aleut by José Andrés Alonso de la Fuente of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Alaskans may not be familiar with the work of this Spanish scholar, who has been making an important contribution to Eskimo-Aleut linguistics. The paper is entitled Proto-Eskimo-Aleut */ə/ and the Origin of Aleut Pre-Aspirated Consonants. The abstract follows:

The aim of this paper is to analyze several points of the Aleut historical phonology which up till now had not received enough attention. The programmed agenda comprises: (I) Proto-Eskimo-Aleut */ə/; (II) the pre-aspiration; (III) the Proto-Eskimo-Aleut sequences */-nə-/ and */-ŋə-/, and (IV) Aleut lexicon containing x̣- (γ.-). An ideal understanding of these processes shall help to the reconstruction of the Proto-Aleut language, an issue totally rejected in the specialized literature.

The paper is published in Revista Española de Antropología Americana (40.1, 2010) and can  be downloaded here.