Publications. [AM. ARCH. ETH. VOL. 4] Kroeber.-The Washo Language. 253

PAGE 2...... 99 valley, east of the Sierra . The neighbors of the Washo . 299 on the west were the Maidu and the Miwok, living on the western ...... 301 slope of the Sierra. On all other sides were Shoshoneans, prob- ...... 301 ------... 302 ably all of whom belonged to a dialectic group comprising the 304 Mono and the so-called Paviotso or "Paiute" of northwestern .--....- 306 Nevada. The Washo language was definitely established as a dis- 308 ------312 tinct family by Powell on the basis of its lexical content, and there appears no reason to change this classification. Although the Washo territory lay more largely in Nevada than in Cali- fornia, it was so restricted that the Washo present all the appear- TION. ances of one of the numerous small linguistic families charac- e Washo or Washoe language teristic of . They constitute, however, the only small Few days each, devoted partly family, in this region, east of the Sierras, and their cultural rela- A number of Indians, both tions, whether through the force of environment or through affil- ,hoshonean stock, live on the iation, have been apparently mainly with the neighboring Sho- be found about its streets. shoneans. They are the only Indians in Nevada that do not form Wobert Schermerhorn, a young part of the great Uto-Aztekan family. For this reason the first iglish. The time devoted to question of interest in regard to their language from a compara- progress made is due to the tive point of view, is whether in its morphological characteristics, act that the language does not -its lexical and genetic independence being recognized,-it re- al difficulties. From the ma- sembles more nearly the neighboring widely spread Shoshonean are touched upon but neces- dialects with which it is chiefly in territorial contact, or the many ably there are others which a distinct smaller families constituting a morphological group in importance. Sufficient infor- northern and southern Central California. This question can be i secured in the study of the better discussed after a consideration of the information secured y some of its principal char- upon the language, and the answer will therefore be found in the )mpare the language morpho- conclusion of this paper. bally unrelated languages and Like the preceding linguistic PHONETICS. dies, the present paper is the rchaeological Survey of Cali- The vowels of Washo are u, o, a, e, i. E and o are open. Mod- Department of the University ifications of a such as ii; closed e and o; 6 and ii; and nasalized and support, to Mrs. Phoebe vowels, do not occur. The vowels are both long and short. At times they are so short as to be obscure in quality. Accented or s situated both in California long vowels are often heard as doubled. The Indians distinguish Tahoe and the lower Carson two i's in certain stems according as these stems are combined with varying affixes, but the dissimilarity in sound between these r. Anthr., n. s., V. 1, 1903. i vowels is at best so slight that it is difficult to say whether a dif-

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