UC Merced The Journal of California Anthropology Title Interior Chumash Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/584924cs Journal The Journal of California Anthropology, 4(2) Authors Beeler, Madison S. Klar, Kathryn A. Publication Date 1977-12-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Interior Chumash MADISON S. BEELER KATHRYN A. KLAR N this article we pubUsh two Chumash study will use material from aU three of these Ivocabularies representing the speech of men in an attempt to clarify the Hnguistic groups who Hved away from the coast together situation in a corner of California as it existed with analysis and commentary; no pubh- perhaps a century ago. cations ofthe Chumash speech of these regions C. Hart Merriam (1855-1942) was in his have hitherto been made. The word-lists wiU earher life a professional biologist and acted considerably change the traditional picture of for many years as chief of the Biological speech distributions in these interior regions. Survey of the United States Department of Although we owe both ofthe vocabularies here Agriculture. Later his interests changed, and in printed to the work of C. Hart Merriam, their 1910 he left government service and came to interpretation requires us to use materials Hve in California, devoting himself to the drawn from the researches of A.L. Kroeber collecting of ethnological and linguistic data and John P. Harrington. All three of these men from elderly survivors ofthe numerous Indian were diUigent tillers of the fecund vineyard of tribes he found aU over the state and in California aboriginal languages, and they were neighboring parts of Nevada and Arizona. aU working contemporaneously, in the first Most of this material assembled in the field and two decades ofthe twentieth century. But there in supplementary work in archives was de­ was practically no communication among posited with the Department of Anthropology, them. Of the three, only Kroeber was a prolific University of California, Berkeley, in 1950. pubHsher, and so it is from him that the picture Two books based on it are (a) Studies of ofthe distributions and structures of the state's California Indians (Merriam 1955); and (b) native languages which dominated the scholar­ Languages, Territories, and Names of Cali­ ly scene during the first half of the century was fornia Indian Tribes (Heizer 1966b). The largely derived. The subject is, however, so vast present study prints two ofthe vocabularies in that no one student could pretend to control aU the Merriam collection; we express our ap­ parts of it. As we shaU see, the lack of preciation for permission to use them. intercommunication among these three in­ The first of these (Vocabulary 1), in vestigators greatly retarded the progress of our Merriam's handwriting, is dated November 11, understanding of the nature and detail of the 1905, at San Emigdio, California, and is signed state's linguistic diversity. What Harrington by him. We shall refer to the language of this pubUshed during his lifetime is only a tiny part document as Emigdiano. There are 61 entries of the material he coUected and recorded; and in this Hst. With each of these we give the Merriam pubhshed but Httle on California corresponding forms from the three other languages before his death in 1942. The present Chumash languages which have been most 288 THE JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA ANTHROPOLOGY KAWAIISU ISLAND O"^^^^^ Fig. 1. Chumash linguistic area (after Kroeber 1925). The present authors would include most or all of the territory marked Alliklik within the Chumash linguistic area. fully described: Barbareiio (from Beeler's One form, identified as Senan, is cited from [n.d.] files), Inesefio (from Applegate's [1970] Beeler (1967); and one, credited to Pinart, from manuscript dictionary), and Ventureiio (from Heizer (1952). Kitanemuk, the Uto-Aztecan the Harrington manuscripts; the material, ex­ language spoken nearest to Emigdiano, lacks cerpted and organized by Applegate, has an adequate published lexicon; words from it kindly been placed at our disposal by him). are drawn from Merriam. Occasional phonetic Yokuts forms with source not indicated are interpretations of the graphemes are ventured. cited from Kroeber (1963); most of them are There is no inhabited place named San from the Buena Vista (B.V.) group, which Emi(g)dio on the present map of California. consists of the two languages Tulamni (Tul.) But one of the high peaks in the Transverse and HometwoH (Horn.). A few, taken from the Range that walls off the southern end of the Harrington manuscripts, are identified by the San Joaquin Valley is called San Emigdio initials JPH. Similarly, the initials CHM Mountain (Gudde 1969:283), and a creek that identify the source of other quoted words as flows northward from the north-facing slopes coming from others of the Merriam papers. of that peak until it loses itself on the dry, level INTERIOR CHUMASH 289 Vocabulary 1 RIOSS EmiRdiano Yokuts Other yit-ta Tul. yit Hoin. yit' JPH Horn, yit' | yit' ) two pung-e [puQi] E.V. puia Ipuqi ] three Slio' p [ SO" p] B.V. coop [so-p] four tah-pahng-e B.V. tapani | t.i paiii] five yet-sing-il Tul. yitsiri Horn, yit-sunul six sho-pon-hut Tul. tsolipi Horn, sop'^onhoc JPH seven num-Csin B.V. numtsin eight mo-nas Tul. munas Horn, mu ' nas [munas ] nine woo-chahC B.V. unjtcat ten tre-yow Tul. teu Horn, ciyaw JPH Horn, tieu (cf. Inc. ciyaw) (In Merriam's manuscript there is in the margin, besidt:: these Emigdiano numerals, the penciled notation: "Strong touch of Yokuts.") gloss Eitiigd iano Barbareho Other Indian people hool-koo-koo u-l-k ma-kuh-ku The Emigd iano shows the article -1- together with the obligatory locater; the other languages are givtn with their articles. man eh-ho-e ''ih-ty '>ih±y woman en-nek •'eneq xanwa •^enoq ray father hoop ko-ko hu-p-koko si-p-koko'' ma-p-koko'' l-/hat CHN obtained was clearly the Emigdiano for 'your father;' the equivalents of this in the other languages are given. eye tuk -tiq -ttq tix ear p' too -p-Cu'^ si-p--tu ma-p-tu'' mouth [Vour') pu k -p-4k si-p--ik ma-p-*k arm ['your' ] p'mah -phu, si-p'^u. ma-p u Uto-Aztecan -ma-, -p-wacax si-p--wasna*'a l Luis, ma-t teeth [Vour') p' sah -p-s"a si-p--sa ma-p-sa heart pos -''ayapis -pos atifek, 'ayapis - 1 house ahp' •'ap •'ap ^apt mam fire nuh ni ni nl Indian tobacco shaw-hoo-wah sow sow sow salt te' p tip tip tip , >ch bow ah = •'ax 'ax 'ax arrow yah-ah ya'' ya ya' stone knife eh-wah ''iwi •'iw 'iw 1 chief wot wot wot wot (Continued) 290 THE JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA ANTHROPOLOGY gloss Emigd iano Barbareno Ventureno Ineseno Other water oh' ''o^ ''o ''o'' rock ^h 'up' x4p xip xip big 'hah-ah^ xax xa''ax nox, •'aliyin u 'Ch rain too-hoo- = tuhuy tuhuy tuhuy yes huh hi he Horn. hi JPH no seh' s-e mu-c-'' 11 ''insil I nob no'' no no'' you (sg.) pe-e pi-' pi pi' bear hoos xus XQS xus bob-cat ahl-hi'££ •'anaqpuw •'alxay 'anaqpuw mule deer wuh=, wooh ' w4 wi wi ch - golden eagle slo, s=lo slow slow, clow slow bald eagle mah-he-wah maxiwo maxiwo ('white-headed e.agle' ) great horned owl moo-hoo muhu muhu muhu valley quail tah-k.3h-kah takak(a) ''iqiy takak 1 •) 1 frog wek-ketch waqaq xwetet waqaq, weqec (different species) valley oak ko-che-let- Cah ta"* ta ta' Tul. ^icileha) JPH sycamore cho-hok xso'' xso (x)sonus Horn. tcoxok 'tree' ALK. Cottonwood lap-p qwel xweltxwel qweleqwel B.V. lap JPH willow tso-mo-san-ne Stayit ctayit stayit, wak elder ki-yas qayas qayas broad leaf wah-ahs tok (red milkweed) tok (red milkweed), milkweed wa'as milkweed string hoo-wis 'oxponus B.V. xuwis 'string from t century plant' JPH wild sunflower Cah =-ai cf, Luis, pa-'ka-l ?? Indian whiskey mong-ol momoy moraoy momoy wild grapevine noo-net-tah nunit (skak), nunit B.V. nunet noo-net-tah CHM Baccharis wal-11 mule tat (Munz and Ke viminea 1968) leaf tap-tap qap qap qap General Yokuts dapdap ,. ,ch-ah, (Span, o ^ ) Span, hoja root Cu-uuh-kan 'axpilli ''axpilil 'axpilii B.V. tiwexan JPH acorn u-san 'ixpanls 'ixpanis 'ixpanis General Yakuts ocin ALK Yawel. ''e • sin SN acorn cup poo-ko-yoh fcuKuy > tree cho-hak pon > pon Horn, tcoxok ALK pon bark kah-pahs sxol c^ol s^ol Horn, kapas JPH floor of the valley is named San Emigdio Merriam interviewed the informant who spoke Creek. Maps from the end of the nineteenth the language of the people he called the Hool- century show a settlement on the banks of the koo-koo. creek called San Emigdio, some forty miles in a Directly to the north of the former settle­ southwesterly direction from the city of ment, and no more than a dozen or fifteen Bakersfield. That settlement, which has since miles away over the flat plains, there existed disappeared, is given as the place where until the end of the nineteenth century two INTERIOR CHUMASH 291 lakes caUed Kern Lake and Buena Vista Lake, /-. -/- is the definite article, found outside of formed by the waters of the Kern River. The Emigdiano only in Barbareflo and contrasting marshes or tulares along these lakes were the with the Inesefio ha- and ma- and with the habitat of the Buena Vista Yokuts bands, the Ventureno si- in the same function.