GRAMMAR, CONTACT AND TIME
Marianne Mithun University of California, Santa Barbara
1. The Area: California
North America is home to considerable linguistic diversity, with 55-60 distinct language families and isolates in the traditional sense, that is, the largest genetic groups that can be established by the comparative method. Of these, 22 are represented in California. Some California languages are members of large families that extend over wide areas of the continent, such as Uto-Aztecan, Algic (Athabaskan-Wiyot-Yurok), and Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit. Others belong to medium or small families spoken mainly or wholly within California, such as Utian (12 languages), Yuman (11), Pomoan (7), Chumashan (6), Shastan (4), Maidun (4), Wintun (4), Yokutsan (3), Palaihnihan (2), and Yuki-Wappo (2). Some are isolates: Karuk, Chimariko, Yana, Washo, Esselen, and Salinan. Most of the currently accepted genetic classification was established over a century ago (Powell 1891). Locations of the languages can be seen in Figure 1. In 1903, Dixon and Kroeber noted structural resemblances among some of these families and isolates and ascribed them simply to common typology. Ten years later, they hypothesized that the similarities might be due to distant genetic relationship and proposed, primarily on the basis of grammatical structure, two possible ‘stocks’ or groups of families, which they named Hokan and Penutian. The original Hokan hypothesis linked Karuk, Chimariko, Yana, Shastan, Palaihnihan, Pomoan, Esselen, and Yuman. Over the next half-century, various scholars added the Washo, Salinan, and Chumashan families from California; the Tonkawa, Karankawa, and Coahuilteco languages from Texas; Seri, Tequistlatecan, and Tlappanec from Mexico; Subtiaba from Nicaragua; and Jicaque from Honduras. Some of the proposals remain promising, and others have since been abandoned. Evaluation of their validity remains difficult, however. The proposed relationships would be remote, comparable to those of Indo-European or deeper, and documentation of the languages, most of which are no longer spoken, is in many cases limited. There has, furthermore, been a long history of contact. The original Penutian hypothesis grouped together the California families Maidun, Wintun, Utian (Miwok-Costanoan), and Yokuts. Subsequent proposals added Takelma, Coos, Siuslaw, Alsea, Klamath-Modoc, Cayuse-Molala, Sahaptian, Takelma, Kalapuya, and Chinookan of Oregon; Tsimshianic of British Columbia; and Mixe-Zoquean and Huave of Mexico. Ongoing work
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continues to uncover promising lexical resemblances among some of the families, but in general the difficulties are the same as for Hokan: the remoteness of the proposed relationships, in many cases limited documentation, and the long history of contact. (More detailed histories of the Hokan and Penutian hypotheses can be found in Langdon 1990 on Hokan, DeLancey and Golla 1997 on Penutian, and Campbell (1997: 290-305, 309-322) and Mithun (1999: 303-304, 308-310) on the two.
Figure1
2. Central Pomo prefixes
The first part of the shared structure consists of sets of verbal prefixes that indicate means or manner of motion, such as those visible in (1) below from Central Pomo. Central Pomo, one of the seven languages of the Pomoan family, is indigenous to an area of Northern California extending from approximately 100 miles north of San Francisco northward, and from the coast about 40 miles inland. Material cited here comes from speakers Salome Alcantra, Alice Elliott, Jesse Frank, Frances Jack, Eileen Oropeza, and Florence Paoli.
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(1) Central Pomo verbs a. yá:q’ ‘know’ da-yá:q’ ‘recognize by feeling around (with hands)’ ’-yá:q’ ‘recognize by touching (with fingers)’ ph-yá:q’ ‘recognize visually (by sight)’ qa-yá:q’ ‘recognize (food) by tasting’ s-yá:q’ ‘recognize (a drink) by tasting’ ba-yá:q’ ‘follow an order’
b. ä’é:č’ ‘stick together, be alongside of each other’ da-ä’é:č’ ‘push on something that sticks in your hand’ ’-ä’é:č’ ‘stick on with fingers, as chewing gum under a table’ ma-ä’é:č’ ‘step on a nail or something that sticks in your foot’ ča-ä’é:č’ ‘sit on a thorn, put a patch on pants’ h-ä’é:č’ ‘stick up a pole, pitchfork, shovel, etc. in the ground’ m-ä’é:č’ ‘catch fire’ ph-ä’é:č’ ‘hammer a nail into the wall, nail something on’ pha-ä’é:č’ ‘something floating downriver gets stuck on the bank’ s-ä’é:č’ ‘while one is drinking, something gets into the mouth that doesn’t belong: bug, dirt’ ša-ä’é:č’ ‘stick a support, as a box, next to something long, like fenceposts stored upright for use’
c. h-k’ún ‘close a door’ š-k’ún ‘close a gate’ ph-k’ún ‘nail something shut, like a box, blow something shut like a window’ ča-k’ún ‘block, as a doorway’ ’-k’ún ‘close something up with the fingers’ čh-k’ún ‘be blocked by vegetation, like a tunnel overgrown with brush’ m-k’ún ‘be constipated’
d. da-kél ‘brush away dirt’ ma-kél ‘wipe feet’ čh-kél ‘wipe off, as a baby’s dirty face’ s-kél ‘wash off’ ’-kél ‘clean, as pebbles out of beans before cooking them’ š-kél ‘pull up weeds out of lawn’ ph-kél ‘hoe dirt to make it look nice’
e. ’-q’ál ‘finish a task’ p’-q’ál ‘finish sewing something’ ča-q’ál ‘finish peeling, as apples or potatoes’ qa-q’ál ‘finish eating something’ s-q’ál ‘finish drinking something’ ba-q’ál ‘finish a speech’ ph-q’ál ‘finish reading a book’ čh-q’ál ‘win a game’ da-q’ál ‘steal’ (Coast and Yorkville dialects) A substantial proportion of the verbs in the language contain prefixes of this type. The Central Pomo prefixes are clearly derivational. Over the course of development of the language, speakers have used them to create new lexical items as needed for nameworthy concepts. Speakers know which combinations exist in the language, which could exist but do not, and which would not be well formed. The prefix h-, for example, seen above in h-k’ún’ ‘close a door’, occurs in large numbers of Central Pomo verbs, contributing such meanings as ‘moving a long object
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lengthwise’, ‘poking’, ‘thrusting’, ‘jabbing’, and ‘throwing’. The root q’ál ‘finish, complete’ forms the basis for a number of verbs, as seen above: ‘finish a task’, ‘finish sewing something’, ‘finish peeling something’, ‘finish eating something’, ‘finish drinking something’, ‘finish a speech’, ‘finish reading something’, and more. There is, however, no verb h-q’ál ‘complete poking’. Apparently speakers have not felt the need for such a term. The prefix-root combinations are not constructed anew each time they are used: they are formed once, then learned, stored, and used as single lexical items. In fact the root q’ál- no longer occurs on its own in the language: it now appears only in the verbs with prefixes. The lexicalization of the prefix-root combinations is also apparent in the translations provided by speakers. The verb š-kél is literally ‘clean by pulling’, but the speaker rendered it as weeding a lawn. The verb ’-kél is literally ‘clean with fine finger action’, but it was translated as picking pebbles out of beans before cooking. Not surprisingly, many derived stems have somewhat idiomatic meanings, either because they were first coined for a specific purpose, or because their original meanings have shifted over time. The verb ba-yá:q’ in (1)a is literally ‘orally recognize’, but it is usually used to mean ‘follow an order’. The verb da-q’ál in (1)e is literally ‘finish off by pulling’, but in the Point-Arena/Manchester and Yorkville dialects, it is used to mean ‘swipe’ or ‘steal’. Such morphemes have sometimes been referred to as ‘instrumental affixes’, because they often evoke an instrument: ‘with the hands’, ‘with the feet’, ‘with a knife’, ‘by fire’, etc. They have also been termed ‘lexical affixes’ because their meanings seem quite concrete, more like those of roots or whole words. Their meanings are actually more abstract and diffuse than those typical of nouns denoting instruments like ‘hand’ or ‘knife’. Even from the few examples above, we can see that the prefix da- could be translated ‘by hand’, ‘by touching’, ‘with the palm’, or ‘by pushing’: da-yá:q’ ‘recognize by feeling around (with hands)’, da-ä’é:č’ ‘push on something that sticks in your hand’, da-kél ‘brush away dirt’. The prefix s-, seen above in s-yá:q’ ‘recognize (a drink) by tasting’ and s- ä’é:č’ ‘while one is drinking, something gets into the mouth that doesn’t belong, such as a bug or dirt’, appears in verbs of drinking, eating mushy food, sipping, sucking, smoking, swallowing, whistling, whispering, rain, and more. The prefix ča-, in ča-k’ún ‘block, as a doorway’, ča-ä’é:č’ ‘sit on a thorn, put a patch on pants’ and ča-q’ál ‘finish peeling, as apples or potatoes’, is used in verbs involving a massive object, especially the buttocks, but also in verbs involving cutting. The prefix čh-, seen above in čh-kél’ wipe off, as a baby’s dirty face’, čh-q’ál ‘win a game’, and čh-k’ún ‘be blocked by vegetation, like a tunnel overgrown with brush’, has an especially wide range of meanings involving round masses like rocks and the head, shooting, gambling, flowing, and vegetative growth. The ranges of meaning are due to several kinds of factors, only some of which can be recovered. One is the status of the morphemes as derivational prefixes and the lexicalization of the resulting verb stems. Speakers have created new stems by analogy to existing ones, extending the meanings of the prefixes in various directions. The prefix qa-, which appears in qa-yá:q’ ‘recognize (food) by tasting’ and qa-q’ál ‘finish eating something’, can indicate biting and chewing as in these two verbs, but it also appears in verbs meaning ‘catch’, ‘trap’, ‘prune’, ‘use pliers’, ‘lock’, and others. The semantic thread is easy to see in this case. Others are the result of sound change. The Central Pomo prefix m- appears on the one hand in such verbs as m-åóš ‘kick’, m-å’ólčiw ‘knock over with the elbow or foot’, m-séč’ ‘sniff at something’, m-láš ‘miss when trying to kick, or miss in marbles’, and on the other in m-åháw ‘unravel’, m-å’ún ‘be clogged, as a hole clogged with dirt’, m-k’ún ‘be constipated’, m-lóäč’iw ‘begin to ache’, m-čów ‘chap’, m-å’óy ‘blister’, m-ä’á-w ‘feel hot’, m-åé:č’ ‘catch fire’, m-lóäčiw ‘melt’, m-ä’áw ‘be cooked’, m-yól ‘cook various things together in the same pot’, and m-bá:č’ ‘burst open, as from swelling from heat or frost’. Cognates of the prefixes occur in all languages of the Pomoan family, as laid out by Oswalt (1976: 16). In Central Pomo, all vowels in initial syllables except for a have disappeared. Thus Proto-Pomo*ba-, *ča-, *da-, *ma-,*pha-,*qa- and *ša-
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Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:05:08PM via free access 148 Marianne Mithun correspond to Central Pomo prefixes of the same shape, but both Proto-Pomo *mi- (‘involving protuberance near end of long object’) and *mu- (‘internal force, fire, heat, cold, light, emotions, mind’) correspond to modern Central Pomo m-. The phonological merger has resulted in some doublets: the verb m-dé:n means either ‘dancing along’ or ‘burning along’. Proto-Pomo *ši- (‘pulling, breathing’) and *šu- (‘hooking, dangling’) both appear in Central Pomo as *š-. The first (‘pulling’) was seen above in š-kél ‘pull up weeds out of lawn’. The second (‘hooking’) was seen in š-k’ún ‘close a gate’. The Central Pomo vowel loss led to further phonological changes. When the initial consonants of prefixes came into direct contact with the initial consonants of roots, they sometimes underwent further reduction. Proto-Pomo *di- (‘gravity, falling; multiple long objects’) and *du- (‘work, finger action’) first collapsed to *d-, then simply to pre-glottalization in Central Pomo (represented here by an apostrophe ’). A descendant of *di- appears in ’-léyač’ ‘kill off all of something, such as weeds’. A descendant of *du- appears in ’-yá:q’ ‘recognize by touching’, ’-ä’é:č’ ‘stick on with fingers’, ’-kél ‘clean, as pebbles out of beans before cooking’, and ’-q’ál ‘finish a task’. Here, too, the merger of forms has resulted in some polysemous stems. The verb ’ né:’wan is used both to describe someone staggering around, like a man so inebriated that he is incapable of walking and keeps falling down (‘falling’), and for throwing a ball around, from person to person (‘fine finger action’). The prefixes also differ from nouns syntactically: they do not function as syntactic arguments and are not referential. Verbs containing them are akin to English verbs like ‘slap’, ‘kick’, ‘poke’, ‘bash’, or ‘burn’. They may imply the involvement of a kind of entity: the verb ‘slap’ usually implies a flat surface, particularly the palm of the hand; ‘kick’ implies action with the foot; ‘poke’ implies use of a long, pointed instrument; ‘bash’ conjures up a heavy, blunt instrument; ‘burn’ can imply fire. But none of them introduces a referent into the discourse. I would not say He bashed me on the head and it broke, to mean that the rock crumbled (unless the rock was already under discussion). Such verbs can, of course, co-occur with independent referential nouns. I can say He bashed me on the head with the rock and it broke. In a similar way, Central Pomo prefixed verbs can co-occur with independent nouns, a further indication that the prefixes and nouns are serving different functions. Furthermore, different nouns can appear with the same prefix, and vice-versa, as in (2).
(2) Central Pomo prefixed verbs with nouns a. Qhabéwi čhbá:č’. qhabé=wi čh-bá:-č’ rock=with with.massive.object-split-SEMELFACTIVE.PERFECTIVE ‘He cracked it open with a rock.’
b. Qhabéwi h-bá:č’. qhabé=wi h-bá:-č’ rock=with thrusting-split-SEMELFACTIVE.PERFECTIVE ‘He threw a rock (and hit someone in the head).’ Although the Central Pomo prefixes most often evoke a kind of instrument (means) or manner of action, there is no explicit specification of the role of that entity in the situation beyond general involvement. There are relics of a few other prefixes that serve to characterize the central participant (theme) in the situation, though these have not been productive for some time. A prefix ba-, for example, appears in a few common verbs involving multiple participants: m-åíw ‘(one) is lying’, ba-åíw ‘(more than one) is lying’; čhmáw ‘(one) is sitting’, ba-máw ‘(more than one) is sitting’. The Central Pomo prefixes thus typically contribute more concrete meanings than we normally expect of grammatical affixes, but they are not equivalent semantically or syntactically to nouns or verbs.
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3. Means and manner beyond Pomoan Cognates of the Central Pomo means/manner prefixes occur in all of the Pomoan languages. Their ancestors are easily reconstructed as prefixes for their common parent, Proto-Pomoan. Affixes of this type are relatively rare among languages of the world. Yet they are surprisingly common among languages of California and adjacent areas. 3.1 The Hokan hypothesis
Prefixes with similar meanings appear in a number of other families and isolates in the hypothesized Hokan stock: languages of the Yuman-Cochiti and Palaihnihan families and in the isolates Karuk, Yana, and Washo. Yuman languages are spoken in Southern California, western Arizona, and northern Sonora and Baja California. Means/manner prefixes are somewhat less transparent semantically in these languages than in Pomoan, but a number have been identified. Describing Mesa Grande Diegueño, spoken near modern San Diego, Langdon reports: The bulk of Diegueño verb stems are formed by the addition to a root of one of a variety of prefixes. While the meanings of these prefixes cannot be covered by a single descriptive term, they fall mostly in the category of instrumentals or causatives. Similarly, the meaning of a particular prefix cannot always be clearly established, especially if it occurs with roots not attested in other stems. (1970: 80).
Miller (1990: 32-49) provides a detailed description of their counterparts in the closely-related Jamul Diegueño, citing cognates in Mesa Grande and Yuma, a member of a different branch of the Yuman family. She mentions aa- ‘motion along a path, long motion, motion with long object, motion with instrument’; ch- ‘with the mouth or by talking, or involving multiple small objects or repetition’; k- ‘speaking, action on foot, force’; m- ‘states’; n- ‘willful or self-assertive behavior’; p- ‘involving pressure’, s- ‘contact with a surface’, sh-‘with the hand or by means of a hand-held instrument’; and x- ‘involving nature’. Each of these prefixes appears in just as many verbs without consistent or discernible meaning as with them, however. Other prefixes occur in the same position without obvious means/manner meanings, in fact often with no detectable meaning at all. Miller provides several sets of verbs sharing the same stems. Based on the root kwin, for example, she lists aakwin ‘wrap’, amkwin ‘twist’, apkwin ‘cross legs’, shemkwin ‘pinch’, skwin ‘put on or wear earring’, and terkwin ‘wind a watch’. Based on the root tu ‘hit, strike’ are kuuttu ‘kick’, kuutu ‘pound acorns’, puutu ‘run over’, stu ‘pick up several’, shttu ‘shove’, and xtu ‘wind blows’. The Karuk language is an isolate spoken in Northern California along the Klamath River. Bright (1957: 86-87) describes what he characterizes as […] a phenomenon which is marginal to normal derivation, namely the occurrence of certain sub-morphemic elements at the beginning of verbs. These phonemic sequences, analogous to English sn- in sniff, snort, sneeze, etc., are so limited in distribution as to make it inadvisable to place them on the same level as the usual type of morpheme. However, a common meaning may be traced throughout the various occurrences of each element. (1957: 86).
The sequences he lists are im- ‘involving fire or heat’, pa- ‘with the mouth’, ʔak- ‘with the hand’, imƟa- ‘with a striking implement’, ta- ‘with an implement’, vu- ‘with a cutting implement’, Ɵa- ‘with the teeth’, and Ɵim- ‘by rubbing’. Verbs containing the element pa- ‘with the mouth’ include pá-čup ‘to kiss’, pa-čnut ‘to suck on’, pá-puƟ ‘to chew’, pa-snik ‘to blow a whistle’, and pa-xut ‘to hold in one’s mouth’. Verbs containing ta- ‘with an implement’ include tá-sir ̃ ‘to brush’, tá-tuy ‘to sweep’, ta-xvav ̃ ‘to stir soup’, and ta-xvuk ‘to hook’. Haas (1980) isolated several more: čat- ‘popping’, if- sticking together, ik- ‘by hitting, with blows’, ik- ‘making a sound’, pa- ‘completely’, Ɵiv- ‘whooshing, wafting’, and vim- ‘with vigor’. Examples of ik- ‘by hitting’ are ik-
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čas ‘to mash’, ik-mar ̃ ‘to meet, hit with the fist’, ik-nap ‘to nail’, ik-nat- in ‘rock to crack acorns with’, ik-nik- in ‘maul for driving wedges’, ik-niv ‘to knock, especially on oak trees’, ik-pak ‘to chop’, ik-pat ‘to break (by hitting with something)’, and ik-rak ‘to split (wood or the like)’. Not far from Karuk to the east are the Palaihnihan languages Achomawi and Atsugewi. Talmy (1972: 407-427) describes the semantics of the Atsugewi means/manner prefixes in detail. The set is rich and generally corresponds to those in the Pomoan languages in meaning but not usually form. They include tu- ‘hands working toward each other; tasting’, ci- ‘hands working manipulatively’, ma- ‘stepping, kicking, involving foot or leg’, ti- ‘involving buttocks’, pu- ‘involving mouth or mouth-shaped object, as a flower’, wi- ‘with teeth’, pri- ‘sucking, tasting, smelling’, phu- ‘spitting, blown breath’, hi- ‘involving whole body’, ce- ‘involving eye or eye- shaped object, as a button or hailstone’ uh- ‘swinging, batting, throwing, pounding, chopping, hailing,’, cu- ‘pushing with stick, pool-cueing, prodding, poking, piercing, skewering, supporting with a cane, holding pinned against a wall, flowing liquid, downward pressure as snow on limb, falling, car in collision, sunshade on cradleboard, tightly packed material as caulking’, ra- ‘thrusting up, digging, awling, sewing, propping, leaning, poling, raking, sweeping, scraping, whittling, plowing, smoothing over, hugging, being pinned down by a log, slicing, sawing, carting, driving, getting run over, pressure as from gas in stomach, ice under soil, leaning cradleboard, a shingle’, ih- /uh- ‘planar object flush against a surface, as a spread out blanket, board nailed to a wall’, ta- ‘paddling (hot rock around in soup), stirring’, ka- ‘boring, raining’, ru- ‘dragging with a cord, flexing forearm, suspending with cord, binding, girding, steady pull as stream on an anchored cloth, attached object as sinew, a belt, an icicle’, mi- ‘cutting with blade of knife’, ca- ‘wind blowing’, miw-/mu:- ‘heat or fire’, wu:- ‘light shining’, sa-/su-/si-/siw- ‘visually’, ka-/ku-/ki-/kiw- ‘auditorily’, tu- ‘by touch’, cri- ‘linear objects in parallel, as hairs in a plait, stalks in a sheaf, sticks in a bundle’. An example is w’oswalíc’ta ‘she threw the clothes into the laundry tub’, consisting of ’w-uh-swal- ic’t‘’wa ‘FACTUAL-throwing-limp.material.move-into.liquid-FACTUAL’. Immediately to the southwest of Atsugewi is Yana, extensively documented by Sapir. The language contains a large set of elements expressing ‘instrumentality’. The Yana dictionary (Sapir & Swadesh 1960) lists such markers as baa- ‘striking, punching’, bu- ‘kicking, stepping’, bui- ‘involving feet’, di- ‘shearing, peeling’, ga- ‘speaking, uttering’, ha- ‘involving long object’, hi- ‘with the hands of generally instrumentality, pulling, bending, tearing, breaking, washing, eating with fingers’, nis- ‘by or at the foot’, pu- ‘blowing, sucking, with the mouth’, wa- ‘involving a long object’, yul- ‘mashing’, Ĉa- ‘eating, biting’, and Ĉu- ‘shooting, digging, wind blowing’. Their functions can be seen by comparing sets of verb stems containing -balla- ‘push, knock’: baa-balla- ‘to push, knock down with fist’, bu-ballaĈa ‘to kick’, bui-balla- ‘to kick’, da-balla- ‘to nudge’, haa-balla- ‘to strike’, and Ĉuu-balla- ‘to push’. A sample of verb stems all containing the prefix ga- ‘speaking’ includes ga-ʔc’gai- ‘to talk loudly’, ga-ʔlaa- ‘to cry, weep’, ga-ʔsĈap’ai ‘to answer’, ga- ʔwi- ‘to shout to’, gaa-c’an ‘to make a speech’, ga-baari- ‘to stop one from uttering’, ga- buisdi- ‘to speak for one’s happiness’, ga-damc’i- ‘to meet in council’, ga-dunindi- ‘to leave word behind’, ga-duuk’ab- ‘to stop talking’, ga-k’eerailaugu- ‘to speak in a slow drawl’, ga-k’uuwi- ‘to shout to one’s dream spirit’, ga-mic’i- ‘to prevaricate’, ga-milk’uidibil- ‘to talk unintelligibly, wrongly’, ga-rii- ‘to speak Northern Yana dialect’, ga-taa- ‘to speak a non-Northern Yana dialect’, and ga-wau- ‘to talk to’ (1960: 79). Washo is an isolate spoken to the south, around Lake Tahoe in California and Nevada. Jacobsen describes ‘a set of over 125 prefixes of concrete meaning’ (1960: 85). Some indicate a type of means or instrument, with as de- ‘with hand, fist, instrument held in hand’, ʔug- ‘with long object swung sideways’, and se- ‘by fire or heat’. Some indicate manner, such as w- ‘by treading on’, ʔebε- ‘by scratching, pinching, squeezing with fingers’, ʔle- ‘biting, holding in teeth’, d- ‘shooting, throwing rock’, hu- ‘by pushing, stirring with side of long object’, liw- ‘by pressing, mashing, stomping on’, and bv- ‘cutting with sawing motion’. Of course means and manner are often
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indistinguishable. Use of the prefixes can be seen in d-éʔem ‘with.instrument.held.in.hand-find’ = ‘to find by digging’, c’uw-íyu ‘hanging-oscillate’ = ‘to swing’, and ʔug-á:k’ɨm ‘with.long.object.swung.sideways-sever’ = ‘to cut with axe’. Some of the prefixes characterize the entity involved, as in g-áwk’aw ‘surface-be.hard’ = ‘to be hard, as wood or bread’, wege-p’ilp’il ‘(liquid) to be blue’, and ʔlú-lsil ‘(cloth) to be thin, fine’. More will be said about the Washo system later on. The Chumashan languages, spoken on the Central Coast of California, were once hypothesized to be possible members of the Hokan group, but the proposal was based on minimal lexical evidence which was subsequently rejected. Nevertheless, these languages show verbal prefixes with functions similar to those seen so far, indicating means, manner, medium, and characteristics of entities involved in the situation. These prefixes, which immediately precede the root, vary greatly in productivity and can have meanings that are difficult to isolate. Among the Ineseño Chumash prefixes listed by Applegate (1966: 346-369) are api- ‘of, with fire’, aputi- ‘of liquid in motion’, aq- ‘with the mouth’, aqul- ‘of, with a long thin object’, ašni- ‘with the feet’, maq- ‘of, with a line or rope’, naq- ‘with the body’, pal ‘of, with a pliable object’, tak- ‘with the hand’, taya- ‘of rain’, ux- of, with fire’, uš- ‘with the hand, palm’, wala- ‘of, with the body or a massive or bulky object’, waš- ‘with the hand’, wašti- ‘of a flow, liquid in motion’, yul- ‘of, with heat’, and yuq- ‘of the legs’. Uses of aq-/ax- ‘with the mouth’ can be seen in ax-tap ‘with.mouth-enter’ = ‘to put into the mouth’, ax-klaʔ ‘with.mouth-crack’ = ‘to shell acorns with the teeth’, ox-loq with.mouth-be perforated’ = ‘to bit a hole in’, and oq-lok’in ‘with.moith-cut’ = ‘to bite in two, bite through’.Others indicate manner, such as apti- ‘crushing, grinding’, aqni- mentally’, aqši- ‘calling’, aqšu- ‘eating’, aqutii ‘verbal or mental activity’, axuti- ‘sewing’, ci- ‘following’, iku- ‘pressure, restraint’, itzx- ‘hearing’, kal- ‘by cutting’, kina- ‘dying’, kupal- ‘drinking’ lu- ‘growing’, max- ‘draggling, sliding’, qal- tying, binding’, tal- ‘grasping, holding’, ti- speaking, intention’, uqšti- ‘throwing’, uxmal- washing, cleaning’, and wi- ‘by blows, by hitting’. Uses of this last prefix can be seen in wi-č’eq ‘hitting- split’ = ‘to split by blows’, wi-sɨq ‘hitting-do.firmly’ = ‘to pound tight’, and wi-su-kitwon ‘hitting- CAUSATIVE-exit’ = ‘to knock out, dislodge with a blow’. Although sets of means/manner prefixes appear in numerous languages grouped as Hokan, not all members of the group show them. They are not mentioned in descriptions of Shasta, Esselen, or Salinan. Such prefixes may of course have once existed and been lost, or they may simply have escaped documentation, which in some cases is scant. The pattern is not confined to the Hokan group, however. 3.2 The Penutian hypothesis
Sizeable sets of prefixes with the same kinds of meanings, though not the same forms, also occur in languages of California and Oregon hypothesized to belong to the other major stock, Penutian. The Maidun languages Maidu (Northeastern), Konkow (Northwestern), and Nisenan (Southern) were spoken at contact immediately to the south of Yana and Atsugewi and to the north of Washo in northeastern California. All contain sets of means/manner prefixes, which tend to show vowel harmony with the following stem. Describing Maidu proper, Dixon (1911: 693-699) lists the following prefixes: ha(n)- ‘with the shoulder or back’, hi:- ‘with nose or snout’, i:n- ‘by sitting on’, is-/ic- ‘with the foot’, ka- ‘with the flat hand or flat side of something’, ki- ‘with the fingers’, o:- ‘with the head’, so:- ‘with the arms’, te- ‘with or upon the foot’, ba-/be-/bo-/kö-,/bu- ‘involving a rounded or massive thing’, ho-/hu- ‘with the edge of a long thing, generally by a steady, continuous motion’, si-/sü- ‘with the end of a long thing’, wa-/we- ‘with the edge or side of a thing, often by a sudden motion or blow’, wo-/wö-/wu- ‘with the end of a long thing, generally by a blow’, ya-/ye- /yo-/yö-/yu- ‘with the end of a long thing, endways, or in a direction parallel to the length of the thing’, he- ‘by accident or spontaneously’, and wi- ‘by force, especially by pulling’. Some examples of of the use of o:- ‘with the head’ are o-báttodom ‘breaking a stick with the head’, o-po-pokdom
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‘shaking water out of the hair’, ó:-puldon ‘to root up (as a hog), to dig up with horns’, ó:-moto ‘to put heads together’, and ó:-miton ‘to look into a house, i.e., stick head down in through smoke hole’. Some examples of wa-/wa- ‘with the edge or side of a thing, sudden motion or blow’, are wa- ápdau ‘to scrape off with edge of a knife’, wa-báton ‘to break a stick by blow with the butt of an axe or with a club’, wá-daston ‘to split with an axe’, wá-hapkin ‘to insert a stick into a bunch of sticks’, wá-katsito ‘to bat across, knock across, with side of pole’, wé-kuttodom ‘biting in two with teeth’, wé-pitin ‘to pinch with thumb and fingers’, wé-tsapdaudom ‘tearing off with teeth’. Similar forms can be seen in Konkow (Ultan (1967) and Nisenan (Uldall & Shipley 1966). Just north of the Palaihnihan languages, in Oregon, is the Klamath language, described by Barker (1964: 114-119) and discussed in detail by DeLancey (1988, 1991, 1996). Klamath contains 72 morphemes that characterize a type of instrument, a manner of action, or a type of entity acted upon. Among them are n- ‘acting with a round instrument’, č’l- ‘acting with the fingers, fingernails’, ʔv-‘acting with a long object’, cin- ‘acting with the back’, go-̣ ‘acting with the head first’, qbv- ‘acting with the mouth, sucking, spitting’, kt- ‘hitting, kicking’, spi- ‘dragging’, and noy- ‘burning’. Examples of their use are qb-oyamna ‘with.mouth-carrying.or.holding’ = ‘has something in the mouth’, swi-t’la ‘by.tying-squash’ = ‘cinches a horse’, and no-wanga ‘burning-fall’ = ‘tree burns down’. Many of the morphemes in this group characterize the entity centrally involved (the theme), such as ʔi- ‘acting on plural objects’, q- ‘acting on a flat object’, k’lv- ‘acting upon fire’, and sl- ‘to act upon a clothlike object, as in sl-wlgạ ‘throws down a cloth’. Prefixes indicating types of instruments and involved entities also occur in the Takelma language, spoken immediately to the west of Klamath and to the north of Shastan in Oregon. Sapir (1922a: 64-86) lists sets of prefixes, many evoking body parts and other instruments, such as i:- ‘hand, with the hand’, waya- ‘knife’, da- ‘mouth, burning, glowing’, dakh- head, with the head, on top of’, da:- ‘ear, with ear, hearing’, s:in- ‘nose, in nose, with nose’, gel- ‘breast, mentally’, sal- ‘foot, with foot’, al- ‘face, with eye, seeing, looking’, xa:- ‘cutting, splitting, breaking’, di:- ‘crushing, mashing, squeezing’, di:’- ‘involving long object’, la- ‘bursting, ripping open’. Examples include han-waya-swilswálhi ‘he tore him open with a knife’, dakh-da-ha:línda’ ‘I (with.mouth) answered him’, xa:-be’-nókhwa’n ‘I warm my back with.the.sun’. The same prefixes can characterize either an instrument or entity acted upon: xa:-be’m-k’wo:tk’widi’n ‘I broke it with a stick’, be:m-wa’i:t’oxóxi’n ‘I gather sticks’. When both are mentioned in a verb, the one characterizing the object precedes that characterizing the instrument. Still further north in northwest Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, is the Sahaptian family, consisting of just two languages, Nez Perce and Sahaptin. Both contain prefixes indicating means, manner, or the type of entity involved. In his grammar of Nez Perce, Aoki (1970: 84-86) lists 167 prefixes he terms ‘adverbial’. Among them are cú:- ‘with pointed object’, cú:ye- ‘by shaking’, him- ‘with mouth’, ke- ‘with teeth’, lé:w ‘pertaining to fish’, lé:w ‘in speech’ niktéh- ‘dragging’, nim- ‘with eyes’, nú:xc ‘with nose’, pîti ‘pounding, punching’, qi- ‘with sticky matter’, qisím- ‘in anger’, sepé: ‘wind or air’, sepú:- ‘blowing’, su:ye- ‘pushing’, té: ‘by speech’, tú:k’e- ‘with cane-like object’, tulé:- ‘with foot’, we- ‘with chopping instrument’, ’êwí:- ‘shooting’, ’île ‘in talking’, and îs- ‘with knife (plural objects)’. Examples are tú:k’e-keʔykse ‘I am limping with a cane’ and ʔeʔwí- yetwikce ‘I shoot as I chase it, I chase it shooting’. Jacobs (1931: 157-181) provides a substantial list for Sahaptin. Means/manner prefixes occur in many of the languages grouped into the Penutian stock, as we have seen, but not in all of them. There is no mention of them in descriptions of the Wintun, Utian (Miwok-Costanoan), or Yokuts languages, nor in descriptions of the Oregon Coast languages Coos, Siuslaw, and Alsea, nor further afield.
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3.3 Wappo-Yuki Two remotely related languages comprising a third small family were spoken in areas directly adjacent to the Pomo. Wappo territory is immediately to the southeast of the Pomo, and Yuki territory immediately to the north. Both Wappo and Yuki show small sets of prefixes which characterize means, manner, and sometimes the entity involved in ways strikingly similar to those in other languages in the area. The forms in the two languages appear to be cognate. Among the Wappo prefixes, Radin (1929: 29) lists mε- ‘with the hand’, na- ‘with the mouth’, pε- ‘with the foot’, wi- ‘by pulling, by force, general instrumentality’, and hu-‘head’, all of which appear in the same position in the verb. Describing mε- ‘with the hand’, he notes, ‘This is apparently an old instrumental prefix and in only a few cases is the stem employed as an object’. (1929: 33). Among his examples are mε-tsápɨki ‘he grabbed ‘ (with hand)’, mε-k:á ‘to feel with hand’, mai’-mε-wálε ‘he scours’, mε-wí’ti ‘to catch with hand’, me-kɔ́tcε ‘he tickles (with fingers)’ me-mεmá ‘he picks up long object with hand’, me-mánuma ‘he picks up flat object with hand’, me- k:áluma ‘he picks up concave object with hand’, and mε-pítcεski ‘he folded his arms’. In his Wappo dictionary, Sawyer (1965) contrasts meh-wóyi:siʔ ‘rub with the hands, rub by hand’ and pih- wóyi:siʔ ‘rub with the foot’. Some additional verbs with the prefix phe/pih- ‘involving the foot’ are pih-čólsiʔ ‘scuffle, make scuffling noises’, pih-wóyi:siʔ ‘rub with the foot’, phe-píw’šeʔ ‘slip in wet or muddy places’, and pih-yč’miʔ ‘trot’. In her reconstruction of Proto-Yukian (from the three Yukian dialects or closely related languages), Schlichter (1985: 43) notes that ‘a few derivational, non-pronominal prefixes are reconstructable’. She lists *mi- ‘of the hand or foot’, *nə- ‘of the mouth’, *hu- ‘face’, and a few others of less clear meaning. As in Wappo, the prefixes appear in both nouns and verbs. Sawyer and Schlichter (1984) provide several examples of Yuki prefixed verbs, including me-ti’ik ‘squeeze’, mi-hât ‘step’, na-tam- ‘taste’, eat’, na-k’oh-̨ ‘teach’, and na-hą ɨh- ‘drunk, crazy’. 3.4 Uto-Aztecan The Uto-Aztecan family is large in terms of both number of languages and geographical spread. It contains over 30 languages and extends from Idaho in the north to El Salvador in the south, and from the California westward as far as Oklahoma, due in part to recent migration. Means/manner prefixes occur in just one branch of the family: Numic. Numic languages are spoken throughout the Great Basin, in eastern California, adjacent Oregon, Idaho, and into Utah and Wyoming. Describing Kawaiisu, a Southern Numic language spoken in south-central California to the east of the Chumash languages, Zigmond, Booth & Munro (1990: 78) report: Most typically, these prefixes specify the instrument or body part with which an action was performed, but they sometimes are used to refer to an object rather than an instrument, or they can have a less specific adverbial meaning. There are six of these prefixes in Kawaiisu:
ca- ‘with the hand; grasping’ či- ‘with a long pointed instrument’ kɨ- ‘with the mouth or teeth’ ma- ‘with the hand’ ta- ‘with the foot’ wɨ- ‘with an instrument’. Examples of verbs with ca- ‘with hand, grasping’ are ca-ga- ‘to lead into; to make a twined basked’, ca-nikwi- ‘to pull’, ca-pugwiʔi- ‘to sew, mend’, ca-waga- ‘to scratch, with intent to draw blood’, ca-weʔe- ‘to scratch an itch’, and ca-wɨrugwi- ‘to shake hands’.
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Other Numic languages show similar inventories of means/manner prefixes. Tümpisa (Panamint) Shoshone, a Central Numic language, was spoken before contact in what is now southeastern California and southwestern Nevada. Dayley (1989: 93-97) lists the following prefixes which ‘typically indicate the instrument with which a transitive activity is done, but sometimes they indicate the manner of the activity, and sometimes, especially with intransitive verbs, they indicate the source or causal factor of an activity’ (1989: 92-3). ma-/mo- ‘with the hand’, kü-/ku- ‘with the teeth or mouth’, ku-/ko- ‘with heat or fire’, mu-/mo-‘with the nose’, ni- ‘with words, by talking’, pa- /po- ‘with or pertaining to water’, pi- ‘with the butt or behind’, sü- ‘with or from cold’, sun-‘with the mind, by feelings or sensing’, ta-/to- ‘with the foot’, ta-/to- ‘with a hard rock-like instrument’, to- ‘with the fist, by violent motion’, tsa-/tso- ‘by grasping, in the hand’, tsi- ‘with a sharp or pointed instrument’, tso- ‘with the head’, and wü-/wo- ‘with an elongated instrument, generic’. (Many automatically geminate a following consonant.) The meanings added by the prefixes can be seen by comparing sets of verbs based on the same root, like ka’ah ‘break (of flexible object)’: ku- kka’ah ‘break from heat’, kü-kka’ah ‘bite in two, break with the teeth’, mu-ka’ah ‘break with the nose’, pi-kka’ah ‘break with the butt’, sükka’ah ‘break from cold’, ta-kka’ah ‘chop with a rock-like instrument’, tsa-kka’ah ‘break by pulling apart’, tsi-kka’ah ‘cut’, wü-kka’ah ‘chop’.
The inventories of means/manner prefixes in the various California languages vary considerably in elaboration, but prefixes with certain types of meanings appear in set after set, meanings such as ‘with the hand or by grasping’, ‘with the foot or by kicking’, ‘with the teeth or by biting’, ‘with fire or by burning’, ‘with a pointed instrument or by thrusting or poking’. 4. Central Pomo locative/directional suffixes
The second part of the shared verbal structure consists of sets of suffixes indicating location and/or direction. Central Pomo, seen earlier, contains such a set. Their effect can be seen by comparing the verbs in (3), all based on the root čá-, used for one person running or one or more riding in a vehicle. (The forms below do not specify tense, but like all Central Pomo verbs, they are inflected for aspect. Perfectives are marked by -w after a vowel and zero after a consonant. Imperfective singulars are marked by -n.)
(3) Central Pomo suffixes čá-w ‘run’ (one) čá-:la-w ‘run down’ čá-:qač’ ‘run up (as up a hill)’ čá-č’ ‘run away’ čá-way ‘run against hither, as when a whirlwind came up to you’ čá-:’w-an ‘run around here and there’ čá-mli-w ‘run around it (a tree, rock, house, pole etc.)’ čá-mač’ ‘run northward’ čá-:q’ ‘run by, over (along on the level), southward’ čá-m ‘run over, on, across (as bridge)’
These locative/directional suffixes can and often do co-occur with the means/manner prefixes described earlier.
(4) Central Pomo prefix-suffix combinations da-dí-:la-w ‘push something over a cliff’ ma-dí-:la-w ‘kick something over a cliff’ pha-dí-:la-w ‘slowly glide into a swimming pool’ ph-dí-:la-w ‘jump down, over a cliff, into the water’
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ča-dí-:la-w ‘chase (dog) downhill’ ba-dí-:la-w ‘walk downhill singing’ ’-dí-:la-w ‘carry something downhill in hands’ š-dí-:la-w ‘carry something downhill by the handle’ Like the means/manner prefixes, the locative/directional suffixes are pervasive in the vocabulary and in speech. 5. Location and direction beyond Pomoan Cognates of the Central Pomo locative/directional suffixes can be found in all languages of the Pomoan family, so they can be reconstructed for Proto-Pomoan (Oswalt 1976: 23-24). Suffixes of this type occur beyond the family borders as well. As we will see below, the general structures are the same, though the shapes of the markers are not. 5.1 Location and direction within the Hokan group
Inventories of locative/directional markers are quite elaborate in some of the languages that have been proposed to be members of the Hokan stock. Karuk, the Northern California isolate, contains a rich set, many of which reflect the setting along the Klamath River in which the language is spoken. Bright (1957: 95) lists the following: -mu ‘thither’, -rupu ‘hence downriverward’, -unih ‘down from a considerable height, hence downhillward’, -ra: ‘hither, hither from downriver, hither from downhill’, -ura: ‘up to a considerable height, hence uphillward’, -faku ‘hither from uphill’, -roô:vu ‘hence upriverward’, - várak ‘hither from upriver’, -sip(riv) ‘up to the height of a man or less’, -iš(rih) ‘down from the height of a man or less’, -kaƟ ‘hence across a body of water’, -rina ‘hither from across a body of water’, -kara ‘horizontally away from the center of a body of water, into one’s mouth’, -ríPa: ‘horizontally towards the center of a body of water’, -rúPa: ‘out of one’s mouth’, -rámnih ‘into a container’, ríšuk ‘out of a container’, -vara ‘in through a tubular space’, -kiv ‘out through a tubular space’, -rúprih ‘in through a solid’, -rúprav ̃ ‘out through a solid’, -fúruk ‘into an enclosed space’, - rúPuk ‘out of an enclosed space’, -vrin ‘in opposite directions’, -tunva ‘toward each other’, várayva ‘here and there within an enclosed space’, and -Ɵuna ‘here and there in an open area’. Some examples of the use of -kara ‘horizontally toward the center of a body of water’ are ikpuh ‘swim’, ikpú:h-kara ‘swim across the river’; ikxip ‘fly’, ikxí:-kara ‘fly across the river’; iškak ‘jump’, išká:- kara ‘jump into (a river or lake)’; piv- ‘step’, pí:v-kara ‘step out over (a creek)’; sir ̃ ‘disappear’, sí:n-kara ‘swallow’; táriv ‘pour’, and táriv-kara ‘drink’. Shasta, spoken immediately to the east of Karuk in Northern California and into Oregon, also shows a set of locative/directional suffixes. Silver (1966: 144-155) lists -cw ̣ ‘away, thither’, - ehé:haw ‘across’, -ehé:wɨ ‘downstream’, -ehé:w ‘out of a container’, -aha:b ‘into a circumscribed area’, -wa:k ‘in liquid’, -haNpi- ‘downward, outward’, -asw ̣ ‘away, off’, -cw ̣ ‘upward’, -ʔiNbú ‘through a circular or tubular space’, -ipsiru ‘down into’, as well as some suffixes which occur in combination with others, -wak ‘located in relation to a circumscribed area’, -uhi ‘along with, after, - hí:̣ ʔi ‘into’, -tac:á ‘toward’, -knɨ ‘up over’, -kway ‘up along’, -í:ʔi ‘down along’, -awhi ‘straight ahead into a circular/tubular space’, -wa:k ‘in liquid’, -ak:ɨ ‘encircling a long object’, -ahá:w ‘along in space’, -k’a:hú ‘upstream from the mouth of a stream’, and -rakmaki ‘here and there’. Some examples of the combinations are: k’wíruhikwaya:kaʔ ‘he walked along the river upstream’, rí:ʔeʔawhiʔ ‘Let him look straight ahead into the hole’, kwáhuhi:hámpik ‘he puts mouth on body and sucks’, and kúxam:ehempirakmak:ira:ʔ ‘he’s going from chair to chair (to see which is the most comfortable)’. The Palaihnihan languages also contain locative/directional suffixes. Talmy (1972: 432-467) lists numerous examples of Atsugewi verbs containing them. Among them are -ak: ‘locative’, -ik: ‘hither’, -im ‘thither’, -ic’ ‘up’, -mic’ ‘down onto the surface of the ground’, -uww ‘off from over a
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5.2 Location and direction in the Penutian group Like the means/manner prefixes, the locative/directional suffixes occur beyond the Hokan group. In fact they are as pervasive among Penutian languages as among Hokan languages, if not more. The Maidun languages all show sets of locative/directional suffixes. Maidu contains 15 such suffixes, all but one of which (-t’a ‘on top of’) imply motion. Shipley (1964: 42-44) lists the following: -c’ik ‘over or into, especially covering or closing’, -c’o ‘up over the edge, around from behind’, -daw ‘down and away’, -dik ‘up to and into’, -doj ‘upward’, -je ‘hither’, -kit ‘downward’, - k’oj ‘away from here, thither’, -mit ‘down onto or into’, -n ‘downstream, downhill (usually southwest)’, -no ‘along, general motion without implication of direction or attitude’, -paj ‘against’, pin ‘hither’, -sip ‘out of’, -t’a ‘on top of’, and -waj ‘apart’. The suffixes sometimes occur in sequences, such as -c’o-pin ‘up over the edge and hither’ and -no-je ‘aimlessly’. Examples of their use can be seen in lát-daw- ‘drip away’, héj-daw- ‘fall off’, pený-kit- ‘bend down under weight’, t’úp-sip- ‘spit out’, lýk-t’a- ‘ride (on top of a horse)’, and lýk-sippin- ‘crawl out here’. Similar Konkow forms can be found in Ultan (1967: 72-80), and Nisenan forms in Uldall & Shipley (1966). Klamath shows well over a hundred such markers. Among those listed by Barker (1964: 143- 151) are -en ‘away’, -eWa ‘along the back’, -igog̣ ‘into a container’, -oyamn ‘around’, -oditgo:l ‘out from underneath’, -t’amsg ̣ ‘between’, al’a:l’ ‘into the fire’, -ba:ni ‘to the limit, end’, ak’a:yi’ ‘up high, hanging up’, -aba:tn ‘up against, to the shore’, ak’w ‘across’, -oygị ‘over, above’, -otq’ag ‘up out of water’, -akyamn ‘around, surrounding’, -aqye:tn ‘right beside’, -ywwi ‘spread out’, -ptne:gị ‘on top of a full load’, -alč’wy ‘right up to’, -o:li ‘down off’, -waw- ‘from hand to hand’, k’akwe:g ‘stuck in a tight place’, -w’i:n ‘among’, -t’a:wi’ ‘in the sun’, -č’i:sq’ag ‘out of a tubular object’, -tn ‘at, against, onto’, -mni ‘up’, -qwe:L ‘down a hill’, -t’le:gị ‘over a mountain’, pbe:li’ ‘back and forth’, -ksl’ ‘on a fire’, -k’č’wy ‘in a narrow place’, -li:g ‘on the edge of a stream, on the forehead’, -č’p’ ‘sliding down off a tubular object’, -gamṇ ‘up, upstream’, -ye:ni’ ‘inside’, -wqiw ‘extending out onto a plain’, -wal ‘covering, on top’, -e:q’ ‘in the air repeatedly’, -ye:g ‘up, raising, lifting’, -yki:n ‘to the edge, out of a fire, out of water, in a line’, -l’g ̣ ‘down, to the earth’, -kang ‘around, here and there’, and -eLa ‘onto, onto a surface, onto a vehicle’. Examples of their use are in ks-eLa- v pga ‘is loading a live object onto’ (ks -eLa-obg-a act.upon.live.object-onto.vehicle-DURATIVE- INDICATIVE), ktiwkanga ‘pushes someone around’ (kt-iw-ang -a push-act.violently-around- INDICATIVE), ngat’o:wawle:q’a ‘jumps up and down’ (ngat’-rr-wal-e:q’-a jump-INTENSIVE-on.top- in.air.repeatedly-INDICATIVE), st’ast’aqLi:ki:na ‘is bald inside along the edges, hairline goes way back in’ (rre-st’aq’-oLy-yki:n-a DISTRIBUTIVE-be.bare/bald/grassless-inside-to.the.edge- INDICATIVE). Languages of the Sahaptian family also contain various locative and directional suffixes. Aoki (1970: 93-102) lists a number of Nez Perce suffixes, among which are -c’e ‘over the object’, -ce ‘remote’, -é:ce ‘on, upon’, -é:pe ‘into brush’, -e:y’ik ‘moving around’, -kik ‘away from here’, -qew ‘right through’, and -tuq ‘back’. Their use can be seen by comparing wixsị ʔlí:kse ‘I am sitting’ and wixsị ʔliké:cese ‘I am sitting on something’, and in wú:lelikepese ‘I am riding into the bushes’ and wá:yiktoqsa ‘I am crossing back’. An even greater number of locative/directional markers are listed for Sahaptin by Jacobs (1931: 183-197). Like the means/manner prefixes, the locative/directional suffixes thus cross family and even stock boundaries. They appear in languages of both the hypothesized Hokan and Penutian groups, but not in all members of either. Within Hokan, they appear in Pomoan, Shastan, Karuk, Palaihnihan, and Yana, but there is no mention of them in Yuman or Washo. Within Penutian, they appear in Maidun, Klamath, and Sahaptian, but they are not mentioned in descriptions of Wintun, Utian, Yokuts, Takelma, Coos, Siuslaw, or Alsea. They do not appear in Chumashan languages, Wappo-Yuki or Uto-Aztecan. (Some of these languages have a small number of basic suffixes, like
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As we have seen, California is home to tremendous genetic diversity. The most ambitious reductive hypotheses have grouped the languages into seven possible genetic units: the established Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit, Algic, Uto-Aztecan, Chumashan, and Wappo-Yuki families, plus the more preliminary Hokan and Penutian stocks. Yet we see striking parallelisms in abstract grammatical structure which cross-cut genetic lines. The languages are characterized by pervasive, often elaborate sets of means/manner prefixes and locative/directional suffixes, structures that are relatively rare outside of the area. The situation is strongly suggestive of transfer through language contact. Relatively little is known for certain of the prehistory of the California groups before their contact with Europeans, but it is clear that there was an extensive period of intense social contact, multilingualism, and intermarriage in this area. Most of the communities have always been small. Because of the richness of the terrain in food sources, vast territories were unnecessary for subsistence, and exogamy was common. But it is not immediately obvious how such fundamental structure could be borrowed. The shared structures are deeply embedded in the grammar. We know that bilingual speakers easily transfer vocabulary and even phrases from one language to another. If bilingualism is sufficiently widespread, the adoption of vocabulary can bring with it the adoption of new sounds as well, as borrowed words are rendered with their native pronunciation. We have seen such a process, for example, in the adoption of the voiced fricative of French rouge and garage into English. Heavy borrowing of vocabulary can bring about the transfer of specific affixes as well. If enough sets of morphologically related words are borrowed, speakers of the receiving language may perceive morphological patterns among them and extend affixes they contain to native vocabulary. We can see the adoption of numerous affixes from French into English by this route, such as the repetitive prefix re- from pairs such as view/re-view and place/re-place. This prefix has been extended to verbs not of French origin, such as re-do, re-shelve, and many more. Such a process does not appear to underlie the structural similarities among the California languages, however. The markers themselves are generally cognate within families, but the forms do not match across genetic lines. How could speakers transfer abstract patterns such as means/manner prefixes and locative/directional suffixes without transferring the affixes themselves? It may not have been the modern morphological structures that were borrowed as such, but the precursors to them, the patterns of use from which they subsequently developed. We know that bilinguals accustomed to expressing certain semantic distinctions in one language often transfer those patterns of expression into another. If, for example, members of one speech community specified manner of motion or direction particularly often, it would not be surprising if speakers of that language tended to specify these features often when speaking another. If a particular grammatical structure existed in both languages, and it was exploited particularly heavily in one language, it would not be surprising if bilinguals transferred this frequency of use to the other language. 6.1 Compounding
The languages themselves provide evidence of a probable pathway of development from frequent patterns of expression to the grammatical structures we see today. The means/manner and locative/directional constructions seen throughout California and adjacent areas appear to be descended from compounds. We know that compounding is an extremely common word formation process cross-linguistically, and compounds can be found in most of the modern languages under h discussion here. Central Pomo contains such NOUN-VERB VERB compounds as k é manéw
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‘dance’ (‘dance foot-set’), maʔá qawá:n ‘eat’ (‘food biting-go’), and smá qhnó:å’ ‘snore’ (‘sleep growl’). Though both elements of each compound exist in the language as separate words, they behave phonologically as single words in connected speech in terms of vowel harmony, alternating length, and stress. The verb khé manéw ‘dance’, for example, is usually pronounced khé mè:néw. Similar compound constructions can be seen in Yuman languages. Miller (1990: 50) lists NOUN- VERB VERB compounds in Jamul Diegueño such as mii mekuupay ‘follow’ (mii ‘leg, foot’), xa nup ‘bathe’ (xa ‘water’), yay xan ‘be happy’ (‘heart-be.good’), yay mewaly ‘be soft-hearted’, and yaymat shema ‘be crazy’ (‘heart.and.body-sleep’). Most of the stems in these compounds still occur independently. Describing compounding in the closely related Mesa Grande Diegueño, Langdon notes that “Compounding is usually accompanied by a certain amount of reduction of unstressed vowels (shortening, omission, or reduction to /ə/). Some consonants are also occasionally omitted.” (1970: 133-134). Describing Maidu, Shipley (1964: 38-40) provides such NOUN-VERB VERB compounds as pánpe- ‘to smoke’ (pân-pé ‘tobacco-eat’), k’àwbá- ‘dig a hole’ (k’âw-bá- ‘dirt-dig’), and c’íwiʔì- ‘to be naked’ (c’í-wiʔí- ‘clothing-lack’), as well as VERB-VERB VERB compounds t’íkc’e- ‘to believe’ (t’ík-c’e ‘have enough-see’), and sólʔidì- ‘to sing along with’ (sôl-ʔidí’sing-perform.together’). The components of these compounds also occur independently as nouns and verbs. In their Yuki dictionary, Sawyer & Schlichter (1984) list such NOUN-VERB VERB compounds as hawą y̨ yuʔ ‘cook’ (‘food make’) and VERB-VERB VERB compounds as koʔola:l- ‘pace’ (koʔ-la:l- ‘walk- ride’). Nez Perce shows such NOUN-VERB VERB compounds as qilló:wawyaca ‘I sing a departing song for warriors’ (qilílu:-wéwye ‘rawhide-beat’) and VERB-VERB VERB compounds as ʔinupciklí:toqima ‘I came back to get it’ (înpí-ciklí ‘seize-turn’) (Aoki 1970: 88-89). If certain patterns of compounding were particularly productive in one language, it would be easy for bilinguals to transfer the propensity to form compounds on that model into another language. In fact we can see exactly the kinds of NOUN-VERB and VERB-VERB VERB compounds that would give rise to the means/manner prefixes in the area. Compounding is pervasive among all branches of the Uto-Aztecan family, including Numic. The initial noun roots in NOUN-VERB VERB compounds, a type also called noun incorporation, often designate the means or instruments by which actions are carried out. For Kawaiisu, for example, Zigmond, Booth, and Munro (1990) cite such compounds as moʔo-paʔa- ‘stir by hand’ (‘hand-stir’). The noun root moʔo also occurs independently. VERB-VERB VERB compounding is also common, as in kaʔa-pagi- ‘to walk and eat’ (‘eat-walk’). For Tümpisa, Dayley (1989: 91-92) lists such compounds as kikuttih ‘jab with the elbow’ (‘elbow-shoot’) and mitükkaannangkawih ‘speak (in) English’ (whiteman-speak’). In his Tümpisa grammar, Dayley traces the sources of nearly all the Tümpisa means/manner prefixes to Proto-Uto-Aztecan noun and verb roots.
(5) Lexical sources of Tümpisa prefixes: Dayley (1989: 93-97). Tümpisa Proto-Uto-Aztecan ma-/mo- ‘with the hand’ *maa ‘hand’ kü-/ku- ‘with the teeth or mouth’ *kü’i ‘bite’ ku-/ko- ‘with heat or fire’ *kuh ‘fire’ mu-/mo- ‘with the nose’ *mu-pi ‘nose’ ni- ‘with words, by talking’ *niya/niha ‘name’ pa-/po- ‘with or pertaining to water’ *paa ‘water’ pi- ‘with the butt or behind’ *pih- ‘back’ sü- ‘with or from cold’ *süp ‘cold’ sun- ‘with the mind, by feelings or sensing’ *sunna ‘heart’, *suuwah ‘believe’ ta-/to- ‘with the foot’ *tannah ‘foot’ ta-/to- ‘with a hard, rock-like instrument’ *tün ‘rock’
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tsa-/tso- ‘by grasping in the hand’ *tsa’i ‘grasp, hold’ (Numic) tso- ‘with the head’ *cohngi ‘head’ wü-/wo- ‘with an elongated instrument, generic’ *wüpaa ‘whip’
Most of these reconstructed Proto-Uto-Aztecan noun and verb roots still survive as roots in the modern Numic languages, including Tümpisa mo’oi and Kawaiisu moʔo ‘hand’, Tümpisa: kunna ‘fire(wood)’ and Kawaiisu kuna ‘fire’, Tümpisa mupin and Kawaiisu muv- ‘nose’, Tümpisa niya and Kawaiisu niyaa ‘name’, Tümpisa paa and Kawaiisu poʔo ‘water’, Tümpisa suwa and Kawaiisu kuʔu-sɨbɨ ‘want, feel’, Tümpisa tümpe and Kawaiisu tɨbi ‘rock’, Tümpisa tsai/tse ‘grasp, hold’, Tümpisa tsoppippüh ‘head’, and Tümpisa wü’a, Kawaiisu waʔa ‘penis’ or Kawaiisu kwipa ‘whip’. We can also see examples of the kind of compounding that could be the precursor to the locative/directional suffix constructions. Some come from languages of the Chinookan family, spoken along the Columbia River on the northern Oregon border. Hymes describes a pattern of VERB-VERB VERB compounding in Kathlamet Chinook. The small set of roots that can appear in second position all indicate motion in a particular direction. They include -pa ‘motion out of’, -pck ‘motion from open to cover, especially from water to shore or inland’, -pq ‘motion into’, -tk ‘motion, position down’, -Lx ‘motion from cover to open, especially toward water’, -cu ‘motion down’, and -uulX ‘motion up’. Some examples are ikaúi-cu ‘it fell’ (-i-cu ‘go-down’), ikuXúni-pck ‘she drifted ashore’ (-Xuni-pck ‘drift-from.water.to.shore’), iskiúski-Lx ‘they two launch it’ (-ski-Lx ‘launch-motion.toward.water’), and iciskána-pq ‘he looked into (house)’ (-na-pq ‘look-into’) (Hymes 1955: 218). These verb roots also appear independently. The root -pa ‘to go out’ can be seen in anu-pá-ia ‘I will go out’. The root -pck ‘motion from open to cover, especially from water to shore’ is in txú-pck-a ‘Let us go inland’ and ikúppck-a ‘she went up’. The root -pq ‘motion into’ appears alone as ‘enter’ in alxú-pq-a ‘we will go in’. The root -tk ‘motion, position down’ is translated ‘put down, place’ on its own: icLX-tk ‘he put it on the ground’. The root -Lx ‘motion from cover to open, especially toward water’, can be seen in a-Lx-t ‘she comes down to the water’. For the most part, the root sources of the modern means/manner prefixes and locative/directional suffixes no longer survive in the other languages, but in a few cases, traces remain. Earlier we saw root sources of the Numic means/manner prefixes in Kawaiisu and Tümpisa. Jacobsen comments on possible origins of the Washo prefixes (1980: 86). Only a few rather tenuous resemblances have been found between four lexical prefixes and semantically related stems or nominal prefixes.. The prefux dul- ‘with the hand, descriptive of hand’ resembles the noun stem á:du ‘hand’ and also the prefix tul- occurring in tul íc’ig /tulíc’ik’/ ‘finger, toe’ and tul ípi’ ‘nail, claw’. The prefixes meʔge- ‘to be washed along’ and med-, meʔd- ‘to float’ resemble the noun and verb stem meʔ ‘water’, to drink’. Less compelling is the resemblance of the prefix c’ig- ‘with the buttocks, descriptive of buttocks’ to the noun stem c’áŋa ‘buttocks’.
Describing the Wappo prefix hu- ‘head’, Radin (1929: 32) writes, ‘It is always an old incorporated noun that is felt here.’ Barbareño Chumash contains a manner prefix ti- ‘speaking’, seen in such verbs as ti-molo ‘tell stories of olden times’ (moloq ‘long ago’), ti-yep ‘teach, show’, ti- kuy ‘talk about’, and ti-patun ‘interrupt, butt in on’, and ti-pawil ‘to talk’. It is apparently descended from the noun ti ‘name’ (Beeler 1976). Some of the languages, however, show us much more. Sources of some locative/directional suffixes can still be seen in the Pomoan family, even within Central Pomo itself. Among the Central Pomo directional suffixes is -mač’ ‘northward’, visible in such verbs as čá-mač’ ‘(one) ran northward’, hé-mač’ ‘(group) ran northward’, mó-mač’ ‘(one elderly person) walked, (one) crawled up or northward’, and pha-dí-mač’ ‘(one) swam upstream’. The source of this suffix still survives as an independent verb máč’ ‘go north’. Another of the Central Pomo suffixes is -m(a) ‘over, across, on’. It can be seen in čá-m ‘(one) ran over, on, across
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(as bridge)’, hé-m ‘group ran over (bridge)’, ’-dí-m ‘led group across’, and ph-dí-m ‘(one) jumped across’. The source of this suffix survives as a verb root in the language as well: -má ‘go over on foot, walk on or across’. Inflected with the perfective aspect suffix -w it appears in má-w ‘(s/he) went over on foot, walked across’. The same root appears with prefixes in the usual verbs used for sitting on something like a rock, log, or chair, as opposed to the ground: čh-má-w ‘(one) sits’, ba- má-w ‘(group) sits’. The -m suffix has also developed a slightly more abstract use with verbs of position to indicate a constant state: dé-m ‘one is holding it (such as an empty cup) there’, ph-dí-m ‘(it) (like a flag) is just hanging there’, š-dí-m ‘it (something with a handle) is hanging there, one is holding it by the handle’. 6.2 Bipartite stems In some families in the area, the means/manner prefixes and locative/directional suffixes appear to be ancient, already in place in the common parent language. All of the prefixes and suffixes in the modern Pomoan languages can be reconstructed as such for Proto-Pomoan. The Yuman prefixes appear to be quite old as well and are now often difficult to identify. The small set of means/manner prefixes found in Wappo and Yuki can be reconstructed as prefixes for their common parent. But a number of languages in Northern California and Oregon show an intriguing intermediate stage of development. In his description of Northern Yana, Sapir characterized the initial means/manner morphemes like dô- ‘do with the fingers’, bui- ‘do with the feet’, dja- ‘eating, have in the mouth’, and dju:- ‘wind blows’ as stems, but he specified that they could not be inflected directly with tense, mode, and pronominal suffixes. He noted that each of these morphemes, which he distinguished by asterisks in his stem list, “must have its meaning completed by one or more derivational suffixes” (1922a: 217). In the long list entitled ‘non-grammatical verb suffixes’ are such morphemes as - balla- ‘to push, knock’, -di- ‘to clean’, -‘di- ‘to come loose’, gidi- ‘fire goes out’, -ts’ut- ‘to split, burst through’, and many more that would be classified as roots in other languages. It seems at first surprising that the initial elements were not categorized as prefixes and the second elements as roots. The rationale behind his decision to categorize morphemes like dô- ‘with the fingers’ and bui- ‘with the feet’ as stems is not made explicit, but it could be due in part to their concrete meanings and relatively large numbers. Furthermore, his list of ‘non-grammatical verb suffixes’ also includes locative/directional markers such as -bil ‘about, here and there’, -di- ‘down’, -du- ‘back home’, -djil- ‘around, in a circle’, -‘djai-ri- ‘on top, on a surface’, -gap- ‘from the north’, and others seen above. Similarly, the Maidu means/manner morphemes such as ka- ‘with the flat hand or flat side of something’ that Dixon listed as prefixes are classified as stems by Shipley in his dictionary (1963). Like Sapir, Shipley notes specifically that these morphemes never occur as stems on their own. A sample entry is hú-: ‘a morpheme having to do with thinking and feeling in general. This form does not occur alone as a stem’. The examples cited of its use bear this out: húbok’òj ‘not know how to’, húdan ‘be preoccupied with’, húhèje ‘think’, húkes ‘wise’, húkic’ik ‘forget’, húkit ‘lonesome’, húkinu ‘remember’, húmit ‘recall, bring to mind’ húno ‘rely on’, húpaj ‘guess’, and húwèje ‘think’ (Shipley 1963: 120). In the same way for Klamath, Barker classifies means/manner morphemes such as č’l- ‘acting with the fingers, fingernails’ and ʔv-‘acting with a long object’ as stems, with the proviso that they do not occur directly before a modal morpheme, that is, they cannot be inflected directly (1964: 115). In his grammar of Sahaptin, Jacobs terms means/manner morphemes such as pa- ‘with the hand or fingers’ ‘anterior roots’, noting, ‘In listing anterior, central and posterior stems it will be assumed unless otherwise indicated that each element given appears only when compounded with some other independent or similarly non-independent stem’ (1931: 154).
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In a similar way, Jacobsen classifies the locative/directional morphemes of Washo such as - ámad ‘to the south, from the north’, -ítiʔ ‘down, downwards’, etc. as stems, with the proviso that they cannot occur on their own. Jacobs classifies Sahaptin locative/directional morphemes such as -wi- ‘down’ and -tuni- ‘upstream’ as ‘posterior stems’.
It seems at first strange that these authors did not simply classify all of the means/manner markers as prefixes, and the locative/directional markers as suffixes, if they never constitute a full verb stem on their own but must always be followed or preceded by another morpheme. The story is actually more intriguing, however. Consider the Maidu means/manner wi- ‘with the hands’, which Shipley notes does not appear on its own.
(6) Maidu wi- ‘with hands’: Shipley (1963: 187-189). wi .. ́ ‘perform an action with the hands.’ This morpheme occurs only as first member of compounds.
wi-dók ‘grasp with the hand’ wi-túl ‘roll (something) up in a roll’ wi-bák ‘detach from a flat surface’ wi-c’áp ‘dislodge’ wi-c’úmyl ‘stir a small quantity’ (e.g. coffee) wi-dásdo ‘rip, split’ wi-háp ‘pull (long, stemlike objects)’ wi-túbil ‘twist, wind on’ wi-húl ‘pull (anything)’ wi-hýp ‘stretch by pulling’ wi-kú ‘tug at’ wi-kýp ‘extract’ wi-k’éj ‘lift’ wi-k’él ‘perforate’ wi-pól ‘pluck, pull out, extract’ wi-p’ún ‘tie’ wi-sóp ‘break by snapping suddenly’ wi-súp ‘snatch’ wi-tám ‘cinch, tighten’ etc.
Verbs containing wi- can also contain a locative or directional suffix.
(7) Maidu locative/directional suffixes: Shipley (1963: 187). wi-dók-doj ‘grasp with the hand and pull up’ -doj ‘upward’ wi-dók-daw ‘pull off, pull loose with the hand’ -daw ‘down and away’ wi-dókha-k’òj ‘lead someone away by the hand’ -k’òj ‘away thither’ wi-dók-no-je ‘lead someone around by the hand’ -no-je ‘along-hither’ wi-dók-paj ‘break off with the hand’ -paj ‘against’
What is surprising is that Maidu stems can be made up of just a means/marker and a locative/directional marker.
(8) Maidu means/manner + locative/directional: Shipley (1963: 187). wi-dój ‘pull (something) up’ ‘pulling-upward’ wi-wáj ‘divide’ ‘pulling-apart’ If we were to analyze all of the means/manner markers as prefixes, and all of the locative/directional markers as suffixes, we would have verbs without roots. The same phenomenon occurs in Yana, Klamath, and Sahaptin. These languages are part of what DeLancey (1996), following Jacobsen, has termed the ‘Bipartite Stem Belt’. The languages contain large numbers of verb stems consisting of at least two parts. Those markers that specify means or manner or characterize the entity involved appear initially and must be followed by another stem element. Those that specify location or direction must occur finally and must be preceded by another stem element. The bipartite stems may thus differ from prototypical compounds in being
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composed of elements neither of which can occur as a root on its own. In his 1980 description of the structure in Washo, Jacobsen described these dependencies. We are considering a set of over 125 prefixes of concrete meaning, which occur with members of a set of around 200 stems, also having concrete meanings ... With minor exceptions, the members of the one class occur only with members of the other, thus making a closed system. Since the verb stems do not occur independently, we may call them dependent verb stems. ... In so far as a system like this is completely closed, it would be difficult or meaningless to differentiate between stem and affix. This is not quite the case, however, and at least two considerations point to the second member as being the stem.
As regards phonological shape, the dependent verb stems are like independent verb and noun stems. They mostly contain two syllables, and the first syllable is always stressed. The prefixes are less substantial phonologically. They may contain as little as a single consonant, and although they may also include a vowel and a second consonant, they are never stressed.
Secondly, and more significantly, at least six of the dependent verb stems have been found to belong also so some class of independent verb stems and thus to occur without a lexical prefix. (Jacobsen 1980: 85-86).
Jacobsen distinguished three major bipartite stem constructions. In the first, the prefix characterizes an entity (snow, odor, hole, long object, chunky object), specifies a body part, or describes a directed motion (‘jumping’, ‘running’, ‘walking’, ‘tracking’, ‘throwing’, ‘shooting’, ‘carrying’, ‘chasing’, ‘falling’). The stem specifies a location or direction (‘on the ground’, ‘spread over a horizontal surface’, ‘to the south’, ‘downwards’). In the second, the prefix characterizes a body part (‘face’, around the mouth’) or feature (‘taste’, ‘texture’, ‘surface’, ‘liquid’), while the stem expresses a physical attribute such as color, shape or size (‘blue’, ‘flat’, ‘thin’, ‘hard’). In the third, the prefix characterizes an instrument, means, or manner (‘with the hand, fist, instrument held in hand’, ‘by treading on’, ‘by scratching, pinching, squeezing with fingers’, ‘shooting’, ‘with long object swung sideways’), while the stem specifies an action (‘kill’, ‘cut’, ‘scratch’, ‘find’). The patterns of combination and dependency in the Maidun, Yana, Sahaptian, Klamath, and Washo languages are certainly similar to those found in the Pomoan languages. DeLancey, who has examined the systems in detail, proposes that the means/manner markers be referred to simply as ‘stem-initials’ and the locative/directionals as ‘stem-finals’. The cognate relations between root and affix forms in some of the languages, as well as the intermediate systems in the Bipartite Stem Belt, thus provide evidence that the means/manner constructions and the locative/directional constructions developed from NOUN-VERB and VERB- VERB compounds. At a certain point the root sources of the prefixes and suffixes might have ceased to be used as independent stems but remained in existing compounds. Such manner-directional constructions could even serve as models for the analogical formation of new stems along the same pattern. The origin of the modern structures in compounds is consistent with several of their special properties. One of the salient features of the means/manner prefixes and locative/directional suffixes is the concreteness and specificity of their meanings. If the markers fused while they were still lexical roots, their meanings would be more likely to be concrete than if the affixation took place after they had developed into grammatical particles. A second salient feature of the patterns in many of the languages is the rich inventory of markers. If the constructions originated in compounds, speakers forming new verbs would have the full inventory of lexical noun and verb roots at their disposal to specify distinctions, rather than a smaller, closed set of grammatical particles. The identification of compounds as the sources of the prefix and suffix constructions also allows us to explain their modern areal distributions. A propensity to specify means/manner and location/direction, and to exploit existing compounding structures for this purpose, would be easy
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Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:05:08PM via free access 164 Marianne Mithun for bilinguals to transfer from one language to the next. The meanings and forms would have been available in both languages. What would have been transferred was behavior, patterns of choice among existing alternatives. Such a scenario is very much in line with processes described by Ross (2001, 2006) in his work on metatypy. The subsequent development of the means/manner roots into prefixes, and the locative/directional roots into suffixes, could have taken place independently in each language (or proto-language), or it could have been stimulated by continuing contact. There may even have been cases of what Heine & Kuteva (2005) term ‘replica grammaticization’, by which speakers might perceive cognate relationships between roots and affixes in one language, and reduce corresponding roots to affixes in the other. Some of the means/manner prefix systems, such as those of the Yuman languages, appear to be older than others, such as those in the Numic languages: in the Yuman systems, the lexical items that served as the sources of the prefixes can no longer be found, and the meanings of individual markers can be difficult to identify, while in the Numic systems, lexical sources of nearly all of the prefixes still survive as independent roots, with nearly the same shapes as the prefixes. Numic speakers, situated at the periphery of the linguistic area, could have accelerated the reduction and solidification of their compounding constructions into the closed prefix system under the influence of their neighbors. 7. Conclusion
If we are to tackle the issue of the relative susceptibility to borrowing of grammatical structures, it is important to add the dimension of time to the investigation. Many abstract structures that might, on the surface, seem impossible to borrow, can nevertheless be the result of contact. It may not have been the modern structures that were borrowed, but rather the precursors to their development. As we have seen, the California linguistic area is characterized on the one hand by tremendous genetic diversity, and on the other by fundamental, deeply-entrenched morphological structures that cut across genetic lines, structures that are comparatively rare outside of the area. A striking proportion of the languages exhibit a verb structure characterized by often elaborate systems of means/manner prefixes and locative/directional suffixes. The semantic and structural parallelisms observable across genetic boundaries, along with the longstanding history of multilingualism and intermarriage in the area, suggest that the similarities are the result of contact. But it is difficult to imagine how such abstract systems could be borrowed, particularly without the individual morphemes that carry it. In fact the prefix and suffix constructions need not have been transferred directly. Evidence suggests that what was transferred were patterns of expression, tendencies to specify particular distinctions especially often and to exploit existing constructions, compounds, for these purposes. The shared affix patterns described here appear to have developed from the compound constructions by a relatively straightforward process, the crystallization and reduction of frequently-occurring initial roots specifying means and manner, and final roots specifying location and direction. The spread of the original patterns of expression did not necessarily occur simultaneously over the area. The subsequent development of roots into affixes may have taken place independently within the individual languages, or it may have been stimulated by further contact. Such reduction of roots into affixes is not the only way in which grammatical systems may develop in parallel from shared patterns of expression. When frequencies of use are transferred from one language into another, the scene can be set for a wide variety of reanalyses. An appreciation of the diachronic dimension in studies of language contact permits to enlarge our view of the kinds of grammatical developments that can be attributed to contact, which can in turn be important in judging evidence for deep genetic relationships. Typological similarity has been taken as evidence of common origin. In fact the Hokan and Penutian hypotheses were initially
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based primarily on typological similarity rather than recurring sound correspondences. (It should be noted that the prefix and suffix structures described here were not considered part of the evidence.) The use of typological evidence depends on the widely-held idea that grammatical borrowing can take place only between languages that are very similar typologically. Such an idea certainly seems reasonable. It should be impossible to transfer a structure into a language where it will not fit. But typology can shift over time, step by step. The shift may begin with features that are relatively easy to borrow, such as a change in relative frequencies of alternative word orders. Such shifts can in turn, given sufficient time, lead to the development of similar orders of morphological categories within words, a typological feature it would be difficult to borrow. The possibility of gradual typological alignment indicates that structural parallelism alone cannot provide conclusive evidence of deep genetic relationship. The more we can learn about the ways in which grammatical structure can develop over time, the more we will learn about the potential impacts of language contact, and vice-versa.
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