Grammar, Contact and Time
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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 Journal of Language Contact – THEMA 1 (2007) www. jlc-journal.org Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:05:08PM via free access Grammar, contact and time 145 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. Journal of Language Contact – THEMA 1 (2007) www. jlc-journal.org Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:05:08PM via free access 146 Marianne Mithun (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 Journal of Language Contact – THEMA 1 (2007) www. jlc-journal.org Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:05:08PM via free access Grammar, contact and time 147 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.