American Indian Languages: Cultural and Social Contexts

by Shirley Silver, Wick R. Miller

Overview

This comprehensive survey of indigenous languages of the New World introduces students and general readers to the mosaic of American Indian languages and cultures and offers an approach to grasping their subtleties.

Authors Silver and Miller demonstrate the complexity and diversity of these languages while dispelling popular misconceptions. Their text reveals the linguistic richness of languages found throughout the Americas, emphasizing those located in the western United States and Mexico, while drawing on a wide range of other examples found from Canada to the Andes. It introduces readers to such varied aspects of communicating as directionals and counting systems, storytelling, expressive speech, Mexican Kickapoo whistle speech, and Plains sign language.

The authors have included basics of grammar and historical linguistics, while emphasizing such issues as speech genres and other sociolinguistic issues and the relation between language and worldview. They have incorporated a variety of data that have rarely or never received attention in nontechnical literature in order to underscore the linguistic diversity of the Americas, and have provided more extensive language classification lists than are found in most other texts.

American Indian Languages: Cultural and Social Contexts is a comprehensive resource that will serve as a text in undergraduate and lower-level graduate courses on Native American languages and provide a useful reference for students of American Indian literature or general linguistics. It also introduces general readers interested in Native Americans to the amazing diversity and richness of indigenous American languages.

Coverage includes:

Achumawi, Acoma, Algonquin, Apache, Araucanian, Arawakan, Athapascan, Atsugewi, Ayamara, Bacairi, Bella Coola, Beothuk, Biloxi, Blackfoot, Caddoan, Cahto, Cahuilla, Cakchiquel, Carib, Cayuga, Chemehuevi, Cherokee, Chibchan, Chichimec, Chimakuan, Chimariko, Chinook, Chipewyan, Choctaw-Chickasaw, Chol, Cocopa, Coeur d'Alene, Comanche, Coos, Cora, Cree, Creek, Crow, Cubeo, Cupeño, Dakota, Delaware, Diegueño, Eskimo-Aleut, Esselen, Eyak, Fox, Gros Ventre, Guaraní, Guarijío, Haida, Havasupai, Hill Patwin, Hopi, Huastec, Huave, Hupa, Inuit-Inupiaq, Iroquois, Jaqaru, Je, Jicaque, Kalapuyan, Kamia, Karankawas, Karuk, Kashaya, Keres, Kickapoo, Kiliwa, Kiowa-Tanoan, Koasati, Konkow, Kuna, Kwakiutl, Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanai, Lakota, Lenca, Luiseño, Maidu, Mapuche, Markoosie, Mayan, Mazahua, Mazatec, Métis, Mexica, Micmac, Misumalpan, Mitchif, Miwok, Mixe-Zoquean, Mixtec, Mobilian, Mohave, Mohawk, Muskogean, Nahuatl, Natchez, Navajo, Nez Perce, Nheengatú, Nicola, Nomlaki, Nootka, Ojibwa, Oneida, O'odham, Otomí, Paiute, Palaihnihan, Panamint, Panoan, Paya, Pima, Pipil, Pomo, Poplocan, Pueblo, Puquina, Purpecha, Quechua, Quiché, Quileute, Sahaptian, Salish, Seneca, Sequoyah, Seri, Serrano, Shasta, Shoshoni, Sioux, Sirenikski, Slavey, Subtiaba-Tlapanec, Taíno, Takelma, Tanaina, Tarahumara, Tequistlatecan, Tewa, Tlingit, Toba, Toltec, Totonac, Tsimshian, Tubatulabal, Tukano, Tunica, Tupí, Ute, Uto-Aztecan, Vaupés, Venture¤o, Wakashan, Walapai, Wappo, Washo, Wintu, Wiyot, Xinca, Yahi, Yana, Yokuts, Yucatec, Yuchi, Yuki, Yuma, Yurok, Zapotec, Zoquean, and Zuni.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816521395
Publisher:	University of Arizona Press
Publication date:	07/01/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Shirley Sliver is a professor of anthropology at Sonoma State University. The late Wick R. Miller was on the anthropology faculty at the University of Utah.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	xv
	List of Tables	xv
	Preface	xvii
Part I	Overview	1
Chapter 1	Languages and Their Status	3
1.1	Popular Misconceptions	3
	Diversity	3
	"Primitive" Languages	4
	Speech, Writing, and Nonliterate Societies	5
1.2	Population and Language Diversity	6
1.3	Language Vitality	9
1.4	Language and Government Policy	10
1.5	Literacy and Language Maintenance	12
	Sources	13
	Suggested Readings	14
Part II	Languages and Structures	15
Chapter 2	Languages and Structures	17
	Sound Systems	18
	Grammatical Systems	19
2.1	Possession: Example from Acoma	20
2.2	Gender: Example from Plains Cree	24
2.3	Number: Example from Shasta	27
2.4	Person Reference: Examples from Aztec and Shoshoni	28
2.5	Classifying Verbs: Examples from the Apachean Languages	32
2.6	Evidentials: Examples from the Andes	34
2.7	Sound Symbolism in California Languages	38
2.8	Fundamentals of Language Expression	40
	Common Grammatical Features	41
	Tense and Aspect Marking	41
	Case Marking	41
	Other Grammatical Features	42
	Inclusive-exclusive Distinction	42
	Number	42
	Reduplication	43
	Suppletion	43
	Location-direction Affixation	43
	Instrumental Prefixes	43
	Noun-object Incorporation	44
	Sources	44
	Suggested Readings	45
Part III	Languages and Cultural Domains	47
Chapter 3	Languages and Cultural Domains	49
3.1	Cultural Domain and Plant Taxonomy: Kashaya Pomo	50
3.2	Cultural Domain and Geographic Orientation	55
	Guarijio Directionals	55
	Other Directional Systems	57
3.3	Cultural Domain and Geographic Orientation	57
	Chumash Placenames	57
	Other Placenames	59
3.4	Languages and Social Space: Shoshoni Deixis	60
3.5	Language and Counting Systems	62
	The Aztec Vigesimal System	62
	Other Counting Systems	64
	California Counting Systems	65
	Counting Systems in the Americas	66
3.6	Classificatory Systems and World View: Numeral Classifiers in Northwest California Languages	66
3.7	Worldview and the Hopi	69
3.8	Worldview, Classificatory Systems, and Navajo	71
3.9	The Cultural Uses of Taxonomies: The Slave Classification of Ice	72
3.10	Language, Cognition, and Culture	73
	Sources	74
	Suggested Readings	75
Part IV	Languages and Social Domains	77
Chapter 4	Languages and Social Organization	79
4.1	Language Communities in the Great Basin	79
	Social Groupings	81
	Linguistic Enculturation	83
	Fashions of Speaking and Cultural Focus	84
	Fashions of Speaking and Social Category	86
	Multilingualism and Multidialectalism	86
	Linguistic Awareness and Attitudes	87
4.2	Language Communities in the Pueblos	88
	Social Groupings	89
	Linguistic Enculturation	90
	Fashions of Speaking and Cultural Focus	90
	Fashions of Speaking and Social Category	91
	Multilingualism and Multidialectalism	92
	Linguistic Awareness and Attitudes	93
4.3	Language Communities of the Creek Confederacy	93
	Bilingualism	95
	Fashions of Speaking	96
	Linguistic Awareness and Attitudes	97
4.4	Language Communities of the Aztec Empire	98
	Social Groupings	101
	Education and the Verbal Arts	103
	Fashions of Speaking and the Verbal Arts	104
	Oratory and Moral Instruction	105
	Poetry	106
	Historical Chronicles	106
	Doublets and Metaphors	107
	The Place of Writing	108
	The Place of Nahuatl in Mesoamerica	110
	Markets, Traders, and Artisans	112
4.5	Speech Community, the Social Group, and Culture	114
	Society, Language Boundaries, and Linguistic Diversity	115
	Culture, Belief Systems, and Language	117
	Limiting Factors	117
	American Indian Speech Communities Today	118
	Sources	119
	Suggested Readings	121
Chapter 5	Performers and Performances	122
5.1	California Storytellers and Storytelling	122
5.2	A Conversation with a California Storyteller	126
5.3	Bungling Host, Benevolent Host: A Chinook Narrative	128
5.4	An Old Lady's Lament: A Havasupai Song	130
5.5	Male Shooting Chant Evil-chasing: A Navajo Prayer	135
5.6	The Language of Three Kuna Performance Types	139
5.7	Performances and Cross-cultural Comparison	144
5.8	Prose, Poetry, and Playwriting	146
	Sources	148
	Suggested Readings	149
Chapter 6	Fashions of Speaking	151
6.1	Speech and Social Category: Respect Speech among the Aztec and Guarijio	153
	Aztec Reverential	153
	Guarijio Speaking for Two	155
	Respect Speech	156
6.2	Speech and Social Category: Men's and Women's Speech in Yana	157
6.3	Baby Talk in Cocopa	159
6.4	Expressive Speech: Swearing, Speech Play, and Word Taboo	164
6.5	Diminutive, Augmentative, and Expressive Speech in the Northwest Coast	166
6.6	Form and Function	168
	Sources	170
	Suggested Readings	170
Chapter 7	Nonverbal Communication	172
7.1	Silence: The Western Apache	173
7.2	Kickapoo and Mazatec Whistle Speech	174
	Kickapoo Whistle Speech	174
	Mazatec Whistle Speech	176
7.3	Plains Sign Language	177
	The System	177
	Origin, Use, and Function	181
7.4	Direct-signaling Systems and Their Communicative Purposes	183
	Long Distance Systems	183
	Picture "Writing"	184
	Wampum	185
	Totem Carvings	186
	Quipus	186
	Sources	186
	Suggested Readings	187
Chapter 8	The Written Word	188
8.1	Mesoamerican Writing	188
8.2	The Mayan Hieroglyphic System	190
8.3	Aztec Writing	193
8.4	The Use of Writing in Mesoamerica	195
8.5	The Invention of the Cherokee Syllabary	195
8.6	The Use of the Cherokee Syllabary	197
8.7	The Cree Syllabary	199
8.8	Other Post-Columbian Writing Traditions	200
8.9	Writing and Its Uses	201
	Sources	203
	Suggested Readings	204
Part V	Languages in Contact	205
Chapter 9	Multilingualism	207
9.1	The Vaupes	208
9.2	California	212
	Marriage	215
	Ritual Alliances	215
	Trade	217
9.3	The Inca Empire	218
9.4	Paraguay	219
9.5	Navajo Code Talkers	222
	Sources	223
	Suggested Readings	223
Chapter 10	Lingua Francas	224
10.1	Pidgins and Creoles	225
10.2	Chinook Jargon	226
10.3	Other American Indian Pidgins	232
	Mobilian	232
	Other Pidgins	232
10.4	The Vaupes: Lingua Francas	233
	Sources	235
	Suggested Readings	235
Chapter 11	Language Contact	236
11.1	Loanwords in Huasteca Nahuatl	236
11.2	Lake Miwok: A Case of Borrowing and Structural Change	238
11.3	Lexical Acculturation in a Colonial Setting	241
	Mountain Pima	241
	Comanche	247
	Semantic Extension in Western Apache	248
11.4	A Shift to the Colonial Languages	249
11.5	Mitchif: A Special Case	253
11.6	Changes in the Americas' Colonial Languages	257
	American English	257
	Mexican Spanish	259
	Andean Spanish	262
11.7	Language Contact and Bilingualism	263
	Sources	266
	Suggested Readings	266
Part VI	Languages in Time and Space	267
Chapter 12	Languages and Shared Histories	269
12.1	The Cree Dialects	270
	Characteristic Features	271
	Dialect Differences	273
12.2	The Uto-Aztecan Family	277
	Cognates and Regular Sound Correspondences	279
	Loanwords	284
	Internal Classification	285
	Time Depth, Dating, and Glottochronology	290
12.3	The Possession of "Pet": An Areal Trait in the Southwest	292
12.4	A Linguistic Area: Mesoamerica	296
12.5	Sound Symbolism: A Diffusional Trait of the Pacific Coast	300
12.6	California: Language Families and Diffusional Areas	303
	Genetic Units	303
	Hokan	304
	Penutian	304
	Other Genetic Units	305
	Diffusion of Linguistic Traits	306
	Front and Back [t], a Diffused Phonetic Trait	307
	Other Diffused Phonetic Traits	308
	Number Systems	308
12.7	Discovering Remote Relationships	309
	Algic	309
	Macro-Siouan	310
	History of Classification	311
	Sources	313
	Suggested Readings	313
Chapter 13	The Use of Language as a Tool for Prehistory	314
13.1	Navajo Etymologies, and Reconstructed Vocabulary	314
13.2	The Algonquian Homeland	317
13.3	The Numic Homeland	320
13.4	Early Spanish and Aztec Loans in Northwest Mexico	323
	Nonlinguistic Information Gleaned from Linguistic Evidence	328
	Establishing the Direction of Borrowing	330
13.5	California Revisited	331
	Distribution and Diversity	331
	"The Case of the Broken Bottle"	333
	Sources	335
	Suggested Readings	336
Chapter 14	Spread and Distribution of Language Families	337
14.1	Eastern North America	337
14.2	Western North America	340
14.3	Middle America	343
14.4	South America	346
	The Highlands	346
	The Lowlands	347
	The Southern Cone	348
	Sources	349
	Suggested Reading	349
Appendix 1	Phonetic Symbols and Their Meaning	351
	Consonants	351
	Voicing	351
	Place of Articulation	353
	Other Consonantal Distinctions: Glottalization, Aspiration, and Length	355
	Vowels	356
	Additional Comments	357
Appendix 2	A List of Language Families of North America	359
	Alphabetical Guide to the List	360
	Language Families of North America	365
	Bibliography	379
	Index	425

Editorial Reviews

There is no better introduction to American Indian languages than this volume. Highly readable and accessible to a general audience, it is a fine read for anyone interested in the subject.”—Native California
 
“[There are] no less than 160 languages or language families of North and South America on which substantive information is given, from Inuit to Araucanian and from Eyak to Creek. Along with topics long familiar to specialists—such as Sapir’s discussion of the northern origin of the Navajo, and Haas’s work on Koasati genderlects—there is much fresh material from Silver’s and Miller’s own field research.”—Language in Society
 
“It would be the perfect, authoritative book for that ideal course on American Indian languages that we all yearn to teach. But there is so much in it, so lucidly explained, that it could serve equally well as the organizing text for the more general courses on the anthropology of language that we more frequently give.”—Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas Newsletter

From the Publisher

There is no better introduction to American Indian languages than this volume. Highly readable and accessible to a general audience, it is a fine read for anyone interested in the subject.

Native California

[There are] no less than 160 languages or language families of North and South America on which substantive information is given, from Inuit to Araucanian and from Eyak to Creek. Along with topics long familiar to specialists--such as Sapir's discussion of the northern origin of the Navajo, and Haas's work on Koasati genderlects--there is much fresh material from Silver's and Miller's own field research.

Language in Society

It would be the perfect, authoritative book for that ideal course on American Indian languages that we all yearn to teach. But there is so much in it, so lucidly explained, that it could serve equally well as the organizing text for the more general courses on the anthropology of language that we more frequently give.

SSILA Newsletter