California Indian Languages

by Victor Golla

Overview

Nowhere was the linguistic diversity of the New World more extreme than in California, where an extraordinary variety of village-dwelling peoples spoke seventy-eight mutually unintelligible languages. This comprehensive illustrated handbook, a major synthesis of more than 150 years of documentation and study, reviews what we now know about California's indigenous languages. Victor Golla outlines the basic structural features of more than two dozen language types and cites all the major sources, both published and unpublished, for the documentation of these languages—from the earliest vocabularies collected by explorers and missionaries, to the data amassed during the twentieth-century by Alfred Kroeber and his colleagues, to the extraordinary work of John P. Harrington and C. Hart Merriam. Golla also devotes chapters to the role of language in reconstructing prehistory, and to the intertwining of language and culture in pre-contact California societies, making this work, the first of its kind, an essential reference on California’s remarkable Indian languages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520389670
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	02/01/2022
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Victor Golla, a leading expert on the native languages of California, is Professor of Anthropology at Humboldt State University. He is the editor of The Sapir-Kroeber Correspondence: Letters Between Edward Sapir and Alfred Kroeber, 1905–1925 and of several volumes of The Collected Works of Edward Sapir.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Phonetic Orthography xiii

Part 1 Introduction: Defining California as a Sociolinguistic Area

1.1 Diversity 1

1.2 Tribelet and Language 2

1.3 Symbolic Function of California Languages 4

1.4 Languages and Migration 5

1.5 Muitilingualism 6

1.6 Language Families and Phyla 8

Part 2 History of Study

Before Linguistics 12

2.1 Earliest Attestations 12

2.2 Jesuit Missionaries in Baja California 12

2.3 Franciscans in Alia California 14

2.4 Visitors and Collectors, 1780-1880 22

Linguistic Scholarship 32

2.5 Early Research Linguistics, 1865-1900 32

2.6 The Kroeber Era, 1900 to World War II 35

2.7 Independent Scholars, 1900-1940 42

2.8 Structural Linguists 49

2.9 The Survey of California (and Other) Indian Languages 53

2.10 The Contemporary Scene: Continuing Documentation and Research within and beyond the Academy 58

Part 3 Languages and Language Families

Algic Languages 61

3.1 California Algic Languages (Ritwan) 61

3.2 Wiyot 62

3.3 Yurok 65

Athabaskan (Na-Dene) Languages 68

3.4 The Pacific Coast Athabaskan Languages 68

3.5 Lower Columbia Athabaskan (Kwalhioqua-Tlaiskanai) 69

3.6 Oregon Athabaskan Languages 70

3.7 California Athabaskan-Languages 76

Hokan Languages 82

3.8 The Hokan Phylum 82

3.9 Karuk 84

3.10 Chimariko 87

3.11 Shastan Languages 90

3.12 Palaihnihan Languages 95

3.13 Yana 100

3.14 Washo 102

3.15 Pomo Languages 105

3.16 Esselen 112

3.17 Salinan 114

3.18 Yuman Languages 117

3.19 Cochimí and the Cochimí-Yuman Relationship 125

3.20 Sen 126

Penutian Languages 128

3.21 The Penutian Phylum 128

3.22 Takelma 130

3.23 Klamath-Modoc 133

3.24 Maiduan Languages 136

3.25 Wintuan Languages 140

3.26 Yokuts 147

3.27 Miwok Languages 156

3.28 Costanoan (Ohlone) Languages 162

3.29 Utian 168

Uto-Aztecan Languages 169

3.30 Uto-Aztecan and Northern Uto-Aztecan 169

3.31 Numic Languages 170

3.32 Takic Languages 178

3.33 Tubatulabal 185

3.34 Giamina (Omomil) 187

Languages of Uncertain Affiliation 188

3.35 Yukian Languages 188

3.36 Chumash Languages 194

3.37 Southern Baja California Languages: Monqui, Waikuri, and Pericú 200

Part 4 Typological and Area! Features: California as a Linguistic Area

Phonology 204

4.1 Consonants 204

4.2 Vowels 207

4.3 Pitch Accent and Tone 209

Grammar 209

4.4 Morphological Processes 209

4.5 Structural Patterns 210

4.6 Case Marking 211

4.7 Marking of Plurality 213

4.8 Stem Derivation 215

4.9 Switch Reference 218

Linguistic Culture 218

4.10 Numerals 218

4.11 Names 220

4.12 Diminutive and Other Expressive Symbolism 223

4.13 Social and Situational Varieties 226

4.14 Precontact Lexical Borrowing 227

4.15 Postcontact Lexical Borrowing 230

Part 5 Linguistic Prehistory

5.1 The Oldest Stratum? Waikuri, Chumash, Yukian 239

5.2 Hokan 242

5.3 Penutian 249

5.4 Uto-Aztecan 254

5.5 Algic 256

5.6 Athabaskan 257

Appendix A C. Hart Merriam's Vocabularies and Natural History Word Lists for California Indian Languages 259

Appendix B Materials on California Indian Languages in the Papers of John Peabody Harrington 273

Appendix C Phonetic Transcription Systems Widely Used in California Indian Language Materials 283

Appendix D Basic Numerals in Selected California Languages 287

Notes 295

Bibliography 323

Index 371

Editorial Reviews

"This monograph on the indigenous languages of California 'has been long in coming,' as Golla himself points out in the preface, but the wait has been worth it. . . . This book is more than just an authoritative statement of the accumulated wisdom concerning the languages of a particular region. It is also a pleasure to read and to behold. Golla’s writing style is lucid and engaging; a plethora of tables, maps, and photographs adorn the pages, and the University of California Press has done an outstanding job on the visual presentation of information. Golla’s enthusiasm for California’s indigenous languages and cultures, and his interest in the scholars and scholarly traditions by which they are known outside of indigenous communities themselves, shine through on every page."

International Journal of American Linguistics

"A lush and handy primer."

Books & Culture: A Christian Review

A once-in-a-hundred year work which is not only scholarly, well-footnoted, well-referenced, and bibliographically complete. It is also readable and enjoyable. . . . A landmark in the study of native Californian languages. . . . This is a book to be used, not just admired.

California Archaeology

"This is probably the most valuable book ever published on California Indian languages and cultures, and it should be on the shelf of any serious California scholar."

Anthropological Linguistics

"Bringing together the linguistic records of explorers and missionaries, as well as the research of anthropologists Alfred Kroeber, John P. Harrington, and C. Hart Merriam, this is an essential reference for linguistics collections."

Library Journal

"This monograph on the indigenous languages of California 'has been long in coming,' as Golla himself points out in the preface, but the wait has been worth it. . . . This book is more than just an authoritative statement of the accumulated wisdom concerning the languages of a particular region. It is also a pleasure to read and to behold. Golla’s writing style is lucid and engaging; a plethora of tables, maps, and photographs adorn the pages, and the University of California Press has done an outstanding job on the visual presentation of information. Golla’s enthusiasm for California’s indigenous languages and cultures, and his interest in the scholars and scholarly traditions by which they are known outside of indigenous communities themselves, shine through on every page."

Ícaro|Ícaro|Ícaro|International Journal of American Linguistics

“A once-in-a-hundred year work. . . . Readable and enjoyable. . . . A landmark in the study of native Californian languages.

California Archaeology - Kathryn A. Klar

"A once-in-a-hundred year work. . . . Readable and enjoyable. . . . A landmark in the study of native Californian languages."--California Archaeology

From the Publisher