Chimariko is an extinctlanguage isolate formerly spoken in northern Trinity County, California, by the inhabitants of several independent communities. While the total area claimed by these communities was remarkably small, Golla (2011:87–89) believes there is evidence that three local dialects were recognized: ''Trinity River Chimariko,'' spoken along the Trinity River from the mouth of South Fork at Salyer as far upstream as Big Bar, with a principal village at Burnt Ranch; ''South Fork Chimariko,'' spoken around the junction of South Fork and Hayfork Creek, with a principal village at Hyampom; and ''New River Chimariko,'' spoken along New River on the southern slopes of the Trinity Alps, with a principal village at Denny.
Genetic relations
Proposals linking Chimariko to other languages in various versions of the hypothetical Hokan family have been advanced.
Roland Dixon
Roland Burrage Dixon (November 6, 1875 – December 19, 1934) was an American anthropologist.
Early life and education
Born at Worcester, Mass, in 1897 he graduated from Harvard University, where he remained as an assistant in anthropology, taki ...
suggested a relationship between Chimariko and the Shastan and Palaihnihan families.
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States.
Sap ...
Karuk
The Karuk people are an indigenous people of California, and the Karuk Tribe is one of the largest tribes in California. Karuks are also enrolled in two other federally recognized tribes, the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad ...
and Yana languages in a Hokan sub-grouping known as ''Northern Hokan''. A ''Kahi'' family consisting of Chimariko, Shastan, Palaihnihan, and
Karuk
The Karuk people are an indigenous people of California, and the Karuk Tribe is one of the largest tribes in California. Karuks are also enrolled in two other federally recognized tribes, the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad ...
has been suggested (appearing also within Sapir's 1929 ''Northern Hokan''). Most specialists currently find these relationships to be undemonstrated, and consider Chimariko to remain best considered an isolate.
Documentary history
Stephen Powers collected the first word list from Chimariko speakers in 1875 (Golla, 2011, p. 89). Soon after, Jeremiah Curtin documented a substantial amount of information (p. 89). Roland Dixon began work on the Chimariko language in the early 1900s, when there were few remaining speakers. Dixon worked with two: Mrs. Dyer and a man who was named Friday. While doing work with nearby Hupa, Edward Sapir collected data and also commented on the earlier Dixon work (Golla, 2011, p. 89). Later, extensive documentation on the language was carried out by J.P. Harrington, who worked with Sally Noble, the last speaker of the language. None of this work has been published, but slides of all of Harrington's work can be viewed on the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
's website. Harrington's assistant John Paul Marr also made recordings of the language with speaker Martha Zigler. George Grekoff collected previous works of linguistics intending to write a grammar, but died before it was completed (Golla, 2011, p. 89).
The last Chimariko speaker was Martha Ziegler who died in the 1950s (Golla, 2011, p. 89). According to Golla, bilingual Hupa-Chimariko speakers native to the South Fork of the Trinity River, Burnt Ranch and New Rivers areas, organized as the
Tsnungwe
The Tsnungwe (current Hupa-language orthography, own name: - "Tse:ning-din (Ironside Mountain) People") or ''Tsanunghwa'' are a Native American people indigenous to the modern areas of the lower South Fork Trinity River (), Willow Creek (), ...
Tribe (from Hupa ''cʰe:niŋxʷe:'' 'Ironside Mountain people') and are seeking federal acknowledgement, but emphasize Hupa for purposes of cultural revitalization". There are no programs available to either teach or revitalize Chimariko from its current status of extinct (p. 89).
Phonology
Consonants
The consonant inventory of Chimariko is:
Vowels
The vowel inventory of Chimariko is: i, e, a, o, u.
Syllables
Chimariko shares syllabic similarities with other languages in Northern California. The most common syllable structures for Chimariko are CV and CVC, with the largest possible structures being CCVC or CVCC.
Morphology
Noun incorporation is present in Chimariko. The verbs have prefixes, suffixes and a circumfix.
Verb templates:
Grammatical characteristics
Because the documentary corpus of Chimariko was limited, the description of the grammar of the language was not complete. However, general observations were made.
Among the recorded grammatical characteristics are the following: Chimariko had reduplication in many nominal forms, particularly in the names of
fauna
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...
(e.g., ''tsokoko-tci'' "bluejay", ''himimitcei'' "grouse"). Like many American languages (such as Shasta,
Maidu
The Maidu are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada, in the watershed area of the Feather River, Feather and American River, American ...
,
Wintun
The Wintun are members of several related Native American peoples of Northern California, including the Wintu (northern), Nomlaki (central), and Patwin (southern).Pritzker, 152Shoshoni, Siouan, and
Pomo
The Pomo are an Indigenous people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small ...
), Chimariko verbs had a series of
instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...
and body-part prefixes, indicating the particular body part or object with which an action was carried out. Instrumentals are attached at the beginning of the verb root and often occur with a suffix which indicates the motion in the verb, such as ''-ha'' "up", ''-hot'' "down", and ''-usam'' "through".
Chimariko does not use numeral classifiers. Also lacking is a clear pattern to indicate control.
Numerals
According to Carmen Jany, "no other language has the exact same system as Chimariko". Chimariko uses both a decimal and
quinary
Quinary (base-5 or pental) is a numeral system with 5 (number), five as the radix, base. A possible origination of a quinary system is that there are five finger, digits on either hand.
In the quinary place system, five numerals, from 0 (number) ...
numeral systems. Numerals appear in noun phrases, do not take affixes (except for the determinative suffix ''-lle''), can either follow or precede the noun, and can appear without a noun.
Space, time, modality
There are two demonstrative pronouns in Chimariko indicating "here" and "there". ''Qè-'' indicates here, or near the speaker, and ''pa-'' indicates there, or a distance from the speaker. To indicate "this" and "that", the intensive suffix ''-ut'' is added:
: This: ''qèwot'', ''qât''
: That: ''pamut'', ''paut'', ''pât''
The modal system in Chimariko is abundant.Jany,(2007)"Chimariko..."p.206 Modal suffixes attach at the very end of a verb after all other suffixes are applied and generally don't occur with aspectual suffixes. The modal suffixes function as interrogatives, negatives, dubitatives, speculatives, conditionals, emphatics, potentials, potential futures, purposive futures, optatives, desideratives, imperatives, admonitives, intensives, inferentials, resultatives, and evidentials.
Sentence structure
The research available indicates a variation in opinion about Chimariko's word order. Dixon claimed that usual word order is SVO or SOV, but in some cases the object precedes the subject, especially when the subject is pronominal. Jany claims that word order is not rigid but is mainly verb-final. The clauses are separated by brackets and the verbs are bolded in the following example:
Inside noun phrases, there is variation in order of modifiers and the noun; sometimes the noun comes before other elements of the phrase, sometimes after. When dealing with possession, the subject always precedes the object.
Case
Chimariko has an agent/patient case system. For first persons, agent and patient are differentiated in both transitive and intransitive clauses, and third persons are not. Person hierarchy in the argument structure is present as well where speech act participants are favored over third persons.
Possession
Chimariko differentiates alienable and inalienable possession.Jany 2007 Alienable possessions such as objects and kinship are marked by suffix, while inalienable possessions such as body parts are marked by prefix, on the possessed.
Examples from JP Harrington field notes (Jany 2007) contrasting alienable and inalienable possession:
''čʰ-uweš'' 'my horn'(deer says)
''noˀot huweš-ˀi'' 'my horn' (Frank says)
Complementation
In Chimariko, there is no grammatical complementation, however there are a few strategies to convey semantic complementation including separate clauses, verbal affixes, the use of attitude words, and using the desiderative ''imiˀna'' 'to want'.Jany, 2007
Examples from Jany (2007):
Complements with utterance predicates (separate clauses):
Desiderative imiˀna ‘to want’ with clausal arguments
Relative clauses
In Chimariko, relativization can be done one of two ways - using a special verb suffix ''-rop/-rot'' to form internally headed clauses, and or by a headless relative clause. There is a relative pronoun ''map'un'' that is sometimes used.
JP Harrington field note example found in Jany (2007):
The relative clause is in brackets. map’un is the head.
red-tailed hawk
The red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members wit ...
manzanita
Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus ''Arctostaphylos''. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from Southern British Columbia and Washington to Or ...
: čʰičʰi
*
elderberry
''Sambucus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. The various species are commonly called elder or elderberry. The genus was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified as Adoxaceae due to ge ...
willow
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...
: pačʰu
*
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
maple
''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...
: čʰupxaṭi'na
*potato: sawu
*
soaproot
The common names soap plant, soaproot and amole refer to the genus ''Chlorogalum''. They are native to western North America, with some species in Oregon but they are mostly found in California. Common names of the genus and several species deri ...
blackberry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...
thimbleberry
''Rubus parviflorus'', commonly called thimbleberry, (also known as redcaps) is a species of ''Rubus'' native to northern temperate regions of North America. The plant has large hairy leaves and no thorns. It bears edible red fruit similar in ...
This table lists a few present-day locations in Chimariko territory.
:
References
A:agent
DER:derivational
DIR:directional
Bibliography
* Campbell, Lyle (1997) ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. .
* Goddard, Ives (ed.) (1996) ''Languages''. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. .
* Golla, Victor (2011) ''California Indian Languages''. Berkeley: University of California Press. .
* Jany, Carmen (2007) "Is there any evidence for complementation in Chimariko?", ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', Volume 73, Issue 1, pp. 94–113, Jan 2007
* —— (2007) "Chimariko in Areal and Typological Perspective." Order No. 3274416 University of California, Santa Barbara. Ann Arbor: ''ProQuest''.
* —— (2009) ''Chimariko Grammar: Areal and Typological Perspective''. UC Press.
* Mithun, Marianne (1999) ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); .
Alfred Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...
UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...