extinct
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
language isolate
A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...
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 suggested a relationship between Chimariko and the Shastan and Palaihnihan families.
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist-linguistics, 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 ...
Karuk
The Karuk people ()Andrew Garrett, Susan Gehr, Erik Hans Maier, Line Mikkelsen, Crystal Richardson, and Clare Sandy. (November 2, 2021) ''Karuk; To appear in The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America: A Comprehensive Guide (De G ...
and
Yana
Yana may refer to:
Locations
*Yana, Burma, a village in Hkamti Township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of northwestern Burma
* Yana, India, a village in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India
* Yana, Nigeria, an administrative c ...
languages in a Hokan sub-grouping known as ''Northern Hokan''. A ''Kahi'' family consisting of Chimariko, Shastan, Palaihnihan, and
Karuk
The Karuk people ()Andrew Garrett, Susan Gehr, Erik Hans Maier, Line Mikkelsen, Crystal Richardson, and Clare Sandy. (November 2, 2021) ''Karuk; To appear in The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America: A Comprehensive Guide (De G ...
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, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
'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 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 linguistics, reduplication is a Morphology (linguistics), morphological process in which the Root (linguistics), root or Stem (linguistics), stem of a word, part of that, or the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.
The cla ...
in many nominal forms, particularly in the names of
fauna
Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...
(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
Siouan ( ), also known as Siouan–Catawban ( ), is a language family of North America located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east.
Name
Authors who ...
, and
Pomo
The Pomo are a Indigenous peoples of California, Native American people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to ...
), Chimariko verbs had a series of
instrumental
An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...
and body-part
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed.
Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...
es, 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
The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers (''decimal fractions'') of th ...
and
quinary
Quinary (base 5 or pental) is a numeral system with five as the base. A possible origination of a quinary system is that there are five digits on either hand.
In the quinary place system, five numerals, from 0 to 4, are used to represent any ...
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.
Vocabulary
Animals
*deer: 'a'a
*salmon: 'umul
*bear: čʰisamra
*
coyote
The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...
cottontail rabbit
Cottontail rabbits are in the ''Sylvilagus'' genus, which is in the family Leporidae. They are found in the Americas. Most ''Sylvilagus'' species have stub tails with white undersides that show when they retreat, giving them their characterist ...
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 of ...
abalone
Abalone ( or ; via Spanish , from Rumsen language, Rumsen ''aulón'') is a common name for any small to very large marine life, marine gastropod mollusc in the family (biology), family Haliotidae, which once contained six genera but now cont ...
elderberry
''Sambucus'' is a genus of between 20 and 30 species of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. The various species are commonly referred to as elder, with the flowers as elderflower, and the fruit as elderberry.
Description
Elders are most ...
willow
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions.
Most species are known ...
: 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 ...
: 'uwu
*
redwood
Sequoioideae, commonly referred to as redwoods, is a subfamily of Pinophyta, coniferous trees within the family (biology), family Cupressaceae, that range in the Northern Hemisphere, northern hemisphere. It includes the List of superlative tree ...
maple
''Acer'' is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated si ...
blackberry
BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...
gooseberry
Gooseberry ( or (American and northern British) or (southern British)) is a common name for many species of ''Ribes'' (which also includes Ribes, currants), as well as a large number of plants of similar appearance, and also several unrela ...
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 fi ...
at the
Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library is the primary special-collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity. ...
at
UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...
Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
The Survey of California and Other Indian Languages (originally the Survey of California Indian Languages) at the University of California at Berkeley documents, catalogs, and archives the indigenous languages of the Americas. The survey also hosts ...