| Klamath | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modoc | ||||
| Spoken in | United States | |||
| Region | Southern Oregon and northern California | |||
| Ethnicity | Klamath, Modoc | |||
| Native speakers | 1 (date missing) | |||
| Language family |
Plateau Penutian
|
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| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | kla | |||
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Klamath-Modoc (also simply Klamath, historically Lutuamian) is a Native American language that was spoken around Klamath Lake in what is now southern Oregon and northern California. It is the traditional language of the Klamath and Modoc peoples, each of whom spoke a dialect of the language. As of April 1998[update], it was spoken by only one person.[1]
Klamath–Modoc is thought to be a member of the Plateau Penutian branch of the Penutian language family, a family in which ablaut is common, just like in Indo-European. Evidence for this classification includes some consonant correspondences between Klamath–Modoc and other alleged Penutian languages. For example, the Proto-Yokuts retroflexes */ʈ ʈʼ/ correspond to Klamath–Modoc /tʃ tʃʼ/, and the Proto-Yokuts dentals */t̪ t̪ʰ t̪ʼ/ correspond to the Klamath–Modoc alveolars /t tʰ tʼ/.
Contents |
| Bilabial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p pʰ pʼ | t tʰ tʼ | k kʰ kʼ | q qʰ qʼ | ʔ | |
| Nasal | m m̥ mʼ | n n̥ nʼ | ||||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||
| Affricate | tʃ tʃʰ tʃʼ | |||||
| Approximant | l l̥ lʼ | j ȷ̊ jʼ | w w̥ wʼ |
Obstruents in Klamath–Modoc except for /s/ all come in triplets of unaspirated, aspirated, and ejective sounds.[2] Sonorant triplets are voiced, voiceless, and "laryngealized" sounds, except for /h/ and /ʔ/.[3]
Most consonants can be geminated. The fricative /s/ is an exception, and there is evidence suggesting this is a consequence of a recent sound change.[4] Albert Samuel Gatschet recorded geminated /sː/ in the late 19th century, but this sound was consistently recorded as degeminated /s/ by M. A. R. Barker in the 1960s. Sometime after Gatschet recorded the language and before Barker did the same, */sː/ may have degeminated into /s/.
Klamath word order is conditioned by pragmatics. There is no clearly defined Verb Phrase or Noun Phrase. Alignment is nominative–accusative, with nominal case marking also distinguishing adjectives from nouns. Many verbs obligatorily classify an absolutive case. There are directive and applicative constructions.[5]