Takelma language

Takelma
Taakelmàʔn
Native to United States
Region Oregon, Rogue Valley along the middle course of the Rogue River
Ethnicity Takelma, Latgawa
Extinct 1934, with the death of Frances Johnson
Penutian or language isolate
Language codes
ISO 639-3 tkm
Glottolog take1257[1]

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Takelma (south), with the Kalapuyan languages to the north

Takelma /təˈkɛlmə/[2] was the language spoken by the Latgawa and Takelma people. It was first extensively described by Edward Sapir in his graduate thesis, The Takelma Language of Southwestern Oregon.[3] The last fluent speaker of Takelma, with whom Sapir worked while writing about the language, was Frances Johnson (Gwísgwashãn).

Dialects

There was possibly a Cow Creek dialect spoken in southwestern Oregon along the South Umpqua River, Myrtle Creek, and Cow Creek.[4]

Genealogical relations

Takelma is a language isolate.

Takelma was once considered part of a Takelma-Kalapuyan language family together with the Kalapuyan languages (Swadesh 1965). However, a paper by Tarpent & Kendall (1998) finds this relationship to be unfounded because of the extremely different morphological structures of Takelma and Kalapuyan. DeLancey follows this position. However, Takelma is commonly proposed as part of the Penutian super-family, as first suggested by Edward Sapir.[5]

Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar Glottal
central lateral
Nasal m n
Plosive plain p t k ʔ
aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ
ejective pʼ tʼ kʼ
Affricate tsʼ tʃʼ
Fricative voiceless s ɬ ʃ x h
Approximant ʍ
voiced l j w

Words

References

  1. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Takelma". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  2. ↑ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  3. ↑ Sapir, Edward (1922). "II". The Takelma Language of Southwestern Oregon. Handbook of American Indian Languages. Bulletin 40. Bureau of American Ethnology. pp. 1–296.
  4. ↑ Don Macnaughtan. "American Indian Languages of Western Oregon". Lane Community College Library. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
  5. ↑ Sapir, Edward (1909). "Takelma Texts". University of Pennsylvania Anthropological Publications (University of Pennsylvania) 2 (1): 1–263.

Further reading