Chimariko language

Chimariko is an extinct language 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 suggested a relationship between Chimariko and the Shastan and Palaihnihan families. Edward Sapir's famous 1929 classification grouped Chimariko with Shastan, Palaihnihan, Pomoan, and the Karuk and Yana languages in a Hokan sub-grouping known as Northern Hokan. A Kahi family consisting of Chimariko, Shastan, Palaihnihan, and Karuk 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.^[2]

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.^[3] 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.^[4] None of this work has been published, but slides of all of Harrington's work can be viewed on the Smithsonian Institution's website.^[5] Harrington's assistant John Paul Marr also made recordings of the language with speaker Martha Zigler.^[6] 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, "[m]odern Chimariko descendants, organized as the Tsnungwe Tribe (from Hupa cʰe:niŋxʷe: 'Ironside Mountain people') and seeking federal acknowledgement, consider both Hupa and Chimariko to be their heritage languages, but emphasize Hupa for purposes of cultural revitalization" (p. 89). 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:^[7]

Vowels

The vowel inventory of Chimariko is: i, e, a, o, u.^[8]

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.^[9]

Morphology

Noun incorporation is present in Chimariko.^[10] The verbs have prefixes, suffixes and a circumfix.^[11]

Verb templates:^[12]

Grammatical characteristics

Because the documentary corpus of Chimariko was limited, the description of the grammar of the language was not complete.^[3] 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 (e.g., tsokoko-tci "bluejay", himimitcei "grouse"). Like many American languages (such as Shasta, Maidu, Wintun, as well as Shoshoni, Siouan, and Pomo), Chimariko verbs had a series of instrumental and body-part prefixes, indicating the particular body part or object with which an action was carried out.^[3] 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".^[8]

List of instrumentals from Dixon:^[8]

Chimariko does not use numeral classifiers.^[13] Also lacking is a clear pattern to indicate control.^[14]

Pronominal affixes by verb stem class:

^[15]

Numerals

According to Carmen Jany, "no other language has the exact same system as Chimariko".^[16] Chimariko uses both a decimal and quinary numeral systems.^[17] 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.^[18]

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.^[8] To indicate "this" and "that", the intensive suffix -ut is added:

This: qèwot, qât

That: pamut, paut, pât^[8]

There are many directional suffixes:

^[19]

The modal system in Chimariko is abundant.^[20] Modal suffixes attach at the very end of a verb after all other suffixes are applied and generally don't occur with aspectual suffixes.^[20] 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.^[21]

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.^[8] Jany claims that word order is not rigid but is mainly verb-final.^[22] The clauses are separated by brackets and the verbs are bolded in the following example:

    ʔawaidače xowonat, šičel hiwontat
    [ʔawa-ida-če   x-owo-na-t]        [šičel h-iwonta-t]
    home-POSS-LOC  NEG-stay-NEG-ASP    horse 3-ride-ASP
    'She does not stay at home, she goes around on horseback.'[23]

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.^[24] When dealing with possession, the subject always precedes the object.^[25]

Case

Chimariko has an agent/patient case system.^[26] For first persons, agent and patient are differentiated in both transitive and intransitive clauses, and third persons are not.^[27] Person hierarchy in the argument structure is present as well where speech act participants are favored over third persons.^[28]

    mokoxanaˀ
    m-oko-xana-ˀ
    2SG-tattoo-FUT-Q
    'Are you going to tattoo her?'[29]
     2>3 => 2

Possession

Chimariko differentiates alienable and inalienable possession.^[30] 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.

^[30]

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'.^[31] Examples from Jany (2007):

    Complements with utterance predicates (separate clauses):
    himisamdudaˀn sideˀw
    [himisamdu-daˀn] [si-deˀw]
    devil-INF         say-DER
    'It must have been the devil, they said.' (complement is bolded; clauses are in brackets)

    Desiderative imiˀna ‘to want’ with clausal arguments
    yuwom imiˀnan
    y-uwo-m     imiˀna-n
    1SG.A-go-DIR  want-ASP
    ‘I want to go home’

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.^[31] JP Harrington field note example found in Jany (2007):

    map’un hokoteˀrot yečiˀ ˀimiˀnan
    [map’un    h-oko-teˀ-rot] y-ečiˀ     ˀi-miˀn-an
    that.one   3-?-DER-DEP    1SG.A-buy  1SG-want-ASP
    I want to buy that engraved one.
    The relative clause is in brackets. map’un is the head.

References

Bibliography

• Campbell, Lyle (1997) American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Goddard, Ives (ed.) (1996) Languages. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-048774-9.
• Golla, Victor (2011) California Indian Languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-26667-4.
• 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. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.

External links

• Fieldnotes on Chimariko by Alfred Kroeber at the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley
• Chimariko language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• Chimariko basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
• "Chimariko Sound recording". Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2012-07-20. 
• OLAC resources in and about the Chimariko language

Languages of California
Indigenous	Algic Wiyot Yurok Athabaskan Tolowa Hupa Mattole Cahto Wailaki Chumashan Obispeño Island Chumash Purisimeño Ineseño Barbareño Ventureño Ohlone Karkin Chochenyo Ramaytush Tamyen Awaswas Mutsun Rumsen Chalon Hokan Chimariko Karuk Achomawi Atsugewi Northeastern Pomo Eastern Pomo Southeastern Pomo Northern Pomo Central Pomo Southern Pomo Kashaya Washo Mojave Kumeyaay Yana Yahi Penutian Klamath-Mudoc Yokuts Wintu Bay Miwok Coast Miwok Lake Miwok Plains Miwok Central Sierra Miwok Northern Sierra Miwok Southern Sierra Miwok Valley Maidu Northeast Maidu Northwest Maidu Nisenan Shastan Konomihu New River Shasta Okwanuchu Shasta Uto Aztecan Cahuilla Cupeño Kawaiisu Kitanemuk Luiseño-Juaneño Mono Northern Paiute Panamint Serrano Tataviam Tongva Ute Wintuan Nomlaki Patwin Southern Patwin Wintu Yokutsan Buena Vista Yokuts, Chukchansi, Gashowu Yokuts, Kings River Yokuts, Palewyami, Tule-Kaweah Yokuts, Valley Yokuts Yukian Yuki, Wappo Language isolates and Unclassified Esselen, Chimariko, Karuk, Salinan, Takelma Plains Sign Talk
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Italics indicate extinct languages