Maidu (language)

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Northeast Maidu

Spoken in

USA ( California )
speaker 0 (extinct since 2007)
Linguistic
classification

Maiduan (Pujunan)

  • Northeast Maidu
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639 -2

-

ISO 639-3

nmu

Spreading the Maidu languages ​​before contact with Europeans

The (actual) Maidu maɪduː also Northeastern Maidu or Mountain Maidu , an extinct, the group is Maidu languages belonging language of the Maidu in Northern California . It was spoken in the mountains east and south of Lassen Peak in the American River and Feather River basins . In these river regions of the northern Sierra Nevada z. B. the Indian Valley , American Valley , Butte Valley and Big Meadows . The term Maidu can also refer to the related languages Konkow and Nisenan .

history

The Maidu people lived in a society of hunter-gatherers in parts of central California before contact with the Europeans. They settled in an area around what is now called Mount Lassen , Honey Lake , Sacramento, and Lake Tahoe . They spoke closely related languages ​​such as Maidu, Konkow, Nisenan, Chico and other variations.

Resuscitation efforts

Farrell Cunningham, one of the youngest fluent Yamani Maidu speakers , taught Mountain Maidu language classes in Greenville, Susanville, Nevada City and Auburn and was with the Maidu Theater in Nevada City until his death on August 11, 2013 at the age of 37 Years active. Other remaining speakers might belong to the Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians . Active resuscitation efforts have been underway since 2004. In 2011 classes were held in Maidu, Nevada County . The family of Maidu languages ​​is believed to belong to the Penuti languages , along with such families as Miwok (Miwokan or Miwyk) , Wintuan (Copeh or Copehan) , Yokuts (Yokutsan or Mariposa), and Ohlone (Costanoan) .

Phonology

Note: In phonology it is common to enclose phonetic symbols in slashes / / and allophones in square brackets []. Symbols in round brackets () do not represent the IPA spelling.

Consonants

Maidu has 18 phonemic consonants. The ones listed below are from Shipley's transcription system. The equivalent IPA transcription is shown in square brackets if it deviates from Shipley's orthography.

labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
nasal m n
Plosive Implosive b [ɓ] d [ɗ]
Tenuis p t c [tʃ] k ʔ
Ejective pʼ tʼ cʼ [tʃʼ] k '
Fricative s H
Approximant w l j

In the 1950s and 1960s, older speakers used the voiceless palatal plosives / c, c '/, while younger speakers used the innovative voiceless postalveolar affricates / tʃ, tʃʼ / (possibly borrowed from English) (Shipley, 1964).

The notation / j / represents a palatal like y in English yes . The voiced plosives (b, d) are implosives , but cannot be compared to simple voiced stops.

Before the velar plosives / k, k '/, / m / is pronounced like [ŋ].

Vowels

There are six phonemic vowels in the Maidu. The following table was also developed from Shipley's orthographic system.

Front tongue vowel Central vowel Back vowel
closed i y [ɨ] u
open e a O

These six vowels are - depending on the phonetic environment (initial / non-initial, stressed / unstressed, open / closed syllables) - characterized by several different allophones . The basic sound of the vowels occurs in initial open stressed syllables. The deepest and most central allophones appear in unstressed closed syllables. According to Shipley, (a) and (y) have allophones, which usually meet when they are in the center; (i) and (u) have allophones that are hardly centralized and are slightly lower, i.e. sound more like [ɪ] and [ʊ]. In contrast, (e) and (o) are changed more than (i) and (u) but less than (a) and (y).

The vowel quantity is non-phonemic and the changes depend on the place of the vowel within the word. The vowels have vowel quantities less than a mora , a mora, or 1.5-2 mora. The vowel is shorter than a mora in unstressed syllables, such as a mora in closed stressed syllables and longer than a mora in open stressed syllables.

Syllables

The syllables in Maidu have a basic CV or CVC structure (where C always stands for a consonant and V for a vowel). The majority of words consist of alternating consonants and vowels, with combinations such as CVCVCCV also occurring. The syllables always start with a consonant; Diphthongs do not appear at the end . The syllables in Maidu indicate the pitch in connection with the stress within the word. Primary stress syllables have a higher pitch, are more tense, and have longer vowels. Secondary stress occurs with a low to medium pitch and lengthening of the vowel. Lightly accented syllables have a low to medium pitch and short vowels.

morphology

Note: In the Morphology section, some notations are used to indicate changes in morphemes that occur when they are put together or combined with others. 'I' indicates a change, as a result of which the previous word undergoes the following changes: The word stem remains after a vowel (V) or a vowel with a crackling sound (V ') so that / wepa / remains unchanged / wepa /. After a k or a k 'the preceding vowel is duplicated so that, for example, / banak' / becomes / banak'a /. In all other cases an i is added so that / jaman becomes / jamai /. 'R' indicates a repetition of the previous segment so that / my / becomes / mymy /.

noun

The nouns in Maidu are divided into two classes. The first class consists of kinship terms, although, interestingly, the terms for child and son are not included. The nouns in this class are more restricted in use than other nouns because they always denote a subject in possession of another noun. These terms (such as / ne / "mother") are combined with a pronoun or a demonstrative pronoun :

  • nikne - "my mother"
  • minne - "your mother"
  • myne - "(this) mother"

The second class of nouns consists of free morphemes and can be divided into further subclasses based on the word stem. The first subclass contains nouns whose origin and root are identical, such as / wepa / ("coyote"). The root / kyle / ("woman") is notable in that it usually appears as / kyle / but can also be suffixed to / kylok / to form terms such as "old woman" or "women".

The second subclass contains nouns that are composed of different origins. This combination can be formed from two noun stems (/ mon / "water" and / pano / "grizzly" become mompano "otter"), from a root word of a noun and an auxiliary verb (/ jask'ak / "thin" and / no / "next" become jask'akno "thin man"), a stem of a noun and a distributive suffix (/ jaman / "mountain" and / R-to / "everywhere" become jamanmanto "everywhere mountains"), Stems of nouns and unidentifiable morphemes (/ k'am / "belly" and / pum / "skin" are combined with the meaningless morpheme / pu / to k'ampumpu "tripe") as well as a stem of a noun with a diminutive Morpheme (/ sol / "song" and / I-be / become solibe "song").

Pronouns
The pronouns are / nik '/ for the first person, / min / for the second and / maj / for the third person and / my / as demonstrative pronouns. / maj / does not appear in the singular, so constructs with / my / act as a third person singular. These are enclosed in a construct of nouns ('this woman' instead of 'she'), singular ('this') and multiple ('this person'). Unlike / maj /, there are no special plural forms of pronouns, rather they are formed from the number together with the noun.

Number
While English differentiates between singular and plural, Maidu distinguishes between singular, dual and plural . These inflections are mostly used in conjunction with the pronouns and much less often with other nouns. The suffixes / c'o / (dual) and / cy / (plural) have different allomorphs . Along with these there is a second plural morpheme / t'yt'y /, whichindicatesboth the plural and the diminutive .

Verbs

The verbs in Maidu consist of a semantic role together with a series of suffixes. Similar to nouns, the roots of the verbs in Maidu come from several different sources. Some verbs like / sol / ("to sing") consist of a single simple stem. Others include a noun in the verb stem like / k'awba / ("dig a hole"), which is a composition of / k'aw / "dirt" and / ba / "dig". There are also compound verbs from the stems of two single verbs such as / t'ikc'e / ("believe"), which is formed from / t'ik / ("have enough") and / c'e / ("see") has been. Like nouns, some verb stems contain a component with no meaning of its own, such as / bokweje / ("to beg"), where / weje / means "to speak" and / bok / has no meaning of its own. Still others consist of a verb and an auxiliary verb; Finally, there is a group of verbs with / 'y / as the first component with which a movement is expressed.

Verb semantics
The verb semantics is a combination of the verb with one or more semantic suffixes. All suffixes are optional, so they can be removed from the verb and given the base stem as a separate subject:

  • Causative
  • Determination of the verbal object
  • Movement - place
  • negative
  • aspect
  • evidence

Causative The causative suffix / ti / indicates that the actor causes an action causally, as in ma dondom 'as te' yno ti k'as , which means “I accompanied the child, holding his hand” or “I caused the child to go holding (his) hand ". This morpheme also occurs in words like / wono ti / ("kill"), literally "cause to die".

Verbal object The determination of the verbal object can take five different forms. / 'us / is a reflexive suffix as in wonoti' us' am ("he killed himself"). The second suffix / jo / indexes both the plural and repetitive actions. This occurs in such constructs as c'ani majse 'ono wo jo mak'as ("I will hit them (one at a time) with a stick.") Or humbotmenwet' as hesbopa jo dom ("I went on, something to put in the sack. "). The third suffix is ​​generally used and occurs when the meaning is unclear. / to / can be used with / ju / (" scrape") to form ju to ("rub in") and with / mej / ("give") to express mej to ("buy"). This is how the transitive form of the verb can be formed, but it is not always the case. / toto /, a doubling of / to /, indicates the opposite action.

Movement - Place The auxiliary constructs for places and movements appear in 16 different suffixes.

  • - / c'ik / over or into something with the implication of close or cover - / puc'ik / 'to swell shut'
  • - / c'o / around something, around the back
  • - / daw / down and on, without determining a goal of the movement
  • - / dik / on a target or into a target
  • - / doj / upwards - / weledoj / ("run up")
  • - / ever / here
  • - / kit / down
  • - / k'oj / away from here
  • - / lek / hurry
  • - / with / on something up or into something with the implication of the downward movement
  • - / n / downstream, down the slope (usually to the southwest)
  • - / no / further, without implication of a direction or attitude - / weleno / ("keep walking")
  • - / paj / against, usually meant symbolically - / jodotpaj / ("tie up"), / haspaj / ("shit on something")
  • - / pin / here without any implication of a destination
  • - / sip / outside of - / t'upsip / ("spit out")
  • - / t'a / on top
  • - / waj / apart

Some of these suffixes can appear together in limited constructs: / c'opin / ("around the corner here"), / c'ono / "beyond the limit of something; in a circle", / noje / ("aimlessly") and / sippin / ("out of something and here").
/ doj /, / kit /, / k'oj / and / with / are used before the suffix / nu / without the last consonant. / by / - / doj / - / nu / becomes bydonu (" attach ").

Negative The negative ending / men / has two forms, / men / after a consonant and / n / after a vowel: kyloknonom 'as wetem men usan ("The woman did not dance.") And mo ' n ' ma'amkano ( "you will not").

Aspect The Aspect class has six suffixes.

  • - / bos / completion - weje bos k'as ("I have finished my speech.")
  • - / c'yj / incapable - hybonam jysip c'yj k'as ("He cannot leave the house.")
  • - / doj / beginning - nik'i lenom 'as jotit doj dom kak'an ("My garden is beginning to green and bloom.")
  • - / nu / continuously
  • - / ti / for someone / something
  • - / bew / a little more - mym p'ybem 'as lalam bew k'an ("This boy has grown a little.")

Evidence The evidence class consists of three individual morphemes.

  • - / c'oj / quoting - mym majdyk mykotom 'a c'oj am ("They say it is this man's grandmother.")
  • - / wew / demonstrably / obviously - mym p'ybec'om 'as' ydoj wew k'an ("These two boys are obviously coming up.")
  • - / ky / apparently - hes hututini wejepem ka ky k'an ("He seems to be talking confused.")

Inflection
A verb is completed by adding five inflectional suffixes. These suffixes denote the verb to express tense , aspect , mode, person, and number. There is variability in the order of these suffixes. There are five possible inflections for the mode: indicative , subjunctive , optative , interrogative and gerund . Separate indicative modes exist for perfect, future, imperfect and past punctual . The optative mode can be separated into monitor, itentive and incentive.

Present-past indicative: The present-past indicative is determined by a non-existent morpheme. / sol / ("sing") becomes solk'as ("I sang"), sol'amk'as ("we (both) sang"), sol'emk'es ("we (all) sang"), sol'amkano ("you sang") or solk'an ("he / she / it sang"). Plurality is only indicated in the first person, whereas the 2nd and 3rd person show no indication of duality or plurality. This tense of the verb is used to express an action that has just been completed or a punctual (temporal) action that is currently taking place, or a state of being or an equation (something is something else) or a current static place.

Future indicative: The future indicative is marked by / ma /: solmak'as ("I will sing"), solma'amk'as ("we (both) will sing"), solma'emk'es ("we (all ) will sing "), solma'amkano (" you will sing ") and solmak'an (" he / she / it will sing "). The future indicative marks a future (temporal) punctual action, an instruction or a moderate imperative.

Other past tenses: The "ordinary past", denoted by / '/ for the past and / us / usually denotes an action that was usually performed in the past, such as weje'usas ("I usually spoke") or penem nikkotoc' om 'yhej'usan ("My grandmothers used to go together."). The past punctual indicative , marked with a simple / '/, is a rare form. It refers to a single action in the past that has nothing to do with the current context.

Subjunctive: The subjunctive mode, indicated by / k'e /, occurs only with / jak / ("resemble") and / na / ("result in") as in jakk'es ("I could be").

Optative: The Optataiv mode comes in three different forms. All three are marked with the morpheme / b /. The monitor optative, marked by / y'y /, denotes a possible future event that is undesirable or unpleasant like wonoby'ys ("I could die").
Intentive-optative is only used in the first person to express an intention, and is also used with demonstartive and interrogative words to formulate questions related to instructions. Use with the singular is common, while the dual and plural are relatively rare: yk'oj'is ("I'm about to leave")
The incentive is indicated by / a / and usually uses / t / as the allomorph of the optative mark. The shape denotes the idea of ​​"let me / us" as in yk'ojtas ("let me go.").

Interrogative: The interrogative mode is indicated by / k'ade / as in solk'ades ("Do I sing ?").

Imperative: The imperative is characterized by several different morphemes. It depends on how the action is to be carried out. / pi / is used when the action is to be performed in the presence of the speaker, as in c'enopi ("Look!"). / pada / is used when the action is to be completed in the absence of the speaker.

syntax

Declination of nouns by suffixes
Nouns must take one of ten possible case markers. These cases are considered in four external dissemination classes. These classes are subject, object, possessive, and locative. The cases are:

Subject: The nominative is marked either by adding a / m / as in / wepam / ("coyote") or by deleting the final consonant as in / ni / (from / nik / - "I"). The nominative is used for the person performing an action, for A and B win a sentence with the identity A = B, for a designation and for the vocative .

Object: The accusative also has two allomorphs. The first is the I-shape (see section on morphology), so that / jaman / becomes / jamani / ("mountain"). Other nouns don't change like / nik / ("I"). The case is used for direct and indirect objects, and by some speakers also for naming.

Possessive: The possessive is marked by / Ik '/ or / Ik'i / as in / wepak'i / ("Coyote (belonging)"), by / i / as in / niki / ("my") or through / k'i / as in / mink'i / ("your"). The possessive is used both to identify the current or figurative or characteristic owner and in some cases to indicate "for the sake of something".

The following seven cases all belong to the class of locatives :

Comitive: The comitive is identified by / Ik'an / or / k'an / and means "together with" - wepak'an ("together with Coyote").

Instrumental: The instrumental is characterized by / ni / to describe with whom or with what ingredient something is done / made - nik? Opam jalulu ni solti'usan ("My grandfather used to play the flute.") Or mym mahatim kak 'an wolek'i lawa ni japem ("This bread was made with white flour".).

Locative: The locative is marked by / di /. This case marks a static place in space, the space in which an action is carried out, a static temporal position or "towards something" - kulu di kak'as' ynojbodukkym ("I rarely walk around in the dark.").

Allative: The allative is marked with / nak / or / na /. The case usually expresses "towards something" and rarely means "after" - mym huskym c'aj na lykk'ojam ("The snake crawled to another place.").

Ablative: The ablative is characterized by / nan / and is the expression for a movement away from something or the origin of an object - wole nan 'as' uni mek'as ("I got this from the whites.").

Indefinite locative: The indefinite locative is marked by / te /. The case is used very rarely, usually when the location of the action is unknown to the speaker - homon te mink'i wat'a dakym ("Where's your tea towel ?").

Linear distributive: The linear distributive is identified by / no /. Like the indefinite locative, this case is used very rarely. The form identifies a place with the meaning "further" or "alongside" and always occurs in connection with a noun that describes something linear - 'adom' unim sew no momi kutidom t'uc'ikdom sewi 'odo tawalwonom ("Back then When all the water was drained from the river and the river was dammed, they worked gold. ").

Word Order
Word Classes
There are several different word classes that form a sentence in Maidu; a distinction is made between main and secondary classes. The seven main distribution classes are subject, object, possessive, locative, finite verb, dependent verb, and copula . The secondary classes are connectives , forms of delay, weighting, temporal absolute, adverbic absolute, interjection and question word. All possible combinations of these word classes generate the sentences.
Subject, Object and Locative Phrases
The only possibility of expressing a subject, object or locative is a preceding possessive. These links can only be made via a single word pair, a possessive plus a subject or object or locative.
Verb Phrases
Expressions about verbs only occur together with an object. Verb and object haben can be arranged without restriction. Both VO and OV occur naturally. The only exception to this free word arrangement is when two objects occur. In this case - usually with a dependent and an independent object - the word order is restricted to OOV or OVO. The order VOO never occurs.
Basic sentence
The basic sentence in Maidu contains a verb phrase, between zero and two subject phrases, between zero and four locative phrases and possibly a possessive phrase. Sentences with a possessive are restricted to a single subject phrase. The phrases themselves are not restricted in their arrangement. The only exception is that the possessive concludes the sentence.

The most common word order is subject-locative-verb. The verb usually ends the sentence, except when there is a possessive. The subject and the locative can occur within an extended verb phrase, so that sentence constructs with verb-subject-object and adverb-locative-verb are possible.

  • mym majdym-kak'an-nik'i heskym - SVS - "This man is my friend."
("dieser Mann – ist – mein Freund")
  • jamanna-niktynik'an-lajmendi-'yk'oj'usas - LLLV - "I used to go to the mountains with my younger brother in the summer."
 ("in die Berge – zusammen mit meinem jüngeren Bruder – im Sommer – ich ging gewöhnlich")
  • his'usan-'anim kylem-lolo - VSO - "This woman used to weave baskets."
 ("flocht gewöhnlich – diese Frau – Körbe")

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Northeastern Maidu . Ethnologue (18th ed.). 2015. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
  2. ↑ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook , Edinburgh
  3. ↑ Jane Braxton Little: Maidu Traditionalist and Language Instructor Farrell Cunningham Passes . In: Indian Country Today Media Network . August 20, 2013. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
  4. ↑ De Brotherton, Annette. Concow Language. Konkow We'wejbo'sis Project 2007–2011. 21 Aug 2007 (retrieved 24 Feb 2009)
  5. ↑ Dashka Slater: Keepers of a Lost Language. An 82-year-old linguist and his young protégé are among the last speakers of a native California language - and its final chance. . In: Mother Jones . Retrieved July 19, 2012. 
  6. ↑ Keeping mountain Maidu language alive. A group of students learn the mountain Maidu language from Farrell Cunningham in Nevada County. Video by Hector Amezcua . In: Sacramento Bee . Archived from the original on June 21, 2009 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 19, 2012.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / videos.sacbee.com 
  7. ↑ Maidu Storytelling: A Beautiful Language, A Haunting Evening . In: Word Journeys: The Blog . January 30, 2011. Retrieved July 19, 2012.

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