Aztec–Tanoan languages explained

Aztec–Tanoan
Acceptance:	hypothetical
Region:	central North America
Familycolor:	American
Family:	proposed language family
Child1:	Tanoan
Child2:	Uto-Aztecan
Map:	Aztec-Tanoan.png
Mapcaption:	Pre-contact distribution of hypothetical Aztec-Tanoan family (map does not show the total distribution in Mexico)
Map2:	UtoAztecanlanguages.png
Mapcaption2:	Uto-Aztecan languages in Mesoamerica
Mapsize:	250
Glotto:	none

Aztec–Tanoan is a hypothetical and undemonstrated language family that proposes a genealogical relation between the Tanoan and the Uto-Aztecan families. This proposed classification has not been definitively demonstrated, largely because of slow progress in the reconstruction of the intermediate stages of the two language families involved,^[1] but is still considered promising by many linguists.^{[2] [3]} The grouping was originally proposed by Edward Sapir in his 1921 classification, but it was not until 1937 that supporting evidence was published by Benjamin Lee Whorf and G. L. Trager. Their proposal included some 67 proposed cognates, but subsequent reviews have found most of them to be unconvincing (monosyllables, onomatopoeia). A small number of their proposed cognates do seem to have some merit and in his 1997 review of the hypothesis Lyle Campbell states that the proposal is not implausible but requires detailed study.^[4] A recent article by Jane H. Hill argues that the evidence cited for the genetic relation by Whorf and Trager is better understood as a result of language contact between the Uto-Aztecan and Tanoan proto-languages.^[5]

Proposed cognates

The following word pairs are the proposed cognates from Whorf & Trager (1937) and Davis (1979) considered promising by Campbell (1997:273).

• 'stand', Uto-Aztecan wine/wene/wi-; Proto-Tanoan gwine (Whorf & Trager's set 12)
• Uto-Aztecan siwa- 'woman'; Proto-Tanoan liw- (Davis Kiowa-Tanoan *siu) (Whorf & Trager's set 31 / Davis' set 85)
• 'three', Uto-Aztecan pahi; Proto-Tanoan poyuwo (Davis' UA *pahi/*pahayu; Kiowa-Tanoan *podzu(a)/*pocua) (Whorf & Trager's set 73)
• Proto-Numic *pi(h)wi, *pi(h)yi 'heart'; Kiowa-Tanoan *pia (Davis) (Davis' set 3, Whorf & Trager's set 84)
• Uto-Aztecan *pu:la 'tie'; Kiowa-Tanoan *phe, *ph^ 'wrap, tie' (Davis' set 14, Whorf & Tragers' set 87)

Vocabulary

Below is a comparison of selected basic vocabulary items in Proto-Uto-Aztecan and Proto-Kiowa-Tanoan.

gloss	Proto-Kiowa-Tanoan^[6]	Proto-Uto-Aztecan^[7]
hair	pʰV₂	kuppa
eye	cV₄	pusi
tooth	dwṼ₅a; *gʷṼ₅	tamaC, *tamaN, *taman
mouth	sV₂	tï’na > *tï’ni; *tï’nV-pa > *tï’n-pa > *tïmpa
hand	mṼ₁bd-	man > *ma
foot	ʔṼ₅bn	kïsa, *kïsica, *kïhisa; *naNpa, *naCp, *nappa
breast	gʷV₃	piCti(C); *ciʼi-wa
fish	pV₃	paNkwi, *pakkwi, *paC-kuyu, *paC-kucu
water	p’V₁	pa / *pa’wi
earth	dṼ₄m 'ground'	tı̈paC, *tı̈paL; *kwiya, *kwiLa
I (1.SG)	nṼ₁b	nï

Bibliography

• Davis, Irvine. 1979. The Kiowa-Tanoan, Keresan, and Zuni languages. In The languages of Native America: historical and comparative assessment, ed. Lyle Campbell and Marianne Mithun, 390-443. Austin: University of Texas Press.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. .
• Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne (Eds.). (1979). The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment. Austin: University of Texas Press.
• Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996). Handbook of North American Indians: Languages (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. .
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); .
• Whorf, Benjamin L.; & Trager, George L. (1937). The relationship of Uto-Aztecan and Tanoan. American Anthropologist, 39, 609–624.

Notes and References

1. Kenneth L. Hale. 1967. Toward a Reconstruction of Kiowa-Tanoan Phonology. International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr., 1967), pp. 112-120
2. DAVIS, Irvine, author. 1989. "A new look at Aztec-Tanoan." In General and Amerindian ethnolinguistics: In remembrance of Stanley Newman, Mary Ritchie Key and Henry M. Hoenigswald (eds.). pages 365-79. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
3. NEWMAN, S. (1954), American Indian Linguistics in the Southwest. American Anthropologist, 56: 626–634. doi: 10.1525/aa.1954.56.4.02a00180
4. Campbell 1997:273
5. Hill, Jane H. 2002. Toward a Linguistic Prehistory of the Southwest: "Azteco-Tanoan" and the Arrival of Maize Cultivation. Journal of Anthropological Research, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Winter, 2002), pp. 457-475
6. Hale, Kenneth L. (1967). Toward a reconstruction of Kiowa–Tanoan phonology. International Journal of American Linguistics, 33 (2), 112-120.
7. Stubbs, Brian D. 2011. Uto-Aztecan: A comparative vocabulary. Flower Mound, Texas: Shumway Family History Services.