Yuman–Cochimí languages explained

Yuman–Cochimí
Also Known As:	Yuman
Region:	Colorado River basin and Baja California
Familycolor:	American
Fam1:	Hokan ?
Glotto:	coch1271
Glottorefname:	Cochimi–Yuman
Child1:	Cochimí
Child2:	Kiliwa
Child3:	Core Yuman
Map:	Yuman–Cochimí_map.svg
Mapcaption:	Pre-contact distribution of Yuman–Cochimí languages

The Yuman–Cochimí languages are a family of languages spoken in Baja California, northern Sonora, southern California, and western Arizona. Cochimí is no longer spoken as of the late 18th century, and most other Yuman languages are threatened.

Classification

There are approximately a dozen Yuman languages. The dormant Cochimí, attested from the 18th century, was identified after the rest of the family had been established, and was found to be more divergent. The resulting family was therefore called Yuman–Cochimí, with Yuman being the extra-Cochimí languages.

• Yuman
  • Cochimí (Northern Cochimí and Southern Cochimí may have been distinct languages)
  • Kiliwa
  • Core Yuman
    • Delta–California Yuman
      • Ipai (a.k.a. 'Iipay, Northern Diegueño)
      • Kumeyaay (a.k.a. Central Diegueño, Campo, Kamia)
      • Tipai (a.k.a. Southern Diegueño, Huerteño, Ku'ahl)
      • Cocopah (a.k.a. Cucapá; cf. Kahwan, Halyikwamai)
    • River Yuman
      • Quechan (a.k.a. Yuma)
      • Maricopa (a.k.a. Pii-Paash; cf. also Halchidhoma)
      • Mojave
    • Pai
      • Yavapai
      • Havasupai-Hualapai (a.k.a. Northern Yuman)
        • Hualapai dialect (a.k.a. Walapai)
        • Havasupai dialect
      • Paipai (a.k.a. Akwa'ala; possibly distinct from the Upland Yuman language only at the dialect level)

Cochimí is now dormant. Cucapá is the Spanish name for the Cocopa. Diegueño is the Spanish name for Ipai–Kumeyaay–Tipai, now often referred to collectively as Kumeyaay. Upland Yuman consists of several mutually intelligible dialects spoken by the politically distinct Yavapai, Hualapai, and Havasupai.

Proto-language

Proto-Yuman
Familycolor:	American
Target:	Yuman languages
Child1:	Proto-Yuman

Urheimat

Mauricio Mixco of the University of Utah points to a relative lack of reconstructible Proto-Yuman terms for aquatic phenomena as evidence against a coastal, lacustrine, or riverine Urheimat.^[1]

Reconstruction

Proto-Yuman reconstructions by Mixco (1978):^[2]

gloss	Proto-Yuman
be	wi/*yu
be located (sg)	wa
belly	pxa; *p-xa
big	tay
bird	č-sa
body hair	mi(ʔ)
bone	ak
breasts	ñ-maːy
cat	-mi(ʔ)
causative	x-
chief man	-pa/*(ma)
chief, lord	-pa/*ma
cold	x-čur
cry	mi(ʔ)
dance	-ma(ʔ)
daughter	p-čay
die	pi
die (sg)	pi
do	wi/uːy
do; make	wi/*uy
dog	(č)-xat
dove	k-wi(ʔ)
drink	(č)-si; *si ?
ear	ṣma(k)l ~ *ṣmal(k)
earth, place	ʔ-mat
eat (hard food)	č-aw
eat (soft food)	ma
extinguish	spa
eye	yu(w)
face	yu(w) (p)-xu
fall	-nal
father	n-ʔay; *-ta; *-ku ?
feather	-waR
fire	ʔ-ʔa(ː)w
give	wi; *ʔi
he	ña/*ya-
head	ʔi(y)
hear	kʷi(ː)
heaven, sky	ʔ-ma(ʔ)y
horn	kʷa ?
hot	paR
house	ʔ-wa(ʔ)
husband	miːy
imperative prefix	k-
irrealis	-x(a)
kill	pi
leaf	ṣmak; *smaR
lie (be prone)	yak
locative	wa-l
locative (illative)	-l
locative (thither)	-m
man, male	-miː(y); *maː(y)
man, person	-pa/*ma
mother	-tay; *-siy
mountain lion	-miʔ tay
mountain sheep	ʔ-mu(w)
mouth	(y-)a
name	maR
navel	-pu
neck/nape	iː-(m)puk ?
non-present aspect	t
nose	(p-)xu
object, plural	pa
object, unspec. (anim.)	ñ-
perceive	kʷi
possessive prefix (inal.)	ñ
prefixes (trans.)	-, *m, *Ø
priest	maː(y)
pronominal prefixes (stative)	ñ, *m-, *w-
pronominal subject	ʔ-, *m-, *Ø
rabbit	pxar
reed	xta
relative pronoun	ña-/*ya
relativizer	kʷ-
salt	-ʔiR (< *s-ʔiR)
say	ʔi
shaman	-maː(y)
sit	waː
skunk	-xʷiw
sleep	ṣma
son (w.s.)	s-ʔaːw ?
star	xmṣi
subject suffix	-č; *-m
sun, day	paR
that	-ña/*-ya
there	ña/*ya
thing, something	ʔ-č
third person	ña-/*ya
this	p-u
thorn	ʔ-ta(ː)t
three	x-muk
to blow	p-č/sul
tongue	ʔimpal; *(y)pal; *-paR
two	x-wak
water	-xa(ʔ); *si
we	ña-p
wife	ku/*ki
wing	waR
woman	ki/*ku; *siñʔak
word	maR
yes	xaː

Bibliography

• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford University Press.
• Goddard, Ives. (1996). "Introduction". In Languages, edited by Ives Goddard, pp. 1–16. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, Vol. 17. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• Kendall, Martha B. (1983). "Yuman languages". In Southwest, edited by Alfonso Ortiz, pp. 4–12. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, Vol. 10. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• Langdon, Margaret. (1990). "Diegueño: how many languages?" In Proceedings of the 1990 Hokan–Penutian Language Workshop, edited by James E. Redden, pp. 184–190. Occasional Papers in Linguistics No. 15. University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); .
• Mixco, Mauricio J. (2006). "The indigenous languages". In The Prehistory of Baja California: Advances in the Archaeology of the Forgotten Peninsula, edited by Don Laylander and Jerry D. Moore, pp. 24–41.

External links

• Comparative Yuman Swadesh vocabulary lists (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)

Notes and References

1. Laylander. Don. 2010. Linguistic Prehistory and the Archaic-Late Transition in the Colorado Desert. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology. 30. 2. 141–155. 23215446 . 0191-3557.
2. Mixco, Mauricio J. 1978. Cochimí and proto-Yuman: lexical and syntactic evidence for a new language family in Lower California. (Anthropological Papers / University of Utah, 101.) Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.