| Yawelmani | |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Speakers: | 20–25 fluent and semispeakers |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Fam1: | Yok-Utian ? |
| Fam2: | Yokutsan |
| Fam3: | General Yokuts |
| Fam4: | Nim |
| Fam5: | Northern Yokuts |
| Fam6: | Valley Yokuts |
| Fam7: | Southern |
| Fam8: | Koyeti–Yawelmani |
| Also Known As: | Yowlumne |
| Nativename: | Yawlamnin ṭeexil |
| States: | California |
| Isoexception: | dialect |
| Map: | Yawelmani_map.svg |
Yawelmani Yokuts (also spelled Yowlumne and Yauelmani) is an endangered dialect of Southern Valley Yokuts historically spoken by the Yokuts living along the Kern River north of Kern Lake in the Central Valley of California.[1] Today, most Yawelmani speakers live on or near the Tule River Reservation.[2]
Academic sources frequently use the name Yawelmani while referring to the language, though tribe members more often use the name Yowlumne.
When referencing their language, modern speakers of Yawelmani use the terms Uncoded languages: inyana (Indian), and Uncoded languages: yaw'lamnin ṭeexil (speech of the Yowlumne).
| Bilabial | Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | plain | p pronounced as /link/ | t pronounced as /link/ | ṭ pronounced as /link/ | k pronounced as /link/ | ʼ pronounced as /link/ | |
| aspirated | ph pronounced as /link/ | th pronounced as /link/ | ṭh pronounced as /link/ | kh pronounced as /link/ | |||
| ejective | pʼpronounced as /link/ | tʼpronounced as /link/ | ṭʼ pronounced as /link/ | kʼ pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Affricate | plain | c pronounced as /link/ | č pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| aspirated | ch pronounced as /link/ | čh pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| ejective | cʼ pronounced as /link/ | čʼ pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Fricative | s pronounced as /link/ | ṣ pronounced as /link/ | x pronounced as /link/ | h pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Nasal | plain | m pronounced as /link/ | n pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| glottalized | mʼ pronounced as /link/ | nʼ pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Approximant | plain | w pronounced as /link/ | l pronounced as /link/ | y pronounced as /link/ | |||
| glottalized | wʼ pronounced as /link/ | lʼ pronounced as /link/ | yʼ pronounced as /link/ | ||||
Yawelmani has 10 vowel phonemes:
| Unrounded | Rounded | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | ||
| High | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Low | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
As can be seen, Yawelmani vowels have a number of different realizations (phones) which are summarized below:
| Front | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | ||
| High | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Near-high | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Low | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
The Yawelmani syllables can be either a consonant-vowel sequence (CV), such as deeyi- 'lead', or a consonant-vowel-consonant sequence (CVC), such as xata- 'eat'. Thus the generalized syllable is the following:
CV(C)
Word roots are bisyllabic and have either one of two shapes:
When long vowels are in closed syllables, they are shortened:
| pronounced as //p’a.xaː.t’it// | → | pronounced as /[p’axaːt’it]/ | p̓axaat̕it | 'mourn (passive aorist)' | (pronounced as //aː// remains long) | |
| pronounced as //p’a.xaːt’.hin// | → | pronounced as /[p’axat’hin]/ | p̓axat̕hin | 'mourn (aorist)' | (pronounced as //aː// is shortened) | |
| pronounced as //ts’u.juː.hun// | → | pronounced as /[ts’ujɔːhun]/ | c̓uyoohun | 'urinate (aorist)' | (pronounced as //uː// remains long) | |
| pronounced as //ts’u.juːt// | → | pronounced as /[ts’ujɔt]/ | c̓uyot | 'urinate (passive aorist)' | (pronounced as //uː// is shortened) |
Yawelmani has suffixes that contain either an underspecified high vowel pronounced as //I// or an underspecified non-high vowel pronounced as //A//.
| pronounced as //-hIn// | -hun/-hin | (aorist suffix) | |||
| pronounced as //muʈhIn// | → | pronounced as /[muʈhun]/ | muṭhun | 'swear (aorist)' | |
| pronounced as //ɡij’hIn// | → | pronounced as /[ɡij’hin]/ | giy̓hin | 'touch (aorist)' | |
| pronounced as //ɡɔphIn// | → | pronounced as /[ɡɔphin]/ | gophin | 'take care of infant (aorist)' | |
| pronounced as //xathIn// | → | pronounced as /[xathin]/ | xathin | 'eat (aorist)' |
| pronounced as //-tAw// | -tow/-taw | (nondirective gerundial suffix) | |||
| pronounced as //ɡɔptAw// | → | pronounced as /[ɡɔptɔw]/ | goptow | 'take care of infant (nondir. ger.)' | |
| pronounced as //ɡij’tAw// | → | pronounced as /[ɡij’taw]/ | giy̓taw | 'touch (nondir. ger.)' | |
| pronounced as //muʈtAw// | → | pronounced as /[muʈtaw]/ | muṭtaw | 'swear (nondir. ger.)' | |
| pronounced as //xattAw// | → | pronounced as /[xatːaw]/ | xattaw | 'eat (nondir. ger.)' |
Yawelmani adds vowels to stems, when suffixes with an initial consonant are affixed to word with two final consonants in order to avoid a triple-consonant-cluster.
Yawelmani is a primary object language.
A. L. Krober documented the language's case system in his 1907 paper The Yokuts language of south central California.[4]
| Objective | Noun | -a (i) | |
| Demonstrative | -n, -in | ||
| (plural), Pronoun | -wa | ||
| Possessive | -in | ||
| Instrumental | ni | ||
| Locative | u | ||
| Ablative | nit |
A 2011 estimate by Victor Golla placed the number of fluent and semi-fluent Yawelmani speakers at "up to twenty-five"[5]
In 1993, the Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program piloted a series of language programs that included Yawelmani. The program was reportedly effective in teaching conversational Yawelmani to tribal members without prior knowledge and increasing language use among elders.[6]