Chemakum language
Chemakum | |
---|---|
Aqoʞúlo /ʔaˈxʷóqʷolo/ (autoethnonym) | |
Native to | Olympic Peninsula, Washington |
Ethnicity | Chimakum |
Extinct | 1 imperfect speaker (Louise Webster) in the 1920s, 3 imperfect speakers (including L. Webster and her brother) in 1890[1] |
Chimakuan
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | xch |
xch | |
Glottolog | chim1310 |
Chemakum (
The name Chemakum is an anglicization of the Salishan name for the Chimakum people, perhaps old Twana čə́mqəm (currently čə́bqəb [t͡ʃə́bqəb]).
Phonology
Boas’[2] original article based on fieldwork with one of the last three native speakers in the summer of 1890 uses the following consonantal symbols: ‹h; k, ʞ, q; u; y; n; t; s, c, tç; ts, tc; m, p; l, lʻ; ′› along with ejectivization usually notated by a following ‹!› on stops and affricates, but sometimes also by a following ‹ߴ›. Labio-dorsals and the lateral ejective were analyzed as consonant clusters as the transcription shows. Based on his own description (in a footnote) and words and sentences cited, along with some comparison to Quileute cognates, the following phonemic inventory can be determined (the plain uvulars were probably pre-uvular and the plain stops and affricates were probably somewhat aspirated as in most languages of the region including Quileute):
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar |
Labio- velar |
Uvular | Glottal | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | sibilant | lateral | plain | labial | ||||||
Plosive/ Affricate |
plain | p ‹p› | t ‹t›
|
t͡s ‹ts› | t͡ʃ ‹tc› | kʷ ‹ku› | q ‹ʞ› | qʷ ‹ʞu› | ʔ ‹′› | |
ejective | pʼ ‹p!› | tʼ ‹t!›
|
t͡sʼ ‹ts!› | t͡ɬʼ ‹t!lʻ› | t͡ʃʼ ‹tc!› | kʷʼ ‹k!u› | qʼ ‹ʞ!› | qʷʼ ‹ʞ!u› | ||
Fricative | s ‹s› | ɬ ‹lʻ›
|
ʃ ‹c› | χ ‹q› | χʷ ‹qu› | h ‹h› | ||||
Sonorant | m ‹m› | n ‹n›
|
l ‹l›
|
j ‹y› | w ‹u› |
Transcription isn't fully standardized and some amount of variation is attested. E.g., some instances of ejectives are double-marked with both ‹!› and a following ‹ߴ›. Compare the independent word ‘back’ written ‹ʞ!ߴē′enōkoat› against the corresponding lexical suffix is written ‹-ʞ!ĕnuk›. Similarly, the lexical suffix for ‘hand’ appears as ‹-t!ߴa›. Here, the Quileute cognate ‹-t̓ay› shows that, despite the notation, the sound was probably just an ejective t. Yet another notation for an ejective — simply a following apostrophe — may be found in the word ‹ʞ!ߴautߴátct› ‘bracelet’ if this is indeed cognate to Quileute ‹ḳ̓aḳ̓ʷò·t̓á·yat› ‘bracelet’, and in ‹tcߴālʻa› ‘stone’, cognate to Quileute ‹k̓á·t̓ƚa› ‘stone’.
The labio-dorsals were not analyzed as unit consonants by Boas. The audible rounding on them was either marked as a glide, or the rounding was notationally transferred to a neighboring vowel. Consider the following examples: ‹kuē′lʻ› ‘one’ (Quileute ‹wí·ƚ›), ‹lʻa′kua› ‘two’ (Quileute ‹ƚáʔw›), ‹ʞoā′lē› ‘three’ (Quileute ‹ḳʷáʔl›), ‹-kō› ‘canoe (lexical suffix)’ (Quileute ‹-kʷ›), ‹-ʞōs› ‘neck (lexical suffix)’ (Quileute ‹-ḳ̓ʷó·s›), ‹-tçuʞ› ‘our’ (Quileute ‹-t̓oqʷ›) etc.
The meaning of Boas’ ‹tç› is not entirely certain. Swadesh,[3] working with Boas’ data half a century later, decided to interpret ‹tç› as /t͡ʃʼ/ — in his notation ‹ч̓› — but it is not clear why, especially considering that /t͡ʃʼ/ is witten differently in ‹tcߴālʻa› ‘stone’. Boas himself describes the sound as “dento-alveolar t”, which isn't very helpful. Based on comparative evidence from Quileute, Powell[4] interprets ‹tç› as a variant symbol for /t/ (perhaps notating some allophonic difference that Boas perceived).
Swadesh[3] added a distinction between labio-velar and labio-uvular fricatives for which there is no explicit evidence in Boas’ paper[2] yielding the system below:
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar |
Labio- velar |
Uvular | Glottal | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | sibilant | lateral | plain | labial | ||||||
Plosive/ Affricate |
plain | p | t
|
t͡s | t͡ʃ | kʷ | q | qʷ | ʔ | |
ejective | pʼ | tʼ
|
t͡sʼ | t͡ɬʼ | t͡ʃʼ | kʷʼ | qʼ | qʷʼ | ||
Fricative | s | ɬ
|
ʃ | xʷ | χ | χʷ | h | |||
Sonorant | m | n
|
l
|
j | w |
Boas[2] transcribed several distinct vowels in the published account of Chemakum (and a few more in his unpublished fieldnotes): ‹ā, a, ē, e, ĕ, ī, ō›, along with a marginal ‹u› whose main purpose was to indicate rounding adjacent to labio-dorsal consonants. The list was reduced to a much simpler phonemic inventory of three short vowels /i a o/ and three long vowels /iː aː oː/ by Powell.[5] The vowels probably exhibited some amount of allophonic variation as Boas’ original transcription shows, but according to Andrade,[6] less so than in Quileute.
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 9780806124797.
- ^ JSTOR 658768.
- ^ S2CID 143862109– via JSTOR.
- ^ Powell, James V. (1974). Proto-Chimakuan: Materials for a Reconstruction. PhD dissertation at the University of Hawaiʻi. p. 16.
- ^ Elmendorf, William W. (1990). Suttles, Wayne (ed.). "Chemakum". Handbook of North American Indians. 7 (Northwest Coast): 438–440.
- ^ Andrade, Manuel J. (1933). Boas, Franz (ed.). "Quileute". Handbook of Indian American Languages. 3: 151.