Tonkawa language

Last updated
Tonkawa
Native to United States
RegionWestern Oklahoma, South-central Texas and into New Mexico
Ethnicity Tonkawa
Extinct ca. 1940
Language codes
ISO 639-3 tqw
Glottolog tonk1249
Tonkawa lang.png
Pre-contact distribution of the Tonkawa language
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The Tonkawa language was spoken in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico by the Tonkawa people. A language isolate, with no known related languages, [1] Tonkawa has not had L1 (first language) speakers since the mid 1900s. [2] Most Tonkawa people now only speak English,[ citation needed ] but revitalization is underway.

Contents

Phonology

Vowels

Tonkawa has 10 vowels:

Front Central Back
short long short long short long
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Consonants

Tonkawa has 15 consonants:

Bilabial Coronal Dorsal Glottal
plain labial
Nasal m n
Plosive p t k ʔ
Affricate t͡s
Fricative s x h
Approximant l j w

Consonant clusters

There are two environments in which consonant clusters occur in Tonkawa:

Repeated or identical consonants are treated as one unit. However, the condition that causes this repetition has not been fully analyzed.

There are cases where the glottal stop is not used in the cluster or combination

There are certain consonants that can either begin or end in a cluster. However, if the cluster begins the syllable, there can be no intervening vowel.

Phonological processes and morphophonemics

Initial stem syllables that begin with h-

Final stem syllables

An interesting feature of Tonkawan phonology is that the vowels in even-numbered syllables are reduced. That is, long vowels are shortened, while short vowels disappear. Analyses of this were given by Kisseberth (1970), Phelps (1973, 1975) and Noske (1993).

Syllable structure

The Tonkawa language is a syllabic language that bases its word and sentence prosody on even stressed syllables.

There are five types of syllable arrangements: (CL consonant, CC: consonant cluster, V: vowel)

Morphology

The morphemes in Tonkawa can be divided as follows:

I. Themes

In Tonkawa the theme is composed of morphologic units. The basic unit is the stem. The stem is composed of two elements (the consonant and vowel) and modified by affixes. The theme, or stem, is functional, which means it changes as more affixation is added. This leads to the fusion of the stem and affix where it becomes difficult to isolate the word into its smaller units.

II. Affixes

III. Enclitics

Grammar

In English, pronouns, nouns, verbs, etc., are individual words; Tonkawa forms the parts of speech differently, and the most important grammatical function is affixation. This process shows the subjects, objects, and pronouns of words and/or verbs. Within affixations, the suffix has more importance than the prefix.

The differentiation between subject and object is shown in the suffix. While the word order tends to be subject-object-verb (SOV), compounding words is very common in Tonkawa. Reduplication is very common in Tonkawa and affects only the verb themes. Usually, only one syllable undergoes reduplication, and it notes a repeated action, vigorous action, or a plural subject.

Nouns

Nouns function as free themes, or stems, in Tonkawa. There is a limit of only two or three affixes that can compound with a noun. However, there are cases of a bound theme occurring in noun compounds, which occurs with the suffix -an is added. In English, pronouns and nouns are usually grouped together, but because pronouns in Tonkawa are bound themes, they will be discussed with the verb section.

Noun endings
CaseIndefinite (singular/plural)Definite (singular/plural)
Nominative-la/ -ka-ʔaːla/ -ʔaːka
Accusative-lak/ -kak-ʔaːlak/ -ʔaːkak
Genitive-ʔan-ʔaːlʔan
Dative (Arrival)-ʔaːyik
Dative (Approach)-ʔaːwʔan
Instrumental-es / -kas-aːlas/ -ʔaːkay
Conjunctive-ʔen-ʔaːlʔen
Vocative(bare stem)(bare stem)

Verbs

Verbs are bound morphemes that have a limit of only two themes, the second theme being the modifying theme and usually serving as an adverbial theme. However, if the suffix -ʔe/-wa is added the verb functions as a free theme.

Pronouns

Pronouns are not used except for emphasis on the subject and are affixated as prefixes. Person and number are usually indicated by the affixation of the verb. Most pronouns are bound themes, especially the demonstrative pronouns.

Tonkawa Personal Pronouns
singularplural
1st personsaː-
me
kew-saː-
we/us
2nd personnaː-
you
we-naː-
you pl./them
3rd personʔa-
him/her

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative adverbs can be formed by adding -ca 'place', -l 'direction', -c 'manner' to the demonstrative pronouns below.

Example: waː 'that one aforementioned' + ca 'place = 'waː-ca 'that place aforementioned'

Interrogative pronouns can be formed by adding the prefix he- to the demonstrative pronouns as well by using the same format for the demonstrative adverbs.

Example: he 'interrogative' + teː 'this' + l 'direction' = he-teː-l 'where'

Indefinite pronouns can also be formed with affixation. (Interrogative + ʔax)

Example: hecuː 'what' + ʔax = hecuː-ʔax 'anything, something, anyone, someone'
Tonkawa DemonstrativeEnglish Demonstrative
waː-the one aforementioned
teː-this
heʔe/ heʔeː/ heːthat
weː(that) one yonder

Also within the verbal-prefix category are the causatives ya- and nec-, where ya- is the older form.

Verb suffixes

Verb suffixes are important in Tonkawa because they usually indicate the tense, negativity, and manner (outside of what is conveyed in the aforementioned prefixes) of the action performed.

SuffixFunctionPlacement
-ape/-apNegation suffixfollows the theme but follows a second-person plural object pronoun, if present
-nesʔe/ -nesʔDual subject suffixfollows the negation suffix, future tense suffix, and second-person plural object pronoun
-wesʔe/ -weʔPlural subject suffixsame position as the dual subject; occurs in the first and second persons in all modes
-aːtew/ -aːtoFuture tense suffixafter the stem/theme (present tense: -ʔe or just -ʔ; past tense: -ʔej or -ʔeːje)
-no/ -nContinuative suffixafter the stem
-we/ -/ -odeclarative mode suffixafter the present or past tense
-kʷaExclamatory suffixafter the 3rd person singular or at the end of the word
-wImperative modeonly in the singular, dual, or second-person plural

Enclitics

Enclitics are bound morphemes that are suffixed to verbs, nouns, and demonstratives that end with -k. Enclitics often express modal concepts in Tonkawa, which occur in the declarative, interrogative, and quotative/narrative clauses or statements.

ClauseSuffixSpecial Circumstances
Declarative-aw or -aːwe
Interrogative-je or -jelkʷaboth take the ʔ suffix unless there is an interrogative pronoun
Quotative/ Narrative-noʔo/ -laknoʔoonly added to verb forms with –k suffix and if the verb is used in telling a mythical story

Writing system

The orthography used on the Tonkawa Tribe's website is based on Americanist phonetic notation. [3]

AlphabetPronunciationAlphabetPronunciation
c/ts/a/a/
h/h/aꞏ/aː/
k/k/e/e/
/kʷ/eꞏ/eː/
l/l/i/i/
m/m/iꞏ/iː/
n/n/o/o/
p/p/oꞏ/oː/
s/s/u/u/
t/t/uꞏ/uː/
w/w/  
x/x/  
/xʷ/  
y/j/  
/ʔ/  

Long vowels are indicated with a following middle dot ·. The affricate /ts/ is written c. The glottal stop /ʔ/ is written as a saltillo . The palatal glide /j/ is written y.

The phonemic orthography used in Hoijer's Tonkawa Texts is in a slightly different version of Americanist transcription. It uses a colon for long vowels and the IPA glottal stop letter ʔ.

Example

The following text is the first four sentences of Coyote and Jackrabbit, from Hoijer's Tonkawa Texts .

ha·csokonayla ha·nanoklaknoˀo xamˀalˀa·yˀik. ˀe·kʷa tanmaslakʷa·low hecne·laklaknoˀo lak. ha·csokonayla "ˀo·c!" noklaknoˀo. "ˀekʷanesxaw sa·ken nenxales!" noklaknoˀo. ˀe·ta tanmaslakʷa·lowa·ˀa·lak hewleklaknoˀo.

Gloss:

Coyote / he was going along, S / on the prairie. When he did so / Jackrabbit / he was lying, S / (accus.). Coyote / "Oho!" / he said, S. "Horse /my / I have found it!" / he said, S. And then / that Jackrabbit afm / he caught him, S.

In this gloss, S is an abbreviation for "it is said", and afm for "the aforementioned".

Vocabulary [4]

EnglishTonkawa
OneWe:'ispax
TwoKetay
ThreeMetis
FourSikit
FiveKaskwa
ManHa:'ako:n
WomanKwa:nla
Dog'Ekwan
SunTaxas
WaterA:x

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crow language</span> Missouri Valley Siouan language of Montana, US

Crow is a Missouri Valley Siouan language spoken primarily by the Crow Nation in present-day southeastern Montana. The word, Apsáalooke, translates to "children of the raven." It is one of the larger populations of American Indian languages with 2,480 speakers according to the 1990 US Census.

Neo-Mandaic, also known as Modern Mandaic, sometimes called the "ratna", is the modern reflex of the Mandaic language, the liturgical language of the Mandaean religious community of Iraq and Iran. Although severely endangered, it survives today as the first language of a small number of Mandaeans in Iran and in the Mandaean diaspora. All Neo-Mandaic speakers are multilingual in the languages of their neighbors, Arabic and Persian, and the influence of these languages upon the grammar of Neo-Mandaic is considerable, particularly in the lexicon and the morphology of the noun. Nevertheless, Neo-Mandaic is more conservative even in these regards than most other Neo-Aramaic languages.

Wiyot or Soulatluk (lit. 'your jaw') is an Algic language spoken by the Wiyot people of Humboldt Bay, California. The language's last native speaker, Della Prince, died in 1962.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tunica language</span> Extinct language isolate of the Mississippi Valley

The Tunica or Luhchi Yoroni language is a language isolate that was spoken in the Central and Lower Mississippi Valley in the United States by Native American Tunica peoples. There are no native speakers of the Tunica language, but as of 2017, there are 32 second language speakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quechan language</span> Yuman language spoken in California and Arizona

Quechan or Kwtsaan, also known as Yuma, is the native language of the Quechan people of southeastern California and southwestern Arizona in the Lower Colorado River Valley and Sonoran Desert. Despite its name, it is not related to the Quechua language of the Andes.

Wintu is a Wintu language which was spoken by the Wintu people of Northern California. It was the northernmost member of the Wintun family of languages. The Wintun family of languages was spoken in the Shasta County, Trinity County, Sacramento River Valley and in adjacent areas up to the Carquinez Strait of San Francisco Bay. Wintun is a branch of the hypothetical Penutian language phylum or stock of languages of western North America, more closely related to four other families of Penutian languages spoken in California: Maiduan, Miwokan, Yokuts, and Costanoan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kashaya language</span> Native American language

Kashaya is the critically endangered language of the Kashia band of the Pomo people. The Pomoan languages have been classified as part of the Hokan language family. The name Kashaya corresponds to words in neighboring languages with meanings such as "skillful" and "expert gambler". It is spoken by the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewarts Point Rancheria.

Tariana is an endangered Maipurean language spoken along the Vaupés River in Amazonas, Brazil by approximately 100 people. Another approximately 1,500 people in the upper and middle Vaupés River area identify themselves as ethnic Tariana but do not speak the language fluently.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timucua language</span> Extinct language in Florida and Georgia, USA

Timucua is a language isolate formerly spoken in northern and central Florida and southern Georgia by the Timucua peoples. Timucua was the primary language used in the area at the time of Spanish colonization in Florida. Differences among the nine or ten Timucua dialects were slight, and appeared to serve mostly to delineate band or tribal boundaries. Some linguists suggest that the Tawasa of what is now northern Alabama may have spoken Timucua, but this is disputed.

The Yimas language is spoken by the Yimas people, who populate the Sepik River Basin region of Papua New Guinea. It is spoken primarily in Yimas village, Karawari Rural LLG, East Sepik Province. It is a member of the Lower-Sepik language family. All 250-300 speakers of Yimas live in two villages along the lower reaches of the Arafundi River, which stems from a tributary of the Sepik River known as the Karawari River.

Ixcatec is a language spoken by the people of the Mexican village of Santa María Ixcatlan, in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca. The Ixcatec language belongs to the Popolocan branch of the Oto-manguean language family. It is believed to have been the second language to branch off from the others within the Popolocan subgroup, though there is a small debate over the relation it has to them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarahumara language</span> Uto-Aztecan language spoken in Mexico

The Tarahumara language is a Mexican Indigenous language of the Uto-Aztecan language family spoken by around 70,000 Tarahumara (Rarámuri/Ralámuli) people in the state of Chihuahua, according to a 2002 census conducted by the government of Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiipai language</span> Yuman language spoken in Mexico and US

Tiipai (Tipay) is a Native American language belonging to the Delta–California branch of the Yuman language family, which spans Arizona, California, and Baja California. As part of the Yuman family, Tiipai has also been consistently included in the controversial quasi-stock Hokan. Tiipai is spoken by a number of Kumeyaay tribes in northern Baja California and southern San Diego County, California. There were, conservatively, 200 Tiipai speakers in the early 1990s; the number of speakers has since declined steadily, numbering roughly 100 speakers in Baja California in a 2007 survey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nukak language</span> Endangered indigenous language of Colombia

The Nukak language is a language of uncertain classification, perhaps part of the macrofamily Puinave-Maku. It is very closely related to Kakwa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maliseet-Passamaquoddy language</span> Algonquian language

Maliseet-Passamaquoddy is an endangered Algonquian language spoken by the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples along both sides of the border between Maine in the United States and New Brunswick, Canada. The language consists of two major dialects: Maliseet, which is mainly spoken in the Saint John River Valley in New Brunswick; and Passamaquoddy, spoken mostly in the St. Croix River Valley of eastern Maine. However, the two dialects differ only slightly, mainly in their phonology. The indigenous people widely spoke Maliseet-Passamaquoddy in these areas until around the post-World War II era when changes in the education system and increased marriage outside of the speech community caused a large decrease in the number of children who learned or regularly used the language. As a result, in both Canada and the U.S. today, there are only 600 speakers of both dialects, and most speakers are older adults. Although the majority of younger people cannot speak the language, there is growing interest in teaching the language in community classes and in some schools.

This article is about the sound system of the Navajo language. The phonology of Navajo is intimately connected to its morphology. For example, the entire range of contrastive consonants is found only at the beginning of word stems. In stem-final position and in prefixes, the number of contrasts is drastically reduced. Similarly, vowel contrasts found outside of the stem are significantly neutralized. For details about the morphology of Navajo, see Navajo grammar.

Warndarrang (waɳʈaraŋ), also spelt Warndarang, Wanderang, Wandaran, and other variants is an extinct Aboriginal Australian language in the Arnhem family, formerly spoken by the Warndarrang people in southern Arnhem Land, along the Gulf of Carpentaria. The last speaker was Isaac Joshua, who died in 1974, while working with the linguist Jeffrey Heath.

Bukiyip (Bukiyúp), or Mountain Arapesh, is an Arapesh language (Torricelli) spoken by around 16,000 people between Yangoru and Maprik in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. Bukiyip follows the SVO typology. The Arapesh languages are known for their complex noun-phrase agreement system.

Nuaulu is a language indigenous to the island of Seram Island in Indonesia, and it is spoken by the Nuaulu people. The language is split into two dialects, a northern and a southern dialect, between which there a communication barrier. The dialect of Nuaulu referred to on this page is the southern dialect, as described in Bolton 1991.

The grammar of the constructed Na'vi language was created for the movie Avatar by Paul Frommer. It is a tripartite, primarily affixing agglutinative language.

References

  1. Campbell, Lyle (2000). American Indian Languages The Historical Linguistics Of Native America. Oxford University Press. pp.  143. ISBN   9780195140507.
  2. International encyclopedia of linguistics. Frawley, William, 1953- (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 2003. ISBN   9780195307450. OCLC   66910002.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. "Tonkawa Words".

Sources