General Comparisons

Notes on the Shoshonean Dialects of Southern California, by A. L. Kroeber, [1909], at sacred-texts.com

GENERAL COMPARISONS.

A certain amount of vocalic harmony is apparent in most Shoshonean dialects. The direction of this influence is from the stem toward the suffix or prefix. The vowel of the plural suffix in Luiseño-Cahuilla, and the vowel of the possessive prefixes and suffixes in Serrano and probably in Ute-Chemehuevi, undergo a moderate amount of modification in accord with the vowel of the stem. This modification is not mere assimilation.

So far as known reduplication can always be used in the Shoshonean verb. Almost every dialect known presents a few cases of reduplication to indicate the plural of the noun. It is comparatively frequent in Hopi and Gabrielino. Luiseño, Cahuilla, Ute, Tübatulabal, and other dialects each present a few instances. There is nothing to show that in any dialect outside of Hopi and Gabrielino reduplication is used with any considerable number of nouns. Even in these two dialects it is not the only means of forming the plural. In other words, it may be said that reduplication in the noun is always found to some extent in Shoshonean, but is not specially developed nor nearly as characteristic as in Selish and other northwestern languages. The extent of its use in the noun in Shoshonean is much the same as in Nahuatl. In the verb, the entire first syllable may be repeated; to indicate plurality in the noun, the reduplication does not extend beyond the first vowel.

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A suffix -m expressing the plural of animate nouns occurs in Luiseño-Cahuilla, Gabrielino, Serrano, Ute-Chemehuevi, Hopi, probably Kern River, and may be found in the other dialectic groups. It was therefore part of the hypothetical generalized early Shoshonean, and while it cannot be positively correlated with the Nahuatl plural suffix -me, their identity is very probable, the more so as certain Sonoran languages also use -m for the plural.

The objective suffix -i or -e occurs in two quite divergent Shoshonean groups, Ute-Chemehuevi and Luiseño-Cahuilla. There is therefore reason for believing that this suffix will be found also in other dialectic divisions and that, like the plural suffix, it may have been a characteristic of primitive Shoshonean. This is the more probable from the fact that certain "Piman" languages of Sonora show objective case-suffixes, such as the -e of Cahita.

The pronominal possessive elements are preposed or prefixed in all Shoshonean dialectic groups except Kern River and Ute-Chemehuevi. They are also preposed or prefixed in Nahuatl and the Piman languages. It is therefore clear that this order is the original one, and that the suffixed pronominal elements of Ute-Chemehuevi and Kern River represent a subsequent development.

The pronominal element of the first person singular is in all dialects n followed by a vowel. Occasionally this is developed by the addition of a second syllable: noma, nögi, nüni. The possessive prefix is also n followed by a vowel, except that in Mono it is i-. The element of the second person shows a fundamental type consisting of a vowel followed by m. Such is Luiseño om. More often, however, this form is expanded by the addition of a vowel, as in Gabrielino oma, Serrano ümi, Kern River ümbi, Ute-Chemehuevi ümi, or reduced by loss of the m, as in Cahuilla e and Mono-Paviotso ü. The possessive prefix of the second person has its fundamental ni before the vowel, except in Shikaviyam; but the use of the vowel without the m appears as in the independent pronoun, in Luiseño, Cahuilla, and Mono. As possessive suffix the element of the second person is also more variable than the first, its -m becoming -ñ in Kern River, whereas -n remains such. The vowels of the pronominal elements are ü, ö, i, e, o, u,

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but not a. Representing vowels by o and various consonants by k, the scheme of the two elements is the following:

The demonstratives are variable. The stem of "this" and "here" is iv-, in Luiseño-Cahuilla; mine, ik-, in Gabrielino; iv-, ip-, in Serrano; i- in Kern River; itc, i-, iwa-, in Ute-Chemehuevi; i-, io, in Mono-Paviotso; i- in Hopi. These forms point to an original i to indicate nearness, Gabrielino mine being the only exception.

Stems indicating "that" and "there" are more variable, and there are often two in one dialect: wan-, pe or po-, in Luiseño-Cahuilla; pem-, mur-, in Gabrielino; am- in Serrano; üw- in Kern River; ma-, u- or ua-, in Ute-Chemehuevi; a-, ia, in Mono-Paviotso. These indicate a, am, ma, wan, u, po, as demonstrative roots of distance or vague reference.

The interrogatives are much more uniform than the demonstratives. Except for Luiseño-Cahuilla me-, where, the elements, so far as known, are always ha-, who, hi-, what, ha-, where. It is interesting that the stems for "who" and "where" should be alike and contrasted with "what."

Diminutives, such as Luiseño-Cahuilla -mal and the more widely spread -it, -itc, -tsi, -bit of Serrano, Ute-Chemehuevi, Mono-Paviotsi, and Kern River, appear to be frequent in Shoshonean generally, and recall the diminutives, and suffixes of analogous categories, that are so important in Nahuatl. Compositions of two nouns are not frequent in Shoshonean. Incorporation of the noun object into the verb has not been found. It is certainly very little developed, and probably lacking, in all Shoshonean dialects. In fact its existence remains to be proved for any Uto-Aztekan language outside of Nahuatl.

Terms denoting parts of the body appear to lack the characteristic Uto-Atzekan noun-terminations in Luiseño-Cahuilla, Ute-Chemehuevi, and other Shoshonean dialectic groups. Such words are customarily used with possessive affixes, but in the absence of these the noun is not provided with a termination. In the Kern river dialect, however, words denoting parts of the body are provided with such suffixes like other nouns. The same is true in Nahuatl.

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The characteristic noun-endings of Uto-Aztekan are employed to varying degrees by different Shoshonean dialects. No dialect is known which applies such an ending to every noun. In addition to words signifying parts of the body, Luiseño-Cahuilla leaves onomatopoetic or reduplicated substantives without a suffix, while Ute-Chemehuevi adds a considerable number of simple stems. A final w, probably aspirated, appears in a limited number of stems—not the same ones—in Luiseño-Cahuilla, Ute-Chemehuevi, and Nahuatl, when the possessive affix causes the loss of the usual ending. The endings themselves show great diversity and cannot yet be correlated between Shoshonean and Nahuatl nor between the major branches of Shoshonean. Shoshonean tl appears on stems which in several Shoshonean dialects are variously provided with different endings. The -p or v of Plateau Shoshonean is either -l or -c or -t in Luiseño-Cahuilla. Luiseño-Cahuilla -l is used on some stems which in Ute-Chemehuevi have a suffix, and on others which in that dialectic group possess no ending. It would seem almost as if each dialect, developing with a feeling for the need of noun-endings of this character, had proceeded along its own line of growth, forming new endings, and substituting one for another in this word and that, until at present the various endings of the same word in the several dialectic branches are often unrelated. If, or in so far as, they are correlated, the connections between them promise to prove complex.

The Southern California dialects among themselves show rather regular correspondences. Luiseño-Cahuilla -l is Serrano -tc, Gabrielino -r or -t. Luiseño-Cahuilla -c has various equivalences, -tc, -t, -r, -c or -x. Luiseño-Cahuilla -t is regularly the same in the two other groups. The commonest ending in Southern California is -t; -l and -c are characteristic of Luiseño-Cahuilla, -r of Gabrielino, and -tc of Serrano.

Kern River endings are in general nearer to those of Southern California than to those of the Plateau dialects, being -l and -t. -l corresponds to Luiseño-Cahuilla -l, -c, and -t; -t usually represents Luiseño-Cahuilla -t, but also -l and -c. The most characteristic ending is -l.

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The three dialectic groups of the Plateau branch show neither -l, -t, -tc, -c, nor -r, but use -v or -p endings. A few stems like ku,—ku-c in Mono-Paviotso, ku-n in Ute-Chemehuevi and Shoshoni-Comanche, ku-t in Southern California and Kern River,—give the appearance of being provided with other endings; but it is not yet certain that such final -c and -n really are detachable noun-terminations. Plateau -v and -p both correspond at times to suffixes of the Luiseño -l class and at times of the -t class.

Hopi also possesses different endings. They seem to be reducible to two types, both of syllabic content; one can be represented by -wa, the other by -hö, though the vowels vary. Neither corresponds definitely to any type of Plateau, Kern River, or Southern California ending.

Some determined detachable noun-endings common to three or more Shoshonean dialectic groups are here tabulated. A dash indicates known lack of a suffix.