Uto-Aztecan languages
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Uto-Aztecan (also Uto-Aztekan) is a Native American language family. It is one of the largest (both in geographical extension and number of languages) and most well-established linguistic families of the Americas. The Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the western United States (Oregon, Idaho, Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona), through Mexico. Utah is named after the indigenous Uto-Aztecan Ute people. Classical Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and its modern relatives are part of the Uto-Aztecan family.
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[edit] History of classification
The similarities between the Uto-Aztecan languages were noted already in 1859 by J.C.E. Buschmann who however failed to recognize the genetic affiliation between the Aztecan branch and the Northern Uto-Aztecan languages ascribing the similarities between the two groups to Aztec contact influence. Brinton included the Aztecan languages in 1891 and coined the term Uto-Aztecan. The idea remained controversial for awhile and was rejected in Powell's classification also from 1891.
The Uto-Aztecan family was established through systematic work by linguists such as Alfred L. Kroeber who established the relations between the Shoshonean languages and especially Edward Sapir who proved the unity between the Northern and Southern branches of Uto-Aztecan to everyones satisfaction in a series of groundbreaking applications of the comparative method to unwritten native american languages.
Although established as a family, the subgrouping of the Uto-Aztecan language family remains controversial at present only eight groupings are considered unproblematic by a wide consensus of linguists: the Numic, Takic, Tübatulabal, Hopi, Pimic, Taracahitic and Aztecan branches. The higher level relations between these as well as the further subdivision of the single branches remains issues of controversy. Especially the Sonoran branch (including Pimic, Taracahitic and Corachol) and Shoshonean (including Numic and Takic) remains unaccepted by some scholars.
Uto-Aztecan has been included in some long range proposals of linguistic super-families. A hypothesis proposed by Benjamin Lee Whorf relating Uto-Aztecan to Kiowa-Tanoan, in an Aztec-Tanoan family is often assumed to be true, but Lyle Campbell (1997) considers this hypothesis as improbable and resting on shaky ground. Joseph Greenberg included Uto-Aztecan in his widely criticized and highly controversial Amerind macro-family along with all Native American linguistic families except for Na-Dene.
[edit] Geographical extension and Homeland
The proto-Uto-Aztecan homeland is generally thought to have been somewhere in the south western USA - Arizona, New Mexico or northern Mexico where the first split between Northern and Southern branches took place. The homeland of the Numic branch has been placed near Death Valley, California and the Southern Uto-Aztecan languages are thought to have spread out from a place in north-western Mexico in southern Sonora or northern Sinaloa.
[edit] Original locations of living and extinct Uto-Aztecan languages in the USA and Mexico
[edit] Locations of living Uto-Aztecan languages in Mexico
[edit] The proto-Uto-Aztecan language
[edit] Vowels
Proto-Uto-Aztecan is reconstructed as having an unusual five-vowel system: *i *a *u *o *ɨ. Langacker (1970) demonstrated that the fifth vowel should be reconstructed as *ɨ as opposed to *e—there had been a long-running dispute over the proper reconstruction (Campbell 1997:136).
[edit] Consonants
| Bilabial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Labialized velar |
Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | *p | *t | *k | *kʷ | *ʔ | |
| Affricate | *c | |||||
| Fricative | *s | *h | ||||
| Nasal | *m | *n | *ŋ | |||
| Rhotic | *r | |||||
| Semivowel | *y | *w |
Note that in Americanist phonetic notation, <c> and <y> are equivalent to IPA /t͡s/ and /j/, respectively. *n and *ŋ may have actually been *l and *n, respectively.
[edit] Genealogy of Uto-Aztecan languages
Uto-Aztecan has long been accepted as a genuine linguistic family, but linguists have not been in complete agreement as to its subdivisions into lower-level branches, languages, and dialects. Below is the classification proposed by Campbell (1997). The notes discuss divergent interpretations proposed by other recent authorities, such as Goddard (1996), Miller (1983), and Mithun (1999). Among the differences are the larger level subgroupings within the northern and southern branches. Some linguists for example have argued for affinities between the Takic and Numic and have groupd them together as "Shoshonean". In the southern branch Some linguists have grouped the Pimic, Taracahitan and Coracholan languages into a larger level group called "Sonoran" but this grouping has also not gained wide acceptace. Some scholars instead see a closer connection between Coracholan and Aztecan and group th two into a common group called "Aztecoid" by W. A. Mason. The ties between Coracholan and Aztecan are also recognized by Kaufman (2001[1] ) who argues that they are best understood as the result of a period of close contact and linguistic diffusion between the Nahuan and Coracholan groups.
[edit] Northern Uto-Aztecan [2]
Numic (Plateau Shoshonean)
- Western
- Paviotso-Bannock-Snake (Northern Paiute)
- Monache (Mono)
- Central
- Shoshoni-Goshiute
- Panamint (Koso, Timbisha)
- Comanche
- Southern
Tubatulabal (Kern River)
Takic (Southern California Shoshoni) [4]
- Serran [5]
- Cahuilla [6]
- Cupeño [6]
- Luiseño-Juaneño [6] [7]
- Gabrielino-Fernandeño † [5]
[edit] Southern Uto-Aztecan [2]
Pimic (Tepiman)
- Pima-Papago (Upper Piman)
- Pima Bajo (Lower Piman)
- Tepehuán languages (Northern and Southern)
- Tepecano†
Taracahitic
- Tarahumaran
- Tarahumara
- Guarijío (Varihio)
- Tubar †
- Cahita (Yaqui-Mayo-Cahita)
- Opatan
- Ópata †
- Eudeve (Heve, Dohema) †?
Corachol-Aztecan
- Cora-Huichol
- Nahuan (Aztecan, Nahua, Nahuatlan)
† = extinct
[edit] Notes
- ^ Kaufman, Terrence, (2001) Nawa linguistic prehistory, published at website of the Mesoamerican Language Documentation Project
- ^ a b Most other recent linguists have not accepted the validity of the division between Northern and Southern Uto-Aztecan as a genuine genetic branching. They have either recognized seven to nine independent branches of Uto-Aztecan or accepted Southern Uto-Aztecan but recognizing four independent branches in the place of Northern Uto-Aztecan (Goddard 1996:7; Miller 1983:118; Mithun 1999:539-540).
- ^ a b c Most recent linguists have considered Southern Paiute, Ute, and Chemehuevi to constitute a single language (Goddard 1996:7; Miller 1983:121; Mithun 1999:539).
- ^ In addition to the Takic languages considered by Campbell, Tataviam has been recognized as a separate Takic language (Goddard 1996:7; Mithun 1999:539). Tataviam has sometimes been called by a Chumash name, Alliklik, although other scholars have reserved that name for a Chumash dialect or language (cf. Campbell 1997:135; Mithun 1999:544)
- ^ a b Miller (1983:121) and Goddard (1996:7) classify Serran and Gabrielino as belonging together within a Serrano-Gabrielino group.
- ^ a b c Most recent linguists have grouped Cahuilla, Cupeño, and Luiseño together within a Cupan branch of Takic (Goddard 1996:7; Miller 1983:121; Mithun 1999:539). Miller also recognized a closer relationship between Cahuilla and Cupeño within the Cupan branch.
- ^ Most authorities have agreed with Campbell in considering Juaneño (now extinct) a dialect of Luiseño, but Mithun (1999:539) classified it as a separate language.
[edit] References
- Campbell, Lyle. 1979. Middle American languages. In The Languages of Native America: Historical and Comparative Assessment, edited by Lyle Campbell and Marianne Mithun, pp. 902-1000. University of Texas Press, Austin.
- 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.
- Miller, Wick R. 1983. Uto-Aztecan languages. In Southwest, edited by Alfonso Ortiz, pp. 113-124. Handbook of North American Indians. William C. Sturtevant, general editor, Vol. 10. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.
- Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
- Steele, Susan. 1979. Uto-Aztecan: An assessment for historical and comparative linguistics. In The Languages of Native America: Historical and Comparative Assessment, edited by Lyle Campbell and Marianne Mithun, pp. 444-544. University of Texas Press, Austin.
- Súarez, Jorge. 1983. The Mesoamerican Indian Languages. Cambridge University Press.
