Hupa language
Encyclopedia
Hupa is an Athabaskan language
(of Na-Dené
stock) spoken in the Trinity valley in California by the Hupa
(Natinixwe).
According to the results of Census 2000, the language is spoken by 64 persons between the ages of 5 and 17, including 4 monolingual speakers.
a, a:, b, ch , ch' , chw , chw' , d , dz, e, e:, g , gy , h , i, j , k , k' , ky , ky', l, ł, m, n , ng, o, o:, q, q', s, sh, t, t', tł, tł', ts, ts', u, w, wh, x, xw, y, '
Vowels may be lengthened.
According to Victor Golla (1970, 2001 and others), each Hupa theme falls into one of eight structural classes according to its potential for inflection, along the following three parameters: active vs. neuter, transitive vs. intransitive, and personal vs. impersonal. Golla (2001: 817)
1. Active themes are inflected for aspect-mode categories, while neuter themes are not.
2. Transitive themes are inflected for direct object, while intransitive themes are not.
3. Personal themes are inflected for subject, while impersonal themes are not.
Golla (2001: 818) presents examples of themes from each of the eight structural classes. Orthography has been changed to conform to the current accepted tribal orthography:
Active themes:
Transitive
Personal O-ƚ-me:n ‘fill O’
Impersonal no:=O-d-(n)-ƚ-tan ‘O gets used to something’
Intransitive
Personal ts’i-(w)-la‧n/lan ‘play (at a rough sport)’
Impersonal (s)-daw ‘melt away disappear’
Neuter themes:
Transitive
Personal O-si-ƚ-'a:n ‘have (a round object) lying’
Impersonal O-wi-l-chwe:n ‘O has been made, created’
Intransitive
Personal di-n-ch'a:t ‘ache, be sick’
Impersonal k̓i-qots ‘there is a crackling sound’
(i.e., pronoun) prefixes that mark both subjects
and objects
. The prefixes can vary in certain modes, particularly the perfective mode (See e.g., Mode and Aspect for a discussion of modes in Navajo, a related Dene language). The prefixes vary according to person
and number
. The basic subject prefixes are listed in the table below:
The subject prefixes occur in two different positions. The first and second subject prefixes (-wh- (or allomorph -e: ), -di-, -ni-, -oh-) occur in position 2, directly before the classifier (voice/valency) prefixes. The animate, obviative, indefinite and "areal-situational" subject prefixes (ch'i-, yi-, k'i- and xo-) are known as "deictic subject pronouns" and occur in position 8.
The direct object prefixes occur in position 7.
The Hupa free personal subject pronouns are as follows:
Golla (2001:865-6) notes that the 3rd person free pronouns are very rarely used, with demonstrative pronouns being used in their place.
-hay-de: < hay-de:-i ‘the one here’ (de: ‘here’)
-hay-de:d < hay-de:-d-i ‘this one here’ (de:-di ‘this here’)
-hay-yo:w < hay-yo:w-i ‘the one there (close)’ (yo:wi ‘there’)
-hay-ye:w < hay-ye:w-i ‘the one in the distance’ (ye:wi ‘yonder’)
Athabaskan languages
Athabaskan or Athabascan is a large group of indigenous peoples of North America, located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family...
(of Na-Dené
Na-Dené languages
Na-Dene is a Native American language family which includes at least the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit languages. An inclusion of Haida is controversial....
stock) spoken in the Trinity valley in California by the Hupa
Hupa
Hupa, also spelled Hoopa, are a Native American tribe in northwestern California. Their autonym is Natinixwe, also spelled Natinookwa, meaning "People of the Place Where the Trails Return." The majority of the tribe is enrolled in the federally recognized Hoopa Valley Tribe; however, some Hupa are...
(Natinixwe).
According to the results of Census 2000, the language is spoken by 64 persons between the ages of 5 and 17, including 4 monolingual speakers.
Orthography
The Hupa alphabet is as follows:a, a:, b, ch , ch' , chw , chw' , d , dz, e, e:, g , gy , h , i, j , k , k' , ky , ky', l, ł, m, n , ng, o, o:, q, q', s, sh, t, t', tł, tł', ts, ts', u, w, wh, x, xw, y, '
Phonology
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... /Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Dorso-Back Velar Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Plosives/ Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... s |
unaspirated | (p) | t | kʲ | (k) | q | ʔ |
| aspirated | tʰ | kʲʰ | kʰ | ||||
| ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants... |
tʼ | kʲʼ | (kʼ) | qʼ | |||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
unaspirated | t͡s | t͡ʃ | ||||
| aspirated | t͡sʰ | t͡ʃʷʰ | |||||
| ejective | t͡sʼ t͜ɬʼ | t͡ʃʼ (t͡ʃʷʼ) | |||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
s ɬ | (ʃ) | x xʷ | h ʍ | |||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
w | l Alveolar lateral approximant The alveolar lateral approximant, also known as clear l, is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral approximants is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is l.As a... |
j | ||||
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
ɪ~e | o | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
a |
Vowels may be lengthened.
Verb themes and classes
As with other Dene languages, the Hupa verb is based around a theme. Melissa Axelrod has defined a theme as “the underlying skeleton of the verb to which prefixes or strings of prefixes or suffixal elements are added in producing an utterance. The theme itself has a meaning and is the basic unit of the Athabaskan verbal lexicon.” In addition to a verb stem, a typical theme consists of a classifier, one or more conjunct prefixes, and one or more disjunct prefixes.According to Victor Golla (1970, 2001 and others), each Hupa theme falls into one of eight structural classes according to its potential for inflection, along the following three parameters: active vs. neuter, transitive vs. intransitive, and personal vs. impersonal. Golla (2001: 817)
1. Active themes are inflected for aspect-mode categories, while neuter themes are not.
2. Transitive themes are inflected for direct object, while intransitive themes are not.
3. Personal themes are inflected for subject, while impersonal themes are not.
Golla (2001: 818) presents examples of themes from each of the eight structural classes. Orthography has been changed to conform to the current accepted tribal orthography:
Active themes:
Transitive
Personal O-ƚ-me:n ‘fill O’
Impersonal no:=O-d-(n)-ƚ-tan ‘O gets used to something’
Intransitive
Personal ts’i-(w)-la‧n/lan ‘play (at a rough sport)’
Impersonal (s)-daw ‘melt away disappear’
Neuter themes:
Transitive
Personal O-si-ƚ-'a:n ‘have (a round object) lying’
Impersonal O-wi-l-chwe:n ‘O has been made, created’
Intransitive
Personal di-n-ch'a:t ‘ache, be sick’
Impersonal k̓i-qots ‘there is a crackling sound’
Verb template
As with other Dene languages, The Hupa verb is composed of a verb stem and a set of prefixes. The prefixes can be divided into a conjunct prefix set and disjunct prefix set. The disjunct prefixes occur on the outer left edge of the verb. The conjunct prefixes occur after the disjunct prefixes, closer to the verb stem. The two types of prefixes can be distinguished by their different phonological behavior. The prefix complex may be subdivided into 10 positions, modeled in the Athabaskanist literature as a template, as follows:| 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| adv | thematic material | pl/aug- thematic |
3 subj | obj | thematic material | adv | distributive- thematic |
mode- aspect |
1/2 subj | classifier (voice/valency marker) | verb stem |
Pronouns, Pronominal inflection
Hupa verbs have pronominalPronominal
Pronominal can be used either to describe something related to a pronoun or to mean a phrase that acts as a pronoun in the context of nominal. An example of the second case is, "I want that kind". The phrase "that kind" stands in for a noun phrase, or nominal, that can be deduced from context, and...
(i.e., pronoun) prefixes that mark both subjects
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
and objects
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
. The prefixes can vary in certain modes, particularly the perfective mode (See e.g., Mode and Aspect for a discussion of modes in Navajo, a related Dene language). The prefixes vary according to person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
and number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
. The basic subject prefixes are listed in the table below:
| Person/Number | | Subject Prefixes | | Object Prefixes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| First (1) | -wh- | -di- | -wh- | -noh- |
| Second (2) | ni- | -oh- | ni- | |
| Third animate (3) | -ch'i- | xo- | ||
| Third obviative (3) | yi- | -Ø- | ||
| Third indefinite (3) | k'i- | -Ø- | ||
| Third impersonal (areal-situational) | -xo- | -Ø- | ||
| Reflexive | – | 'a:di- | ||
| Reciprocal | – | n- łi | ||
The subject prefixes occur in two different positions. The first and second subject prefixes (-wh- (or allomorph -e: ), -di-, -ni-, -oh-) occur in position 2, directly before the classifier (voice/valency) prefixes. The animate, obviative, indefinite and "areal-situational" subject prefixes (ch'i-, yi-, k'i- and xo-) are known as "deictic subject pronouns" and occur in position 8.
The direct object prefixes occur in position 7.
The Hupa free personal subject pronouns are as follows:
| Person+Number | form |
|---|---|
| 1sg | whe: |
| 2sg | ning |
| 3sg | xong, min (low animacy) |
| 1pl | nehe |
| 2pl | nohni |
| 3pl | xong |
Golla (2001:865-6) notes that the 3rd person free pronouns are very rarely used, with demonstrative pronouns being used in their place.
Demonstrative pronouns
-hay(i) < hay-i ‘the one (who)’-hay-de: < hay-de:-i ‘the one here’ (de: ‘here’)
-hay-de:d < hay-de:-d-i ‘this one here’ (de:-di ‘this here’)
-hay-yo:w < hay-yo:w-i ‘the one there (close)’ (yo:wi ‘there’)
-hay-ye:w < hay-ye:w-i ‘the one in the distance’ (ye:wi ‘yonder’)
External links
- Danny Ammon's Hupa Language Page
- Hupa language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian LanguagesSurvey of California and Other Indian LanguagesThe Survey of California and Other Indian Languages at the University of California at Berkeley documents, catalogs, and archives the indigenous languages of the Americas...
- Hupa language on native-languages.org