Maidu is a severely endangered

Endangered language

An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....

 Maiduan language spoken by Maidu

Maidu

The Maidu are a group of Native Americans who live in Northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada, in the drainage area of the Feather and American Rivers...

 peoples traditionally in the mountains east and south of Lassen Peak

Lassen Peak

Lassen Peak is the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade Range. It is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc which is an arc that stretches from northern California to southwestern British Columbia...

 in the American River

American River

The American River is a California watercourse noted as the site of Sutter's Mill, northwest of Placerville, California, where gold was found in 1848, leading to the California Gold Rush...

 and Feather River

Feather River

The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river's main stem is about long. Its length to its most distant headwater tributary is about . Its drainage basin is about...

 river drainages. These river regions include such valleys in the Northern Sierra Madre Mountains

Sierra Madre Mountains (California)

The Sierra Madre Mountains are a mountain range in northern Santa Barbara County, California, USA. They are a portion of the Inner South Coast Ranges, representing the southernmost part, which are themselves part of the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America. The Sierra Madre Mountains...

 of California as Indian Valley, American Valley, Butte Valley

Butte Valley National Grassland

Butte Valley National Grassland is a 18,425 acre United States National Grassland located in northern California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, it is located in northern Siskiyou County, near the Oregon border, between the communities of Dorris and Macdoel along U.S. Highway 97...

, and Big Meadows. Maidu may also refer to the related Konkow and Nisenan

Nisenan

The Nisenan, also known as the Southern Maidu and Valley Maidu, are one of many native groups of the Central Valley. The name Nisenan, derives from the ablative plural pronoun nisena·n, "from among us"...

 languages.

The pre-contact Maidu

Maidu

The Maidu are a group of Native Americans who live in Northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada, in the drainage area of the Feather and American Rivers...

 peoples lived in a hunting and gathering society in parts of central California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. These peoples lived in an area around what are now called Mount Lassen, Honey Lake

Honey Lake

Honey Lake is an endorheic sink within the Honey Lake Valley located in northeastern California, near the Nevada border. Summer evaporation reduces the lake to a lower level of 12 km² and creates an alkali flat....

, Sacramento

Sacramento

Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...

, and Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. At a surface elevation of , it is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America. Its depth is , making it the USA's second-deepest...

. They spoke closely related languages, including the living Maidu, Konkow and Nisenan languages, along with the Chico language

Chico language

Chico is an extinct Maiduan language formerly spoken by Maidu peoples who lived in Northern California, between Sacramento and the Sierra foothills.-Bibliography:...

 and other extinct variations.

Currently only one or two native speakers remain alive. The speakers belong to the Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians.

The Maiduan language family is considered to belong to the Penutian language group, along with such families as Miwok

Miwok

Miwok can refer to any one of four linguistically related groups of Native Americans, native to Northern California, who spoke one of the Miwokan languages in the Utian family...

, Wintun

Wintun

Wintun is the name generally given to a group of related Native American tribes who live in Northern California, including the Wintu , Nomlaki , and Patwin tribes. Their range is from approximately present-day Lake Shasta to San Francisco Bay, along the western side of the Sacramento River to the...

, Yokuts, and Costanoan.

Phonology

Notation: In the phonological discussion, phonetic symbols are encased in slashes / /, allophones are in brackets [ ], while symbols in parentheses represent non IPA orthography.

Consonants

Maidu has eighteen consonantal phonemes. The consonants listed below are from the transcription system used by Shipley. The equivalent IPA transcription is listed in brackets when it differs from Shipley's orthography.

		Labial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...	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...	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)....	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...
Plosive	plain	p	t	c [tʃ]	k	ʔ
	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...	pʼ	tʼ	cʼ [tʃʼ]	kʼ
	voiced	b [ɓ]	d [ɗ]
Fricative	voiceless		s			h
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 :...	plain Phonation Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology...	m	n
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...	plain Phonation Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology...	w	l	j

In the 1950s and 1960s, older speakers retained palatal stops

Voiceless palatal plosive

The voiceless palatal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is c....

 /c, c'/ where younger speakers used an innovative palatal affricate

Voiceless postalveolar affricate

The voiceless palato-alveolar affricate or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩...

 /tʃ, tʃʼ/, perhaps borrowed from English.

The notation /j/ represents the palatal glide, the same as the spelling y in English yes. The voiced plosives (b, d) are implosive

Implosive consonant

Implosive consonants are stops with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can...

, but do not contrast with simple voiced stops.

Before the velar plosives /k, k'/, /m/ is pronounced as [ŋ].

Vowels

There are six phonemic vowels in Maidu. Once again, the chart comes from the orthographic system employed by Shipley.

	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...
High	i	y [ɨ]	u
Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel...	e		o
Low		a

These six vowels are characterized by several different allophone

Allophone

In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...

s depending on the phonetic environments in which they occur (initial/noninitial, stressed/unstressed, and open/closed syllables). The base phone of the vowels occurs in initial open syllables with stress. The lowest and most central allophones occur in unstressed closed syllables. According to Shipley, (a) and (y) have allophones that almost converge once they have centralized, (i) and (u) have allophones that barely centralize and drop slightly lower, approaching [I] and [ʊ]. Meanwhile (e) and (o) have more change than (i) and (u) but less than (a) and (y).

Vowel length

Vowel length

In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...

 is nonphonemic, and changes according to the vowel's place within the word. The vowels can exhibit vowel lengths of less than a mora

Mora (linguistics)

Mora is a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, which in some languages determines stress or timing. As with many technical linguistic terms, the definition of a mora varies. Perhaps the most succinct working definition was provided by the American linguist James D...

, one mora, or 1.5-2 morae. The vowel is less than one mora in unstressed syllables, around one mora in closed stressed syllables, and more than one mora in open stressed syllables.

Syllables

The syllable

Syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...

s in Maidu follow a basic CV or CVC structure. The majority of words consist of alternating consonants and vowels, while combinations such as CVCVCCV also occur. In all cases, the syllables are consonant initial, and diphthongs do not occur in the coda

Syllable coda

In phonology, a syllable coda comprises the consonant sounds of a syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a vowel. The combination of a nucleus and a coda is called a rime. Some syllables consist only of a nucleus with no coda...

. The syllables in Maidu display pitch

Pitch accent

Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words...

 in conjunction with the stress in the word. Syllables with the primary stress in the word have a higher pitch and tend to be more tense and have longer vowels. Secondary stress occurs with a low to middle pitch and lengthening of the vowel. Weak stress has a low to middle pitch and short vowels.

Morphology

Notation: In the morphology section, some notations are used to refer to changes occurring to the morphemes when they are conjugated or combined with one another. 'I' indicates a change whereby the preceding word goes through the following changes: after a vowel (V) of a vowel and glottal stop (V') the root remains the same, so /wepa/ remains /wepa/. After a k or k', the preceding vowel is duplicated, so /banak'/ becomes /banak'a/. In all other cases i is added, so /jaman/ becomes /jamani/. 'R' indicates reduplication of the previous segment, so /my/ becomes /mymy/.

Nouns

Maidu nouns are divided into two classes. The first class consists of kinship terms, although it interestingly does not include the terms for child and son. The nouns of this class are more limited in use than other nouns, as they are always subject to possession by another noun. These terms, such as /ne/ 'mother' occur in conjunction with a pronoun

Pronoun

In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...

 or a demonstrative

Demonstrative

In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...

, as in:

• nikne "my mother"

• minne-your mother

• myne-(that) mother

The second class of nouns consists of free morpheme

Morpheme

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...

s, and can be broken down into smaller subclasses based on the origin of the noun stem. The first subclass contains nouns whose root and stem are identical, such as /wepa/ "coyote." The stem /kyle/ 'woman' is notable in that is usually occurs as /kyle/, but may alternate to /kylok/ when attached with suffixes to form 'old woman' and 'women.'

The second subclass contains nouns that are formed from several different roots. This compound may be formed from two noun roots (/mom/ 'water' and /pano/ 'grizzly' become mompano 'otter'), a noun root and an auxiliary verb (/jask'ak/ 'skinny' and /no/ 'along' become jask'akno 'skinny man'), a noun root and a distributive suffix (/jaman/ 'mountain' and /R-to/ 'all around' become jamanmanto 'mountains all around'), noun roots and an unidentifiable morpheme (/k'am/ 'belly' and /pum/ 'membrane' with a meaningless morpheme /pu/ become k'ampumpu 'tripe'), and a noun root with a diminutive morpheme (and /sol/ 'song' and /I-be/ become solibe 'ditty.').
Pronouns

The pronouns are /nik'/ first person, /min/ second person, /maj/ third person, and /my/ demonstrative. /maj/ does not occur in the singular, and so constructions using /my/ serve as the third person singular. These include in a noun construction ('that woman' for 'her'), singularly ('that one') and repeated ('that person'). Other than /maj/, there are no special plural forms of the pronouns, as they are inflected for number along with other nouns.

Number Inflection in Nouns

Grammatical number

In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....

While English distinguishes between singular and plural, Maidu distinguishes singular, dual

Dual (grammatical number)

Dual is a grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and plural. When a noun or pronoun appears in dual form, it is interpreted as referring to precisely two of the entities identified by the noun or pronoun...

, and plural

Plural

In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...

. These inflections are most oftern used in conjunction with the pronouns, and are much less commonly used with other nouns. Both dual /c'o/ and plural /cy/ suffixes have several allomorphs. Along with these, there is a second plural morpheme /t'yt'y/ which indicates both plurality and a diminutive sense

Diminutive

In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...

.

Verbs

Maidu verbs consist of the verbal theme

Thematic relation

In a number of theories of linguistics, thematic relations is a term used to express the role that a noun phrase plays with respect to the action or state described by a sentence's verb. For example, in the sentence "Susan ate an apple", Susan is the doer of the eating, so she is an agent; the...

 along a series of suffixes. Similar to nouns, the verb stems in Maidu result from several different sources. Some verbs, like /sol/ 'sing' are composed of a single simple root. Other verbs include a noun in the verb stem, such as /k'awba/ 'to dig a hole', which is a compound of /k'aw/ 'dirt' and /ba/ 'to dig.' Still other compound verb stems result from the conjunction of two separate verb roots, as in /t'ikc'e/ 'to believe', from /t'ik/ 'to have enough' abd /c'e/ 'to see.' Like nouns, some verb stems include a component that has no meaning on its own, such as /bokweje/ 'to invoke', where /weje/ means 'to talk' and /bok/ has no known meaning. Still others are the result of a verb and an auxiliary verb, and finally a set of verbs involving motion uses /'y/ as its first compound.

Verb Theme

The verb theme is a combination of the verb stem along with one or more thematic suffixes. All thematic suffixes are optional, and thus may be excluded from the verb, with the base stem acting as the theme on its own.

•Causative

•Designation of verbal object

•Motion-Location

•Negative

•Aspectual

•Evidential

Causative The causative suffix /ti/ indicates that the actor is causing an action to occur, as in ma dondom 'as te 'ynotik'as, which means 'I walked the child, holding his hand' or 'I caused the child to walk, holding (his) hand.' This morpheme also occurs in words like /wonoti/ 'to kill', literally 'to cause to die.'

Verbal Object The designation of the verbal object takes five different forms. /'us/ is a reflexive suffix, as in wonoti'us'am 'he killed himself.' The second suffix, /jo/ indicated both plural object and repetitive actions. This occurs in c'ani majse 'ono wojomak'as 'I'm going to hit them (one ofter another) on the head with a stick,' and humbotmenwet 'as hesbopajodom 'I kept on shoving anything into the sack.' The third suffix is used commonly and appears to have an obscure meaning. /to/ can be used with /ju/ 'rub on' to form juto 'rub in' and with /mej/ 'give' to form mejto 'buy.' It may work to create the transitive form of a verb, although this is not always the case. /toto/, a reduplication of /to/ indicates reciprocal action.

Motion-Location The motion-location auxiliaries occur as 16 different suffixes.

-/c'ik/ over or into with the implication of closing or covering /puc'ik/ 'to swell shut'

-/c'o/ up and over the edge, around from behind

-/daw/ down and away without and indication of a goal in the movement

-/dik/ up to and into a goal or objective

-/doj/ upward /weledoj/ 'to run up'

-/je/ hither

-/kit/ downward

-/k'oj/ away from here

-/lek/ hurriedly

-/mit/ onto or into with an implication of downward motion

-/n/ downstream, downhill (usually implies southwest)

-/no/ along, no implication of direction or attitude /weleno/ 'to run along'

-/paj/ against, usually figurative /jodotpaj/ ' tie up/, /haspaj/ 'to urinate against (as a dog would)'

-/pin/ hither, no implication of goal

-/sip/ out of /t'upsip/ 'spit out'

-/t'a/ on top

-/waj/ apart

Some of these suffixes can occur together in limited constructions: /c'opin/ 'up over the edge and hither', /c'ono/ 'over the edge of something; in a circle', /noje/ 'aimlessly', and /sippin/ 'out of and hither'.

/doj/, /kit/, /k'oj/, and /mit/ all loose their final consonant before the suffix /nu/, which indicates duration. /by/-/doj/-/nu/ becomes bydonu 'to stick up'.

Negative The negative suffix /men/ has two variants, /men/ after a consonant and /n/ after a vowel. kyloknonom 'as wetemmen'usan 'the women didn't use to dance' and monma'amkano 'you won't'

Aspectual The aspectual class contains six suffixes.

-/bos/ completion wejebosk'as 'I'm through talking'

-/c'yj/ unable hybonam jysipc'yjk'as 'I can't get out of the house'

-/doj/ inchoative nik'i lenom 'as jotitdojdom kak'an 'My garden is beginning to bloom and become green'

-/nu/ durative

-/ti/ for the sake of

-/bew/ a little more mym p'ybem 'as lalambewk'an 'That boy got a little taller'

Evidential The evidential class consists of three individual morphemes.

-/c'oj/ quotative mym majdyk mykotom 'ac'oj'am 'It was that man's grandmother, it is said'

-/wew/ evidential mym p'ybec'om 'as 'ydojwewk'an 'Those two boys are apparently coming up'

-/ky/ seems hes hututini wejepem kakyk'an 'How crazily he seems to talk'

Verb Inflection

The verb is completed by the addition of five inflectional suffixes

Inflection

In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...

. These suffixes mark the verb for expression of tense

Grammatical tense

A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...

, aspect

Grammatical aspect

In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...

, mode, person, and number. There is variability in the ordering of these suffixes. There are five possible inflections for mode: indicative, subjunctive, optative, interrogative, and gerundial. Separate indicative modes occur for present-past, future, habitual past, and past punctual. The optative mode can be split into monitive, intentive, and hortatory.

Present-past indicative: The present-past indicative is marked by a null morpheme. /sol/ 'to sing' becomes solk'as 'I sang', sol'amk'as 'we two sang, sol'emk'es 'we all sang', sol'amkano 'you sang', or solk'an 'he, she, they sang'. Plurality is marked only in first person, otherwise 2nd and 3rd person have no marking to differentiate duality or plurality. This tense of the verb is used to express a recently completed action, a punctual action that is taking place, a state of being, an equation (something is something else), or a present static location.

Future indicative: Future indicative is marked by /ma/. solmak'as 'I will sing', solma'amk'as 'we two will sing', solma'emk'es 'we all will sing', solma'amkano 'you will sing', and solmak'an 'he, she, they will sing'. Future indicative indicate a future punctual action, a directive or a mild imperative.

Other Pasts: the habitual past, marked with /'/ for past and /us/ for habit, indicates an action that was habitually done in the past, such as weje'usas 'I used to talk', or penem nikkotoc'om 'yhej'usan 'My two grandmothers used to go along'. The past punctual indicative, marked simple with /'/, is a rare verb tense. This form refers to a single act in the past that is disconnected from the current context.

Subjunctive: the subjunctive mode, marked with /k'e/, occurs only with /jak/ 'resemble' and /na/ 'result in', such as jakk'es 'I seem to be'.

Optative: The optative mode occurs in three different forms. All three forms are marked with the morpheme /b/. The monitive optative, marked with /y'y/, indicates a possible future event that is unpleasant or undesirable in nature, such as wonoby'ys 'I might die'.

Intentive optative occurs only in first person to indicate intention, and sometimes is also used with demonstrative or interrogative words to form questions relating to instructions. Use with the singular form is common, while dual and plural are relatively rare. yk'oj'is 'I'm going to go'

The hortatory optative is marked by /a/, and usually uses /t/ as an allomorph of the optative marker. This form indicates the idea 'let' as in yk'ojtas 'let me go'.

Interrogative: The interrogative mode is marked with /k'ade/, as in solk'ades 'am I singing?'.

Imperative: The imperative mode is marked by several different morphemes, depending on how the action is to be carried out. /pi/ is used when the action is to be carried out in the presence of the speaker, as in c'enopi 'Look!'. /pada/ is used when the action is to be completed in the absence of the speaker.

Syntax

Noun Case Suffixes

Nouns must receive one of ten possible case markings. These cases are classified into four external distribution classes. These classes are subject, object, possessive, and locative. The cases are:

•Subject

Nominative case

The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...

•Object

Accusative case

The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...

•Possessive

Possessive case

The possessive case of a language is a grammatical case used to indicate a relationship of possession. It is not the same as the genitive case, which can express a wider range of relationships, though the two have similar meanings in many languages.See Possession for a survey of the different...

Subject: The nominative case is marked either by the addition of an /m/ such as /wepam/ from /wepa/ 'coyote' or the deletion of the final consonant as in /ni/ from /nik/ 'I'. Nominative is used for the performer of a verb, both A and B in a sentence where A=B, naming, and for the vocative.

Object: The object case also has two allomorphs. The first is the I form, as mentioned in the morphology section, so that /jaman/ becomes /jamani/ 'mountain'. Other nouns have no change, as in /nik/ 'I'. This case is used for the direct and indirect objects, and is also used by some speakers in naming.

Possessive: The possessive case is marked by /Ik'/ or /Ik'i/, as in /wepak'i/ 'coyote's', as /i/ as in /niki/ 'my', or as /k'i/ as in /mink'i/ 'thy'. Possessive is used to refer to both actual possessors (Coyote's flour) and figurative or characerstic possessors (the white man's flour), as well as in some cases to indicate 'for the sake of'.

These next seven cases all belong to the locative class:

•Comitative

Comitative case

The comitative case , also known as the associative case , is a grammatical case that denotes companionship, and is used where English would use "in company with" or "together with"...

•Instrumental

Instrumental case

The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action...

•Locative

Locative case

Locative is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by"...

•Allative

Allative case

Allative case is a type of the locative cases used in several languages. The term allative is generally used for the lative case in the majority of languages which do not make finer distinctions.-Finnish language:In the Finnish language, the allative is the fifth of the locative cases, with the...

•Ablative

Ablative case

In linguistics, ablative case is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ...

•Indefinite locative

•Linear distributive

Comitative:The comitative is marked by /Ik'an/ or /k'an/ and means 'along with'. wepak'an 'along with Coyote'

Instrumental: The instrumental case is marked with /ni/ and is used to indicate the means by which something is done or with something as an ingredient. nik?opam jaluluni solti'usan 'my grandfather used to play on a flute' or mym mahatim kak'an wolek'i lawani japem 'that bread is made with white man's flour'.

Locative: The locative case is marked with /di/. This case indicates a static location in space, the space within which an action is carried out, a static location in time, or 'toward'. kuludi kak'as 'ynojbodukkym 'I seldom walk around in the dark'.

Allative: The allative case is marked with /nak/ or /na/. This case usually means 'toward' and rarely means 'for'. mym huskym c'ajna lykk'ojam 'the snake crawled to another place'

Ablative: The ablative case is marked by /nan/ and is the marker for movement away from something or the origin of an object. wolenan 'as 'uni mek'as 'I got this from the white man'

Indefinite locative: The indefinite locative is marked with /te/. This case is used very rarely, and usually indicates a location unknown to the speaker. homonte mink'i wat'a dakym 'where is your dishtowel?'

Linear distributive: The linear distributive is marked with /no/. Like the indefinite locative, this case is used very rarely. This form marks a location with the meaning of 'along' or 'alongside of' and always occurs in conjunction with a noun indicating something with a linear form. 'adom 'unim sewno momi kutidom t'uc'ikdom sewi 'odo tawalwonom 'Then, draining out all of the water along this river and damming up the river, they worked the gold.'

Word Order

Word Classes

There are several different word classes that go into making a Maidu sentence, split into the major and the minor classes. The seven major distribution classes are Subject, Object, Possessive, Locative, Finite Verb, Dependent Verb, and Copula. The minor classes are Connectives, Hesistation forms, Emphasis marker, Temporal Absolute, Adverbial Absolute, Interjection, and Question word. All together combinations of words from these classes make sentences.


Subject, Object, and Locative Phrases

The only way to expand upon the Subject, Object, or Locative is with a preceding Possessive. These connections can only occur with a single pair of words, one Possessive plus the Subject, Object, or Locative.


Verb Phrases

Expansions of the Verb occur only with an Object. The Verb and the Object have an unrestricted arrangement. Both V-O and O-V occur naturally. The only exception to this free word order occurs when there are two object. When there are a pair of objects, usually a dependent and an independent object, the word order is restricted to O-O-V or O-V-O. The word order V-O-O never occurs.


Basic Clause

The basic clause in Maidu contains one Verb phrase, between zero and two Subject phrases, between zero and four locative phrases, and possibly one Possessive phrase. Clauses with a Possessive are limited to a single Subject phrase. The phrases are relatively unrestricted in word order. The only exception is that Possessives always go clause finally.

The most common word order is Subject-Locative-Verb. The Verb is usually clause final, except in cases where the Possessive is present. The Subject and Locative may occur within an expanded verb phrase, making Verb-Subject-Object and Adverb-Locative-Verb potential sentence constructions.

-mym majdym-kak'an-nik'i heskym S-V-S 'that man is my friend'

that man-is-my friend

-jamanna-niktynik'an-lajmendi-'yk'oj'usas L-L-L-V 'I used to go to the mountains with my younger brother in the summer'

to th mountains-along with my younger brother-in the summer-I used to go

-his'usan-'anim kylem-lolo V-S-O 'that woman used to weave baskets'

used to weave-that woman-baskets

External links

• Ethnologue: Maidu, Northeast
• Maidu language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
  Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
  The Survey of California and Other Indian Languages at the University of California at Berkeley documents, catalogs, and archives the indigenous languages of the Americas...