Wappo language
Encyclopedia
Wappo is an extinct
language that was spoken in the Alexander Valley
north of San Francisco by the Wappo Native Americans
. The last fluent speaker, Laura Fish Somersal, died in 1990. Wappo's language death
is attributed to the use of English in schools and economic situations such as the workplace. According to Somersal, the name for the people and language is derived from the Spanish word guapo, meaning "handsome" or "brave". The name for the people was originally Ashochimi.
Research on Wappo has not yet definitively linked Wappo to any other languages. It has been proposed that Wappo is related to the Yuki language
and that they are members of the Yuki–Wappo language family, but the validity of this conclusion is disputed.
Paul Radin
published the first texts on Wappo grammar in the 1920s. Jesse O. Sawyer published the "English-Wappo Vocabulary" in 1965 and continued to study Wappo grammar throughout his life. Other linguists who have contributed to the study of Wappo include William E. Elmendorf, Alice Shepherd, Sandra Thompson
, Joseph Sung-Yul Park and Charles N. Li.
According to Radin, the following diphthongs occur in Wappo: /ao/, /ai/, /ɛo/, /ɛi/, /ɛu/, /ei/, /ɔi/, /iɛ/, and /ui/.
is stressed. In the examples below, the accent marks stress.
Wappo does not make distinctions in tone.
or aspect
: habitual/progressive, stative, past, inchoative
and future. Each verb root takes at least two forms to which suffixes are added. The form used depends on the tense. The forms themselves are determined by the verb's semantic class, which is basically determined by the habitual/progressive suffix used. Specific suffixes result in changes to the verb stem, for example, -lik- is added to the root of verbs occurring with the rare imperative suffix -laʔ. This occurs in the imperative for "sleep", in which the stem is changed from hinto- to hintolik-. Epenthesis
also occurs in certain situations, depending on the form of the root and the suffix added.
Thompson et al. provide the following examples of tense/aspect categories. The relevant forms are bolded, and all of the forms follow Sawyer's transcription style.
Negatives are marked by the suffix lahkhiʔ.
Prefixes are also added to verb phrases. There are speaker-oriented directional prefixes which are grouped into two classes, depending on whether the motion of the verb is directed at or away from the speaker. In narrative contexts, the direction may refer to a character. For example, two directional prefixes are ma- "away from speaker" and te- "toward speaker". Non-speaker-oriented directional prefixes include ho-, meaning "around" and pi-, meaning "accidentally". Wappo also includes pre-verbal desiderative and optative
mood particles. The desiderative particle, k'ah, is used to indicate that the speaker wishes something were true. The optative particle, keye, is translated as "could", "can", or "should".
Patient
-initial structures are acceptable, albeit less common.
Wappo allows for more freedom in word order in complement clauses, especially when they have first person subjects. All three sentences below are acceptable translations of "I know that the man caught a fish".
In noun phrases, demonstrative and genitive modifiers precede the noun, while numerals and adjectives follow the noun.
In verb phrases, oblique
arguments and adverbs come before the verb.
The accusative case
is unmarked. Patients, arguments of transitive verbs that are patient-like, all subjects in dependent clauses and single arguments in equatorial sentences take the accusative case.
The nominative case
is marked with the suffix -i. Words functioning as initiators, agents, experiencers of transitive verbs and the single argument of an intransitive verb take the nominative case. If the noun stem to which this suffix is added happens to ends with a vowel, the stem-final vowel is dropped or changed. Otherwise, adding the nominative suffix does not change the stem. The examples below illustrate the contrast.
The dative case
, which is used to indicate the recipient or direction, is marked with -thu.
The benefactive case
is marked with -ma. It is used to mark whom the action benefits.
The instrumental case
, used with intensive reflexives and instruments, is marked with -thiʔ.
The comitative case
is marked with -k'a and is used to indicate accompaniment.
The genitive case
is marked with -meʔ. It can only be used in constructions with alienable possession. (Inalienable possession is expressed through the juxtaposition of the two relevant nouns.)
Wappo also has a locative case
, which is marked with suffixes such as -pi "away from" and -cawoh "on top of".
with the vowel that precedes it. In all of the examples blow, the question word is glossed as "Q" and is also in boldface.
The particle is usually at the end of the sentence, but as the example below demonstrates, it is not always sentence-final. Its location depends on the composition of the verb phrase.
Question words can also get case inflection, except in cases of inalienable possession, where no suffix is added.
Question words can also be used as indefinite pronouns.
with Spanish has influenced Wappo's sound structure and vocabulary. As listed above in the consonant section, /f/, /d/, /g/, /r/ and /rʼ/ are used for Spanish borrowings. Many of the first words borrowed from Spanish into Wappo referred to items that were traded. In some cases, words may have been borrowed from other American Indian languages in contact with Spanish, rather than directly from Spanish. Below are two examples of borrowings from Spanish.
While contact with English has not greatly influenced Wappo's lexicon, it has influenced its syntax. Thompson et al. cite the sentences below as examples of an expanded use of the benefactive case
that could have arisen from contact with English.
While Wappo has a predicate-final structure, question words are clause-initial in most cases. This is unexpected, and possibly resulting from English influence.
In another potential example of English influence, the word neʔ-khiʔ "have" is used in deontic expressions, and its meaning is adapted as "have to".
:
Extinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...
language that was spoken in the Alexander Valley
Alexander Valley
The Alexander Valley is a Californian American Viticultural Area just north of Healdsburg in Sonoma County. It is home to many wineries and vineyards, as well as the city of Cloverdale. It is the largest and most fully planted wine region in Sonoma. Highway 101 runs through the valley, and the...
north of San Francisco by the Wappo Native Americans
Wappo
The Wappo are a group of Native Americans who traditionally lived in Northern California in the areas of Napa Valley, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, and Russian River. When Mexicans arrived to colonize California, Wappo villages existed near the present-day towns of Yountville,...
. The last fluent speaker, Laura Fish Somersal, died in 1990. Wappo's language death
Language death
In linguistics, language death is a process that affects speech communities where the level of linguistic competence that speakers possess of a given language variety is decreased, eventually resulting in no native and/or fluent speakers of the variety...
is attributed to the use of English in schools and economic situations such as the workplace. According to Somersal, the name for the people and language is derived from the Spanish word guapo, meaning "handsome" or "brave". The name for the people was originally Ashochimi.
Research on Wappo has not yet definitively linked Wappo to any other languages. It has been proposed that Wappo is related to the Yuki language
Yuki language
The Yuki language, also known as Yukian, Ukiah, Ukomno'm, was a language of California, spoken by the indigenous American Yuki people, formerly in the Eel River area, the Round Valley Reservation, northern California. It became extinct some time in the 20th century...
and that they are members of the Yuki–Wappo language family, but the validity of this conclusion is disputed.
Paul Radin
Paul Radin
Paul Radin was a widely read American cultural anthropologist and folklorist of the early twentieth century. Born the son of a rabbi in the cosmopolitan Polish city of Łódź, he became a student of Franz Boas at Columbia, where he counted Edward Sapir and Robert Lowie among his classmates...
published the first texts on Wappo grammar in the 1920s. Jesse O. Sawyer published the "English-Wappo Vocabulary" in 1965 and continued to study Wappo grammar throughout his life. Other linguists who have contributed to the study of Wappo include William E. Elmendorf, Alice Shepherd, Sandra Thompson
Sandra Thompson
Sandra Smith "Sandy" Thompson is a veteran Louisiana politician and state administrator, who retired on August 3, 2007, from the directorship of the Atchafalaya Basin Program. She thereafter joined the successful gubernatorial campaign of Republican Bobby Jindal, then a U.S...
, Joseph Sung-Yul Park and Charles N. Li.
Vowels
Wappo has five vowel qualities, but the literature is inconsistent as to whether a length distinction exists. In his Wappo lexicon, Sawyer transcribes long vowels, but Thompson et al., who worked with the same speaker, report that they did not hear any long vowels.According to Radin, the following diphthongs occur in Wappo: /ao/, /ai/, /ɛo/, /ɛi/, /ɛu/, /ei/, /ɔi/, /iɛ/, and /ui/.
| 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... |
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 | 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 | |
Consonants
The transcription style (bolded symbols below) is based on Sawyer's work with Somersal, with further interpretation by Thompson, Park and Li. Thompson et al. propose that Wappo has three types of stops: plain, aspirated and glottalized. Stops plus /h/ are therefore treated as single aspirated stops. Sawywer notes that /f/, /d/, /g/, /r/ and /rʼ/ are used for Spanish borrowings.| 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:... |
Dental | 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 | voiceless | p [p] | t [t̻] | ṭ [t̺] | k [k] | ʔ [ʔ] | |
| aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
pʰ [pʰ] | tʰ [t̻ʰ] | ṭʰ [t̺ʰ] | kʰ [kʰ] | |||
| glottalized Glottalization Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice... |
pʼ [pʼ] | tʼ [t̻ʼ] | ṭʼ [t̺ʼ] | kʼ [kʼ] | |||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
voiceless | c [t͡s] | č [t͡ʃ] | ||||
| glottalized Glottalization Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice... |
cʼ [t͡sʼ] | čʼ [t͡ʃʼ] | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s [s] | š [ʃ] | h [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 [m] | n [n] | ||||
| glottalized Glottalization Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice... |
mʼ [mʼ] | nʼ [nʼ] | |||||
| 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 [w] | l [l] | y [y] | |||
| glottalized Glottalization Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice... |
wʼ [wʼ] | lʼ [lʼ] | yʼ [yʼ] |
Stress and Tone
Wappo word stress is predictable, in that the first syllable of the word stemWord stem
In linguistics, a stem is a part of a word. The term is used with slightly different meanings.In one usage, a stem is a form to which affixes can be attached. Thus, in this usage, the English word friendships contains the stem friend, to which the derivational suffix -ship is attached to form a new...
is stressed. In the examples below, the accent marks stress.
- méhwa "wild grape vine"
- kálkuʔ "greyhound"
Wappo does not make distinctions in tone.
Phonological Processes
- Glottal stops are inserted word-initially in words that would otherwise begin with a vowel.
- If a word stem ends in a vowel and a suffix immediately following the stem begins with a vowel, one of those vowels is elidedElisionElision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...
. In most cases, the vowel at the beginning of the suffix is deleted. For example, čoči-iʔ, which is the root "weave" plus the durative suffix, has the surface representation of čočiʔ.
Nouns
Nouns can be divided into human and non-human classes, which is relevant for pluralization. Human nouns are consistently inflected for plurality, but non-human nouns do not have to be inflected for plurality, even when their reference is in fact plural. For example, onoʔšiʔ-te "Indians" has the plural suffix -te, but mansanaʔi "apples" lacks the suffix.Verbs
Wappo also has rich inflectional and derivational morphology in its verb phrases. There are five categories of tenseGrammatical 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:...
or 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...
: habitual/progressive, stative, past, inchoative
Inchoative
Inchoative aspect is a grammatical aspect, referring to the beginning of an action or state. It can be found in conservative Indo-European languages such as Latin and Lithuanian, and also in Finnic languages. It should not be confused with the prospective, which denotes actions that are about to...
and future. Each verb root takes at least two forms to which suffixes are added. The form used depends on the tense. The forms themselves are determined by the verb's semantic class, which is basically determined by the habitual/progressive suffix used. Specific suffixes result in changes to the verb stem, for example, -lik- is added to the root of verbs occurring with the rare imperative suffix -laʔ. This occurs in the imperative for "sleep", in which the stem is changed from hinto- to hintolik-. Epenthesis
Epenthesis
In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
also occurs in certain situations, depending on the form of the root and the suffix added.
Thompson et al. provide the following examples of tense/aspect categories. The relevant forms are bolded, and all of the forms follow Sawyer's transcription style.
| Category | Suffix(es) | Wappo example | English translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Habitual/progressive | 13 different forms exist | ah yekhe k'el-iʔ | "I eat acorn mush" |
| Stative | -khiʔ | i-meʔ c'ic'-i čhoʔel-khiʔ | "my bird has died" |
| Past | -taʔ | ah leʔa mey-ocow el-taʔ | "I dug lots of swamp-roots" |
| Inchoative | -iš and -eš | ah yomtoʔ-iš-khiʔ | "I've become a doctor" |
| Future | -ya:miʔ (more certain) and -siʔ (less certain) | miʔ may' ohk'eč'e-siʔ | "[be careful-] you'll cut yourself" |
Negatives are marked by the suffix lahkhiʔ.
- paʔ - ta - lahkhiʔeat - PST - NEG"did not eat"
- ah te oyaʔ keʔ - tis - ta -lahkhiʔ1SG:NOM 3SG pot break - CAUS - PST - NEG"I didn’t make him/her break the pot"
Prefixes are also added to verb phrases. There are speaker-oriented directional prefixes which are grouped into two classes, depending on whether the motion of the verb is directed at or away from the speaker. In narrative contexts, the direction may refer to a character. For example, two directional prefixes are ma- "away from speaker" and te- "toward speaker". Non-speaker-oriented directional prefixes include ho-, meaning "around" and pi-, meaning "accidentally". Wappo also includes pre-verbal desiderative and optative
Optative mood
The optative mood is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope. It is similar to the cohortative mood, and closely related to the subjunctive mood....
mood particles. The desiderative particle, k'ah, is used to indicate that the speaker wishes something were true. The optative particle, keye, is translated as "could", "can", or "should".
Word Order
Wappo has a predicate-final word order.- cephi onoʔšiʔ okel haṭel - khiʔ 3SG:NOM Indian language learn -STAT "s/he's learning Indian language"
Patient
Patient
A patient is any recipient of healthcare services. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, advanced practice registered nurse, veterinarian, or other health care provider....
-initial structures are acceptable, albeit less common.
- ce ew ce k'ew - i t'um- taʔ DEM fish DEM man - NOM buy - PST "that fish, the man bought (it)"
Wappo allows for more freedom in word order in complement clauses, especially when they have first person subjects. All three sentences below are acceptable translations of "I know that the man caught a fish".
- ah ce k'ew ew ṭ'oh - taʔ haṭis - khiʔ 1SG:NOM DEM man fish catch - PST know - STAT
- ah haṭis - khiʔ ce k'ew ew ṭ'oh - taʔ 1SG:NOM know - STAT DEM man fish catch - PST
- ce k'ew ew ṭ'oh-taʔ ah haṭis-khiʔ DEM man fish catch - PST 1SG:NOM know - STAT
In noun phrases, demonstrative and genitive modifiers precede the noun, while numerals and adjectives follow the noun.
- he tonči DEM cat "this cat"
- te - meʔ č'ešma 3SG - GEN bed "his/her bed"
- hinta hopoka ah k'ešu mehlahi - khiʔ day three 1SG:NOM deer hunt - STAT "for three days, I was hunting"
In verb phrases, oblique
Oblique case
An oblique case in linguistics is a noun case of synthetic languages that is used generally when a noun is the object of a verb or a preposition...
arguments and adverbs come before the verb.
- ah kaphe kawaču - k'a hak' - šeʔ 1SG:NOM coffee sugar - COM want - DUR "I want coffee with sugar in it"
Case System
Wappo has a rich case system which uses suffixes to mark cases. In the examples below, the words relevant to the case being discussed are in boldface.The accusative case
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...
is unmarked. Patients, arguments of transitive verbs that are patient-like, all subjects in dependent clauses and single arguments in equatorial sentences take the accusative case.
- ce k'ew ceʔeʔ i ek'a DEM man COP 1SG "that man is my son"
The nominative case
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...
is marked with the suffix -i. Words functioning as initiators, agents, experiencers of transitive verbs and the single argument of an intransitive verb take the nominative case. If the noun stem to which this suffix is added happens to ends with a vowel, the stem-final vowel is dropped or changed. Otherwise, adding the nominative suffix does not change the stem. The examples below illustrate the contrast.
- pol'eʔ "boy" → pol'eʔi "boys"
- k'ešu "deer (singular)" → k'eši "deer (plural)"
The dative case
Dative case
The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....
, which is used to indicate the recipient or direction, is marked with -thu.
- chic- i i -thu te -laha-khiʔbear-NOM 1SG-DAT DIR-come-STAT "the bear is coming toward me"
The benefactive case
Benefactive case
The benefactive case is a grammatical case used where English would use "for", "for the benefit of", or "intended for", e.g...
is marked with -ma. It is used to mark whom the action benefits.
- may- ma miʔ ce takaʔ mes-taʔ who - BENEF 2SG:NOM DEM basket make - PST "who did you make that basket for?"
The instrumental case
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...
, used with intensive reflexives and instruments, is marked with -thiʔ.
The comitative case
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"...
is marked with -k'a and is used to indicate accompaniment.
The genitive case
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
is marked with -meʔ. It can only be used in constructions with alienable possession. (Inalienable possession is expressed through the juxtaposition of the two relevant nouns.)
- i - meʔ luč - i lakhiʔ
Wappo also has a locative case
Locative case
Locative is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by"...
, which is marked with suffixes such as -pi "away from" and -cawoh "on top of".
- thal - i čhuya - cawoh te - cewte - khiʔ what - NOM house - on:top DIR - fall - STAT"what fell on the roof?"
Yes-no questions
To mark yes-no questions, a question particle, /hVʔ/, is added after the verb. It does not have to directly follow the verb. The particle's vowel harmonizesVowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
with the vowel that precedes it. In all of the examples blow, the question word is glossed as "Q" and is also in boldface.
- uh miʔ c'ey - taʔ haʔalready 2SG:NOM finish - PST Q"have you finished already?
- miʔ i hak'- šeʔ heʔ2SG:NOM 1SG like - DUR Q"do you like me?"
- te ceʔ mi ek'a haʔ3SG COP 2SG son Q "is he your son?"
The particle is usually at the end of the sentence, but as the example below demonstrates, it is not always sentence-final. Its location depends on the composition of the verb phrase.
- luče neʔ - khiʔ hiʔ miʔtobacco have - STAT Q 2SG:NOM"do you have any cigarettes?"
Question-word questions
Question words are usually located clause-initially.- iṭa miʔ i yok'-okh hak'- šeʔwhere 2SG:NOM 1SG sit - INF want - DUR"where do you want me to sit?"
Question words can also get case inflection, except in cases of inalienable possession, where no suffix is added.
- may- i oyok'- eʔwho - NOM win - DUR"who’s winning?"
- thal-i čhuya-cawote-cewte-khiʔ what - NOM house - on:top DIR - fall - STAT"what fell on the roof?"
Question words can also be used as indefinite pronouns.
- cephi thal t'um'i - khiʔ3SG:NOM what go:buy - STAT "s/he went to buy something"
- may- i i naw- ta -lahkhiʔwho-NOM 1SG see -PST- NEG"nobody saw me"
Language Contact and Influence
Language contactLanguage contact
Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics.Multilingualism has likely been common throughout much of human history, and today most people in the world are multilingual...
with Spanish has influenced Wappo's sound structure and vocabulary. As listed above in the consonant section, /f/, /d/, /g/, /r/ and /rʼ/ are used for Spanish borrowings. Many of the first words borrowed from Spanish into Wappo referred to items that were traded. In some cases, words may have been borrowed from other American Indian languages in contact with Spanish, rather than directly from Spanish. Below are two examples of borrowings from Spanish.
- čičaloʔ "pea" was borrowed from chícharo JOS" />
While contact with English has not greatly influenced Wappo's lexicon, it has influenced its syntax. Thompson et al. cite the sentences below as examples of an expanded use of the benefactive case
Benefactive case
The benefactive case is a grammatical case used where English would use "for", "for the benefit of", or "intended for", e.g...
that could have arisen from contact with English.
- kaphe - ma ah mey k'o - taʔ coffee - BENEF 1SG:NOM water boil - PST"I boiled water for coffee"
- [he takaʔ- i] i - ma eniya c'iti -khi? [čoč -ukh]DEM basket - NOM 1SG - BENEF very hard - STAT weave - INF"this basket was very hard for me to make"
While Wappo has a predicate-final structure, question words are clause-initial in most cases. This is unexpected, and possibly resulting from English influence.
- may miʔ naw - taʔwho 2SG:NOM see - PST"who did you see?"
In another potential example of English influence, the word neʔ-khiʔ "have" is used in deontic expressions, and its meaning is adapted as "have to".
- ah čoh - ukh neʔ - khiʔ maʔa heʔ1SG:NOM go - INF have - STAT just now"I have to go right now"
Regional variation
Wappo had 5 varietiesVariety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
:
- Clear Lake Wappo
- Russian River Wappo ( Western Wappo)
- Northern Wappo
- Central Wappo
- Southern Wappo
External links
- Ethnologue: Wappo
- Wappo 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...