Kawaiisu: A Grammar and Dictionary, With Texts (Volume 119) (UC Publications in Linguistics)

207 Pages·1990·19.344 MB·English

by  Maurice L. Zigmond, Curtis G. Booth, Pamela Munro

Kawaiisu
A Crammar and Dictionary
with
Texts
Maurice L. Zigmond, Curtis C. Booth,
and Pamela Munro
edited by Pamela Munro
University of California Press
.
BerkeleY Los Angeles ' Oxford
I
I
i
Ceneral Table of Contents
UNIVERSITY OF CALIF'ORNIA PI,JBLICATIONS IN LINGI,JISTICS
Editorial Board lvlargaret Langdon, Johanna Nichols,
Paul Schachter, William Shipley, Sandra Thompson
UNIVERSITATS ll9
Volume
BIBLiOTHIK )
LEIPZiG
t.:- .1.- \e) IAIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PR"ESS Foreword (by Maurice L. Zigmond)' vii
T BERKELEY AND LOS ANGELES, CAUFORNIA
r -\".J J -_r... UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, LTD.
\ )\,\ >. OXFORD, ENGI.AND General Introduction (by Pamela Munro), xi
,/l'7'\a @199I BY THE R"EGENIS OF THE T'NIVERSITY OF CAI,ITORNIA
PRINTED IN TI{E UNITED STAIES OF AMBRICA
irr
Abbreviations, xv
0n
l, Kawaiisu Grammar 1
----
Contents, I
Library of Congress Cataloging-h-Publication Data Preface, 3 ,
Zigmond, Maurice L. $1. Phonology,5
,
Kawaiisu: a grammar and dictionary with texts / Maurice L.
Zigmond, Curtis G, Boodl and Pamela Munro; edited by Pamela $2. Simple Sentences: An Overview, 14
Munro,p. $3. Nouns and Noun Phrase Structure, 39
cm. - (University of Califomia publications in
linguistics; v. 119) $4. Verb Structure, 74
English arrd Kawaiisu.
Includes bibliographical references and index. $5. Complex Sentences, 103
ISBN 0-520-09747-5 (pbk.) $6. Comparative and Typological Notes to the Grammar, 139
1 Kawaiisu language. L Booth, Curtis G. tr. Munro. Pamela.
Itr. Title. .fV. Series.
PM1487.754 1990
497'.45-4c2O gO-44229 Kawaiisu Texts 151
CIP
Contents, 151
Preface, 153
Thc papcr used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
Amcrican National Standard for Information Sciences-Permaneice of
Papcr for Printc<l Library Marerials, ANSI 239.48-1984. @
vt
Coyote and Goldfinch, 155
Foreword
Coyote and Red Racer, 161
Maurice L. Zigmond
Kawaiisu Dictionary
175
Contents, I75
Prefaen, 176
Structure of Dictionary Entries, 179
Kawaiisu-English Dictionary, 183
English-Kawaiisu Index, 301 My association with the Kawaiisu of south-central Califomia began in
Kawaiisu Personal Names and Nicknames, 391 the summer of 1936 after my first year of graduate study in anthropology at
Yale. Since fieldwork was one of the requirements for the Ph.D., I needed to
References 393 find a suitable project. A reading of Kroeber's Handbook of the Indians of
California (1925), consultation with Charles F. and Erminie W. Voegelin,
who had just completed their ethnographic and linguistic investigations
among the Tiibatulabal (1935, 1938), and a personal preference for
Califomia led me to the southern neighbors of the Ttibatulabal, the
Kawaiisu, about whom Kroeber had reported that almost nothing was
known.
My first attempt to make contact with the Kawaiisu was inauspicious.
People living around Isabella at the confluence of the Kem River and its
South Fork branch (later submerged by the artificial Lake Isabella) directed
me to Bob Rabbit, who had a reputation as a weather shaman that extended
beyond the Kawaiisu region. He lived in a shack in the dry Kelso Canyon
area. He was not averse to holding forth on aboriginal culture, and I took
notes for several hours, but his data seemed eclectic and not too reliable.
(Harold E. Driver, who interviewed him for his Culture Element
Distributions VI 11937), describes him as "eratic...but good on topics that
interest him, such as deer hunting".) However, I made the error of not
vllt lx
ktrcword
coming to terms with Bob conceming remuneration and admittedly offond redupllclllon beclme clear, but I lacked a phonemic pattem that would
him a paltry sum. When I retumed the next day, he was in an angry mood providc unlfornlity to my transcriptions.
and ordered me off his property. The unhappy experience taught me u Back in New Haven, I persuaded Charles F' Hockett, then a Yale
lesson, but a serious problem was still where to find adequate Kawaiisu graduatestudentprimarilyconcemedwithanthropologicallinguistics,to
consultants. accompany me to Tehachapi for a few days. I had prepared a list of 500
Further inquiry led me southward to the Piute Mountain region. This Kawaiisu words, which we presented to Elsie, devising a phonemic chart for
peak is the highest point of land around (8,432 feet), and on one of its slopes Kawaiisu on the basis of her responses. Subsequent fieldwork called for
was the so-called Piute Rancheria, where there were several Kawaiisu some modification of this pattem, but it gave form and consistency to the
households. One group surrounded a matriarch, Emma Williams, generally emerging Kawaiisu dictionary. The task of recording the language was
recognized to be the most knowledgeable in traditional culture. Nearby greatly simplified, and it was now possible to take down from Emma and
dwelt Setimo Girado and his family, and I found other speakers too, Setimo myths that could be edited and dictated by Elsie at a slow pace'
including John Marcus and his wife Louisa and Refugia Williams (no relative Thereafter I made annual trips to the Kawaiisu until 1940. That was to
of Emma). A non-Indian rancher who lived about a mile away agreed to give be my last visit for thirty years. Then I received a letter from Judy Barras, a
me lodgings and two meals a day. non-Indian who lived in Tehachapi and who later wrote about the region
Emma Williams did not speak English, but her granddaughter Elsie (e.g., 1976). She had come across my 1938 article in the American
proved a very adequate translator, It was a very pleasant arrangement. We Anthropologist about Kawaiisu geography and sought more information
sat out of doors while I asked questions on every possible subject and took about the Indians of the vicinity. Her query stimulated me to revisit the area
notes, usually with a group of relatives and friends gathered to listen and in 1970. About the same time, I attended the Great Basin Anthropological
volunteer information from time to time. Unfortunately, when I retumed Conference in Eugene, Oregon, and presented a paper there on "Kawaiisu
the next summer, 1n 1937,1 found that Elsie had married a young Mexican- Plant Name Categories" (1971). In Tehachapi I discovered that all my
American, Jess Garcia, who worked at the Monolith Cement Plant, about former consultants had died, but there was a new generation' the sons and
forty miles from the Rancheria. Occasionally Elsie, who now was a motler, daughters of people I once knew. The number of speakers, which I estimated
visited her grandmother, but otherwise I had to drive from one to the other to be one hundred in the 1930s, had dwindled to thirty in the 1970s' Since
to check my data. there was no one under thirty-five who spoke the language, it was clear that
My goal was to record a broad spectrum of cultural materials. While linguistic extinction was not far off.
placing no emphasis on linguistics, I routinely inquired about the names of The years had brought changes both in vocabulary and in
things, places, and processes. Sometimes I undertook to assemble "word pronunciation. The nasalized -mb- and -nd-' which could be heard in the
lists" usually centered on some category - plants, animals, techniques, speech of the older people in the 1930s, have practically disappeared (in the
kinship. Some basic grammatical functions such as suffixation and present Dictionary such archaic forms are marked "arch.")' New words had
been introduced, representing new items and habits of daily lifc' There are
FM
t
fewcr Spanish and more English loanwords. Terms signifying obrolclc
cultural activities are often unrecognized. Still, the language continues to bG General lntroduction
used in a few close relationships. Of the new generation, the following
consultants have contributed substantially: the late Bertha Goings, the sisters Pamela Munro
Lida Girado and Clara Girado Williams (daughters of Setimo), and Andy
Greene.
My rcvived interest in Kawaiisu culture prompted me to attend several
additional anthropological conferences and to present papers involving both
old data and new. Two years after giving my paper in Eugene, I discussed
"Some Mythological and Supematural Aspects of Kawaiisu Et}nogeography Kawaiisu, a language of the Numic branch of Uto-Aztecan now spoken
and Ethnobiolo gy" (L972) in Salt Lake City. There followed "Kawaiisu by only a few people in central Califomia's Kem County' has until now been
Basketry" (1978) and two books, r(awaiisu Mythology (1980) and Kawaiisu rather poorly described. The published linguistic literature on the language
Ethnobotany (1981). My preoccupation with baskets led me to make several consists primarily of mentions in general surveys (especially Kroeber's
visits to a private museum situated about fifty miles north of Pittsburgh, work on California Uto-Aztecan t1907, 19091, but also' for instance'
Pennsylvania. None of the five hundred fifty-five baskets there was labeled Steward 1938) and a few specialized articles (Gifford 1917; Klein 1959'
"Kawaiisu", but seventy-six were designated "Kern County", and a 1988; Munro 1976; Booth 1979), with brief linguistic references in
considerable number of these must have originated with the Kawaiisu. Zigmond's extensive ethnographic works (in addition to those cited in the
My work on Kawaiisu attracted the attention of some linguists, Foreword, these include Zigmond lg4l, 1977,1979, 1986' 1988)' This
including Wick Miller of the University of Utah, Pamela Munro of the volume seeks to fill this gap by providing an introduction to the language'
University of Califomia at Los Angeles, and Curtis Booth of the University with a grammar, a dictionary, and two texts'
Kawaiisu is a member of the Southem Numic subgroup' the other
of Califomia at San Diego, who undertook to investigate aspects of Kawaiisu
grammatical structure. members of which form a dialect chain from Chemehuevi in the west
Then, in the 1980s, Booth, Munro, and I decided to share our resources through Southem Paiute to Ute in the east' There are extensive primary
and publish a combined Kawaiisu dictionary and grammar and to include a descriptions of the other Southem Numic languages' Southem Paiute is well
few native texts. Munro accepted the responsibility of bringing our rnaterials known from Sapir's classic grammar' dictionary, and texts (1930-1931) and
together and, in a literal sense, is the author of this book, whose origins may other works, as well as from more recent work by Bunte (1979)'
be traced back to beginnings more than five decades ago. chemehuevi is the subject of a description by Press (1978) and articles by
Munro (1978, 1979), and there are many linguistic notes and a long
Belmont, Massachusetts vocabulary in Laird (1976). Ute has been described in a dictionary and
1987
xll Gcncrallffioi Gcwral laaad ilhnr xut
grammar by Oiv6n et al, (1979, 1980) and in other work by Goss (c.8., Mrny pcoplc have helped us to compile this book' which should be
1966). Chemehucvi and Southem Pniute are generally recognized as dialcct$, viewed as n lribute to the Kawaiisu speakers who have taught us, especially
and Ute appears to bc not too dil'lbrent from them: for instance, Lamb Emma Williams and Lida Girado' Our colleagues and friends Alice
(1958) divides Southem Numic into just two languages, Kawaiisu and "Ute". Anderton, William Bright, Kenneth Hale, Charles Hockett' Roderick Jacobs'
Kawaiisu is then clearly the most divergent member of the Southem Numic Sheldon Klein, Ronald Langacker, Johanna Nichols, Susan Steele' and Wick
group in all aspects of linguistic structure. Some notes contrasting Kawaiisu Miller provided invaluable comments and other help at different stages of
with the other Southem Numic languages, especially Southem Paiute, appear our research. Our work has been supported at different times and in various
in $6 of the Grammar. To aid future researchers on Southem Numic, the ways by ttre Department of Anthropology of Yale University' the American
Dictionary contains references to cognates (and possible cognates) in Sapir's Philosophical Society, the Department of Linguistics of the University of
Southem Paiute grammar and dictionary. Califomia, San Diego, and the Academic Senate of the University of
Maurice Zigmond describes the history of his work on Kawaiisu in the Califomia, Los Angeles.
Foreword to this volume. After his interest in the language was rekindled in We hope that you find this book a useful guide to a fascinating language'
the early 1970s, he and Wick Miller of the University of Utah received a
grant from the American Philosophical Society to support a linguistic University of Califomia, Los Angeles
1990
investigation of the language. Miller, whose main interest in the language
was comparative, recorded a considerable amount of data (n.d.) and
encouraged Zigmond's continued research. I first heard the language in
1974, when I visited Zigmond in the field and met his three modem
consultants, the late Bertha Goings, the late Lida Girado, and Andy Greene.
A few months later, Curtis Booth joined me on another trip and thereafter
began his own linguistic fieldwork with Mrs. Girado and Mr. Greene. He
and Zigmond decided to collaborate on a dictionary, but the project was
dropped when Booth left Califomia. More than six years ago I offered to
edit the dictionary for publication, adding words from my own notes to those
collected by Zigmond and Booth, and to prepare a granrmar from Booth's
notes for a grammatical sketch and my own data.
This book, then, has three main sections, Grammar, Texts, and
Dictionary, each of which is relatively self-contained, with its own preface.
A unified set of abbreviations is used throughout the book (with additional
abbreviations used in the Dictionary), and all references are listed at the end.
Abbreviations
The meaning and use of the following grammatical abbreviations are
described in the Grammar:
ABS absolutive HAB habitual
ACt accusative IMPF imperfective
ADJ adjective INSTR instrumental
BEN benefactive INT intentive
CAUS causative IRR irealis
CLT clitic LOC locative
CMP complementizer MOM momentaneous
DEF definite MOT motion
DIM diminutive NEG negative
DL dual NEG IMP negative imperative
DS different subject NMR nominalizer
DUB dubitative OBJ object
DUR durative PASS passive
EMPH emphatic PERF perfective
EX exisential PF perfectiveparticiple
EXHRT exhortative PL plural
FUT IMP future imperative POSSD possessed
FS final suffix POT potential
f,Yl AhbrevlatW
KAWAIISU CRAMMAR
PREF pnlix SG singular
QUOT quotative SS same subject
Contents
R
rcalized SUBJ subject
RCPR reciprocal UNR unrealized
RDP reduplicated form V verb
REFL reflexive WH interrogative,WH-marker
RSLTV resultative
Preface (by Pamela Munro) 3
A smaller list of abbreviations is used in addition to those above in the
Dictionary entries:
$1. Phonology 5
$1.1 Phonemes and orthograPhY, 5
an. animate
$1.2 Major phonological and morphophonological processes, 7
arch. archaic (heard in 1930s recordings; not used today)
circ. circumlocution (avoidance tenn)
l4
$2. Simple Sentences: An Overview
dem. demonstrative
$2.1 Word order, 14
e.g. for example
$2.2 Pronouns, 15
excl. exclusive
$2.3 Particles and non-pronominal clitics, 17
inan, inanimate
$2.4 'Be', 'have', and 'do', 22
incl. inclusive
$2.5 Nondistinct argument pheno mena,26
instr. instrumental
3l
$2.6 Questions,
intr. intransitive
$2.7 Imperatives, 34
K Kawaiisu form from Klein (1959)
mod. modem (occasionally used in contrast with "archaic")
$3. Nouns and Noun Phrase Structure 39
m.s. man speaking (kinship term with male possessor)
$3.1 Basic inllectional elements, 39
sp. species (pl. spp.)
$3.2 Pronouns and demonstratives, 44
SP Southem Paiute
$3.3 Possessive constructions, 50
ssp. subspecies
var. variation
w.s. woman speaking (kinship term with female possessor)
2 Kavnlltu
$3.4 Postpositions,54
Preface
$3.5 Nominal adjectives, 60
$3.6 Quantifiers,64
Pamela Munro
$3.7 Nominal derivational morphology, 67
$3.8 Compound nouns, 71
$4. Velb Structure 74
$4.1 Veft stems,74
$4.2 Main-clause verbs, 8L
Kawaiisu is a typical language of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan
$4.3 Valence-changing morphology, 91
language family, although many of its phonological characteristics are unusual
$4.4 Modal suffixes,94
for a member of the Southem Numic subgroup ($6.1).
$4.5 Aspectual and realis marking, 95
Typologically, Kawaiisu is a language with highly complex word
$4.6 Adve6ial suffixes, 99
structure (see especially $4, which describes verbal derivation and inflection)
exhibiting rclatively free word order of an SOV-dominant type ($2,1). It is a
$5. Complex Sentences 103
morphologically accusative language, as shown by pattems of case marking
$5.1 Coordination, 103
($3.1.3) and some types of verb agreement (e.g. $4.2.2), although it shares the
$5.2 Complement clauses, 105
common Northem Uto-Aztecan feature of expressing imperative objects in the
$5.3 Simple negative sentences, 11 I
nominative case ($2.7.1). The language is postpositional ($3.4), with
$5.4 Switch-reference marking, I 17
pronominal agreement of all types usually expressed with clitic suffixes
$5.5 Relative clauses, 122
($3.2-53.3, $4,2), often more than one per word ($4.2.2). Kawaiisu has both
$5.6 Embedded questions, 127
true complementation and switch-reference ($5.2, S5.4), with constructions of
$5.7 Complex negation, 129
both types used in rclativization ($5.5). Perhaps the most unusual syntactic
$5.8 Nominalization and complementation in Kawaiisu, 136
feature of this language is its highly marked negative constructions: negated
main-clauses are strikingly similar to complement clauses ($5.3), while
$6, Comparative and Typological Notes to the Grammar 139
negative subordinate clauses use a unique, apparently derivational morphology
($5.7).
This is a reference grammar, consisting of five descriptive chapters
($l-5) with background notes, discussion, and comparative references ($6). It
4 Kaytzllttt
was bascd upon a sketch pr€parrd by Curtis Booth, reorganized, rcviscd, and
extended with additions from my own field data. Both Booth and I did most of
$1. Phonology
our fieldwork with tlrc late Lida Girado of Tehachapi, to whom we ov/e a grcat
debt.
$l presents the phonology of Kawaiisu and the orthography we use
throughout this book. $2 is an overview of the structure of Kawaiisu simple
sentences, while $3 and $4 cover noun phrase and verb structure in more
detail. 55 describes complex sentences of various types. Since all of tlrcse topics
1.1 Phonemes and orthography
$
interact, we have given frequent cross-references; in addition, the Dictionary
may be used as an index to the Grammar, since references to the Grammar are 1.1.1. The Kawaiisu phonemic inventory includes the following sounds:
$
given under the listings of grammatical morphemes in its Kawaiisu-English
section. $6 includes comparative and typological notes placing our
Vowels
observations on Kawaiisu grarnmar within the Southem Numic tradition and
p t kkw? i * u
showing some of their relevance for general linguists.
b d e o
Booth's original writings, on which this grammar was based, reflected the
s s h a
framework of an early version of R. W. Langacker's theory of Space z L P gw hw
Grammar (later Cognitive Grammar), and much of our organization and c c
terminology still shows this influence, although in some areas more m n
0
mainstream linguistic terminology has been adopted. Many of our glosses, r
however, reflect standard Uto-Aztecanist usage, and we include discussion of I
cases where this terminology may be confusing for non-specialists. w v
The symbols above (also used in our Texts and Dictionary) have standard
phonetic values, except for g, which reprcsents the voiced velar fricative [y]
(except in the cluster 0g [gg], which occurs only in loans), and v, which may
be heard eitheras the voiced labiodental fricative [v] or as the voiced bilabial
fricative [F]. The symbol c is the affricate [ts], r is the flap [f], and i is high,
back, unrounded [u]. The symbols kw, gw, and hw represent unit phonemes,
[kw], [yw], and [hw]. Vowels can occur both short and long, and long vowels
are written double. Short a is sometimes heard as [a], even under stress.