LINGUIST List 18.238

Tue Jan 23 2007

Books: Typology: Liedtke

Editor for this issue: Hannah Morales <hannahlinguistlist.org>

Directory         1.    Ulrich Lueders, The Relationship of Wintuan to Plateau Penutian: Liedtke
Message 1: The Relationship of Wintuan to Plateau Penutian: Liedtke
Date: 19-Jan-2007
From: Ulrich Lueders <lincom.europat-online.de>
Subject: The Relationship of Wintuan to Plateau Penutian: Liedtke


Title: The Relationship of Wintuan to Plateau Penutian Series Title: Lincom Studies in Native American Linguistics 55 Published: 2007 Publisher: Lincom GmbH
                http://www.lincom.eu

Author: Stefan Liedtke Paperback: ISBN: 9783895863578 Pages: 95 Price: Europe EURO 42.00
Abstract:

This is the first attempt at a comprehensive comparison of Wintuan andPlateau Penutian, two subgroups which are regarded as members of thehypothetical Penutian language family.

The Winutan language group of Northern California includes as its mostwell-known representatives Wintu, Nomlaki (which are top of the list ofendangered languages) and Patwin (which must be regarded as extinct). Thisgroup is demonstrated by the author as having close connections to the"Plateau Penutian" group. The Plateau group includes, as highly independentmembers, the Klamath-Modoc language, which is also endangered (and isspoken in south central Oregon and a smaller part of northeasternCalifornia), the Sahaptian group (including Nez Perce and Sahaptin), withslightly better chances of survival, spoken in Oregon, Washington andIdaho, as well as the now extinct Molala in north central Oregon. In thispaper, an attempt is made at throwing some light on the many ramificationsof Penutian, one of the most interesting language families in NorthAmerica, whose members differ strongly from each other and are spread fromsoutheastern Alaska to Southern California.

The author goes far beyond the indications provided by other scholars(e.g. the similarities noticed by DeLancey (1987) between the pronouns ofWintu and Klamath), by presenting morphological elements and structuralsimilarities as well as over 130 comparison sets from all areas of thelexicon that are common to Wintuan, Klamath and Sahaptian. Thus, for thefirst time the Sahaptian languages of the Plateau group are also taken intoaccount.

For some time it has been clear that the Penutian languages of California(Wintuan, Maiduan, Yokuts, Miwok-Costanoan), which used to be subsumedunder the heading of "California Penutian", are indeed related, but do notform a Penutian subbranch of their own that developed in California.Instead, we are dealing with independent members of Penutian, the speakersof which migrated long ago in successive waves from regions further to theNorth into their current habitats. The relationships between theCalifornian languages, which undoubtedly exist, are, however, difficult toevaluate, as due to the geographical proximity and the manifold culturalconnections between the peoples of California it is often unclear whetherwe are dealing with loans or inherited material. Instead, it appears thatall the Penutian languages of California exhibit deep connections withlanguages to the north (Oregon, Washington and elsewhere). This largercontext, where borrowing borrowing can be ruled out, is also repeatedlyreferred to here.

The mere fact that the four Californian groups (Wintuan, Maiduan,Miwok-Costanoan, Yokuts) represent four different migrations from the Northinto California does not give any indication as to their relationship witheach other: they could still form a subgroup (or be part of a largersubgroup) that did not originate and differentiate in California, butsomewhere outside California.

Wintuan is very independent, and no claim is made that it is closer toPlateau than to anything else, nor that there is a special subgroup withinPenutian consisting of Wintuan and the Plateau languages.

Linguistic Field(s): Typology Language Family(ies): Plateau Penutian                             Wintuan
Written In: English (eng )

See this book announcement on our website: http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=23497


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