Purisimeño language

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Wikipedia

Purisimeño
Native toCalifornia, United States
RegionLompoc
Extinctearly 1900s
Chumashan
  • Southern
    • Central
      • Purisimeño
Language codes
ISO 639-3puy
Glottologpuri1259
  Purisimeño
Purisimeño is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.[1]

Purisimeño was one of the Chumashan languages traditionally spoken along the coastal areas of Southern California near Lompoc. It was also spoken at the La Purisima Mission.[2]

A vocabulary of "La Purrissima or Kagimuswas (Purismeno Chumash)" was collected by Henry Wetherbee Henshaw in 1884.[3] John P. Harrington also documented the language, and wrote a sketch of the grammar.[4]

Dr. Timothy Henry of the Western Institute for Endangered Language Documentation (WIELD) created a dictionary of the language.[5]

Phonology

Consonants[6]
Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced
Plosive Plain p t k q ʔ
Aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ qʰ
Ejective pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ
Fricative Plain s ʃ χ ħ h
Aspirated sʰ ʃʰ
Ejective sʼ ʃʼ
Affricate Plain ts ʧ
Aspirated tsʰ ʧʰ
Ejective tsʼ ʧʼ
Approximant Plain w ɬ l j
Glottalized ˀw ˀl ˀj
Nasal Plain m n
Glottalized ˀm ˀn
Vowels[6]
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e ǝ o
Open a

The exact backness of /a/ is difficult to determine. It was either a central or back vowel.[6]

Grammar

Nouns

Person/number prefixes[6]
1st 2nd 3rd
singular k- p- s-
dual k(i)š- p(i)š- šiš-
plural ki(y)- pi(y)- si(y)-
unspecified alam

Articles

Like many Chumashan languages, Purisimeño contains articles which can and possibly must be used in combination with nouns. Their exact function is unclear but some inferences can be gained. The first article, the prefix ’a- seemingly was used a default in citation form and can tentatively be interpreted as a marker of indefiniteness or unidentifiability, while the second article, the prefix ka- can in turn be interpreted as a marker of definiteness and/or identifiability. Though, due to a lack of surviving sources on the language it is difficult to say this with certainty.[6]

Associative case

The associative case in Purisimeño is marked by the prefixes itš-, is-, iš-, or its̓-; and is used with nouns that usually have a strong association with a particular person such as the words for friend (itšantǝk), carrying net (ištiwa’a), pinkie (išwatimitš’i), and thumb (išwatinox̂).[6]

Tense

Purisimeño had three tense markers for future, immediate future, and past tensek with the past tense -waš being attested in nouns which had some relation to the past but where somehow still relevant in the present such as footprint (’e’ewaš).[6]

Orthography

Purisimeño alphabet[7]
’aeǝh ikl ~ łl̓m m̓nn̓op pʰp̓qqʰq̓ s
sʰs̓ššʰ š̓ttʰt̓ts tsʰts̓tštšʰtš̓ uww̓x ~ x̂x̓ yy̓

References

  1. ↑ Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (Report) (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. p. 11.
  2. ↑ "Purisimeño". Survey of California and Other Indian Languages. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
  3. ↑ Henshaw, Henry Wetherbee. "Santa Barbara (Barbareno Chumash) and La Purrissima or Kagimuswas (Purismeno Chumash) vocabularies September 18, 1884". Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  4. ↑ "Papers of John P. Harrington, Part 3, Southern California Basin". California Language Archive. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  5. ↑ "Purisimeño Project".
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Henry-Rodriguez, Timothy Paul. A Grammar of Purisimeño. pp. 7–8, 18–20.
  7. ↑ Henry-Rodriguez, Timothy Paul; Harrington, John Peabody (2021). Purisimeño-English, English-Purisimeño lexicon. p. v-vi. hdl:10125/80336.