Maidu , also Northeastern Maidu or Mountain Maidu, is an extinct
Maiduan language of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
, United States. It was spoken by the
Maidu
The Maidu are a Native American people of northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada, in the watershed area of the Feather and American rivers. They also reside in Humbug Valley. In Maiduan languages, ''Maidu'' means "man." ...
peoples who traditionally inhabit the mountains east and south of
Lassen Peak in the
American River
, name_etymology =
, image = American River CA.jpg
, image_size = 300
, image_caption = The American River at Folsom
, map = Americanrivermap.png
, map_size = 300
, map_caption ...
and
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 just over . The main stem Feather R ...
basins. These river regions include such valleys in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains of California as: Indian Valley, American Valley,
Butte Valley, and Big Meadows. ''Maidu'' may also refer to the related
Konkow and
Nisenan
The Nisenan are a group of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans and an Indigenous people of California from the Yuba River and American River watersheds in Northern California and the California Central Valley. The Nisenan peopl ...
languages.
History
The pre-contact
Maidu
The Maidu are a Native American people of northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada, in the watershed area of the Feather and American rivers. They also reside in Humbug Valley. In Maiduan languages, ''Maidu'' means "man." ...
peoples lived in a hunting and gathering society in parts of central
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
. These peoples lived in an area around what are now called
Mount Lassen,
Honey Lake,
Sacramento
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
, and
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake ...
. They spoke closely related languages, including the living Maidu, Konkow and Nisenan languages, along with the
Chico language and other extinct variations.
Revitalization efforts
Farrell Cunningham, one of the youngest fluent Yamani Maidu speakers, taught "Mountain Maidu language classes in Greenville, Susanville, Nevada City and Auburn", and was active with the Maidu Theater in
Nevada City, until his death on August 11, 2013, at age 37.
Active language revitalization efforts have been underway since 2004. As of 2011, classes in Maidu were available in
Nevada County, California
Nevada County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California, in the Sierra Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 102,241. The county seat is Nevada City. Nevada County comprises the Truckee-Grass Valley, CA Micropolit ...
.
The Maiduan language family is considered to belong to the
Penutian language group, along with such families as
Miwok
The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok languages in the Utian family. The word ...
,
Wintun,
Yokuts
The Yokuts (previously known as MariposasPowell, 1891:90–91.) are an ethnic group of Native Americans native to central California. Before European contact, the Yokuts consisted of up to 60 tribes speaking several related languages. ''Yokut ...
, and
Ohlone
The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the ...
.
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. Shipley's orthography is listed in brackets when it differs from the IPA transcription.
In the 1950s and 1960s, older speakers retained
palatal stops /c, c'/ where younger speakers used an innovative
palatal affricate
Palatals are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called retroflex.
Characteristic ...
ʃ ʃʼ
The palato-alveolar ejective fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .
Features
Features of the palato-alveolar ejective fricative: ...
perhaps under influence 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, but do not contrast with simple voiced stops.
Before the velar plosives /k, k'/, /m/ is pronounced as
‹
Vowels
There are six phonemic vowels in Maidu. Once again, the chart comes from the orthographic system employed by Shipley.
These six vowels are characterized by several different
allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...
s depending on the phonetic environments in which they occur (initial/noninitial, stressed/unstressed, and open/closed syllables). The base
phone
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into ele ...
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
ªand
Š Meanwhile, (e) and (o) have more change than (i) and (u) but less than (a) and (y).
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word ...
is nonphonemic, and changes according to the vowel's place within the word. The vowels can exhibit vowel lengths of less than a
mora, 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
syllables 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. The syllables in Maidu display
pitch 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, but these do 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
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would n ...
or a
demonstrative, as in:
* ' - my mother
* ' - your mother
* ' - (that) mother
The second class of nouns consists of free
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone ar ...
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 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 ' '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
While English distinguishes between singular and plural, Maidu distinguishes singular,
dual
Dual or Duals may refer to:
Paired/two things
* Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another
** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality
*** see more cases in :Duality theories
* Dual (grammatical ...
, and
plural
The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...
. These inflections are most often 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
allomorph
In linguistics, an allomorph is a variant phonetic form of a morpheme, or, a unit of meaning that varies in sound and spelling without changing the meaning. The term ''allomorph'' describes the realization of phonological variations for a specif ...
s. Along with these, there is a second plural morpheme /t'yt'y/ which indicates both plurality and a
diminutive sense.
Verbs
Maidu verbs consist of the
verbal theme 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' and /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 ', 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 ' 'I'm going to hit them (one after 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 ' '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 '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/, '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 lose 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 ' '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 ' 'How crazily he seems to talk'
Verb inflection
The verb is completed by the addition of five
inflectional suffixes. These suffixes mark the verb for expression of
tense,
aspect, 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
Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to:
Philosophy
*''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing
**Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective cons ...
: The nominative case is marked either by the addition of an /m/ such as 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
A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...
: The possessive case is marked by /Ik'/ or /Ik'i/, as in '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 characteristic 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: The comitative is marked by /Ik'an/ or /k'an/ and means 'along with'. '' 'along with Coyote'
#
Instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instr ...
: 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. ' 'my grandfather used to play on a flute' or ' '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
In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. ...
: The ablative case is marked by /nan/ and is the marker for movement away from something or the origin of an object. ' '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. ' 'Then, draining out all of the water along this river and damming up the river, they worked the gold.'
Word order
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, Hesitation 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.
See also
*
Maidu
The Maidu are a Native American people of northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada, in the watershed area of the Feather and American rivers. They also reside in Humbug Valley. In Maiduan languages, ''Maidu'' means "man." ...
*
Maiduan languages
References
Bibliography
*Anderson, Karen Lahaie. (2014) ''Mountain Maidu Grammar'', .
*
Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. .
* Heizer, Robert F. (1966). ''Languages, territories, and names of California Indian tribes''.
*
Mithun, Marianne
Marianne Mithun (born 1946) is an American linguist specializing in American Indian languages and language typology. She is professor of linguistics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she has held an academic position since 19 ...
. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); .
*
Shipley, William F. (1964). ''Maidu Grammar''. Berkeley: University of California Press.
External links
Maidu languageoverview at the
Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
The Survey of California and Other Indian Languages (originally the Survey of California Indian Languages) at the University of California at Berkeley documents, catalogs, and archives the indigenous languages of the Americas. The survey also hosts ...
Maidu Indian Language (Maidun, Nisenan, Konkow)OLAC resources in and about the Northeast Maidu languageMaidu California Language Archive
Maidu, An Illustrative SketchMaidu basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical DatabaseThe people who want their language to disappear
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maidu Language
Maidu
Maiduan languages
Indigenous languages of California
Endangered Maiduan languages
Native American language revitalization