Zuni language

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Zuni
Shiwi'ma
Spoken in: U.S. 
Region: Western New Mexico
Total speakers: 9,651
Language family: language isolate
 Zuni
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: zun
ISO 639-3: zun 
Pre-European contact distribution of Zuni
Pre-European contact distribution of Zuni

Zuni (also Zuñi) is a language of the Zuni people, indigenous to western New Mexico and eastern Arizona in the United States. It is spoken by around 9,500 people worldwide, especially in the vicinity of Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico and much smaller numbers in parts of Arizona.

Unlike most indigenous languages in the US, Zuni is still spoken by a significant number of children and, thus, is comparatively less threatened with language endangerment. Edmund Ladd reported in 1994 that Zuni is still the main language of communication in the pueblo and is used in the home (Newman 1996).

Within the language, the language itself is called Shiwi'ma (shiwi "Zuni" + -'ma "vernacular", trans. as "Zuni way") and its speakers are collectively Aashiwi ('aa(w)- "plural" + shiwi "Zuni").

Contents

[edit] Genealogical classification

Zuni is considered a language isolate (i.e., unrelated to any other language). A number of possible relationships to other languages have been proposed by various researchers although none of these have gained general acceptance. The main hypothetical proposals have been connections with Penutian (and Penutioid and Macro-Penutian), Tanoan, and Hokan phylums and also the Keresan family.

The most clearly articulated hypothesis is Newman's (1964) connection to Penutian, but even this was considered by Newman (according to Michael Silverstein) to be a tongue-in-cheek work due to the inherent problematic nature of the methodology used in Penutian studies (Goddard 1996). Needless to say, Newman's cognate sets suffered from the common problems, such as comparing commonly borrowed forms (e.g. "tobacco"), forms with large semantic differences (e.g. "bad" and "garbage", "horse" and "hoof"), nursery forms, and onomatopoetic forms (Campbell 1997). Zuni was also included under Morris Swadesh's Penutioid proposal and Joseph Greenberg's very inclusive Penutian sub-grouping — both without convincing arguments (Campbell 1997).

Zuni was included with reservations under Aztec-Tanoan under Edward Sapir's heuristic 1929 classification (without supporting evidence). Later discussions of the Aztec-Tanoan hypothesis usually excluded Zuni (Foster 1996).

Karl-Heinz Gursky published problematic unconvincing evidence for a Keresan-Zuni grouping. J. P. Harrington wrote one unpublished paper with the title "Zuñi Discovered to be Hokan" (Campbell 1997). A speculative work Davis (2004) offers a controversial comparative of cognates (without any proposed sound correspondences) between Zuni and Japanese, another language isolate.

Since Zuni is a member of a Pueblo Sprachbund, it shares a number of features with Hopi, Keresan, and Tanoan (and to a lesser extent Navajo) that are probably due to language contact. The development of ejective consonants in Zuni may be due to contact with Keresan and Tanoan languages which have complete series of ejectives. Likewise, aspirated consonants may have diffused into Zuni. Some Tanoan languages have i-e-a-o-u vowel systems, which may have resulted from contact with Zuni. Other shared traits include: final devoicing of vowels and sonorant consonants, dual number, ceremonial vocabulary, and the presence of a labialized velar kw (Campbell 1997).

[edit] Phonology

Discussions of Zuni phonology are in Michaels (1971), Newman (1965, 1967, 1996), Shaul (1982), Tedlock (1969), Walker (1966, 1972), and Yumitani (1987).

[edit] Consonants

The 16 consonants of Zuni (with orthographic symbols in bold italics when different from the IPA phonetic symbol):

Bilabial Dental/Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
central lateral plain labial
Plosive plain /p/ /t/ (/kʲ/) /k/ /kʷ/   kw /ʔ/ ʼ
ejective (/kʼ/) (/kʼʷ/)
Affricate plain /ts/ /tʃ/   ch
ejective (/tsʼ/) (/tʃʼ/)
Fricative /s/ /ɬ/   lh /ʃ/   sh /h/
Nasal /m/ /n/
Approximant /l/ /j/   y /w/
  • /t/ is dental; /ts, s, n/ are alveolar; /l/ is apical.
  • /ts, tʃ, k, kʷ/ are phonetically aspirated, [tsʰ, tʃʰ, kʰ, kʷʰ], while /p, t, ʔ/ are unaspirated.
  • A sequence of a stop or affricate and a glottal stop /ʔ/ is phonetically realized as an ejective. This pronunciation occurs within words and across word boundaries: /ʔaːtʃ ʔuluka/ "they two put it in" as [ʔaːtʃʼulucʰæ]. Some analyses have proposed that the sequences /tsʔ, tʃʔ, kʔ, kʷʔ/ be considered single ejective consonant phonemes /tsʼ, tʃʼ, kʼ, kʼʷ/ based on their phonotactic properties.[1]
  • /k/ and /kʷ/ contrast only before /i, e, a/; before /u, o/ the contrast is neutralized to /k/. This neutralization of contrast also applies to the sequences /kʔ, kʷʔ/.
  • /k, kʷ/ are palatal [c, cʷ] before the vowels /i, e, a/, but are velar elsewhere. Since /k/ is realized as an ejective before a glottal stop, the sequences /kʔi, kʔe, kʔa/ are phonetically [cʼi, cʼɛ, cʼæ].
  • In a sequence of a stop or affricate plus another consonant (except /ʔ/), the stop/affricate is unreleased, e.g. /moktʃinne/ "elbow" is phonetically [mɔk˺tʃʰinːɛ] (and not [mɔkʰtʃʰinːɛ]).
  • All Zuni consonants occur with contrastive duration: short or long. In Newman's analysis, the phonetically long consonants are geminates (that is, a sequence of two identical consonants). Walker (1972) and Granberry (1967) analyze length /ː/ as a separate phoneme. Geminate affricates are realized with a long closure period and a fricative release, e.g. /tsts/ as [tːs], /tʃtʃ/ as [tːʃ].
  • /h/ is phonetically a voiceless vowel [h], except when following a consonant in which case it is a velar fricative [x]: /ʔahha/ "pick it up!" is phonetically [ʔahxa].
  • The sonorants /m, n, l, w, j/ (as well as vowels, see below) are optionally devoiced when followed by /h, ʔ/. The devoicing occurs within words and across word boundaries. This is especially common when also preceded by a voiceless consonant (in addition to the following /h, ʔ/): /lesn hol/ "thus perhaps" pronounced as [lɛsn̥hɔl].
  • /n/ is optionally realized as a phonetic velar [ŋ] before /k, kʷ/.
  • There is a marginal contrast between palatal [c] and velar [k] before the low vowel /a/. The usual pronunciation of /k/ before /a/ is palatal [c]. However, in some words — all of which are probably loanwords — a velar [k] occurs before /a/ (notably in the very common word, /melika/ "non-Mormon Anglo-American", which is phonetically [mɛlikʰa] and not [mɛlicʰæ]). This has led to an analysis of Zuni having two dorsal phonemes, /kʲ/ and /k/, by some linguists. A discussion of the disagreement between analyses and range of social variation of certains forms are discussed in Tedlock (1969).[2]

[edit] Vowels

Front back
High i u
Mid e o
Low a
  • High /i, u/ are typically [i, u], but lowered variants [ɪ, ʊ] may be heard in unstressed syllables.
  • Mid /e, o/ are typically [ɛ, ɔ], but in unstressed syllables raised variants occur before glides with matching backness: [e] before /j/, [o] before /w/.
  • Low central /a/, unlike the other vowels, is not reported to have allophonic variation by Newman. However, Walker (1972) reports its realization as fronted [æ] when it follows /k/ (phonetically: [c]).
  • All vowels occur with contrastive duration: short or long. In Newman's analysis, the phonetically long vowels are analyzed as distinct phonemes. Walker (1972) analyzes length /ː/ as a separate phoneme.
  • Long /eː, oː/ are typically [ɛː, ɔː], but close variants [eː, oː] can occur in fast speech.
  • The other long vowels do not have variants with differing vowel quality.
  • Short vowels are optionally voiceless [i̥, ɛ̥, ḁ, ɔ̥, u̥] when at the end of an utterance, e.g. the word /ʔaɬka/ in /ʔitʃunan si ʔaɬka/ "after lying down then he slept" may be pronounced either [ʔaɬcʰæ̥] or [ʔaɬcʰæ]. Additionally, a short vowel or a sequence of a short vowel and glottal stop that occurs at the end of a word with more than one syllable is deleted when followed by a word that starts with /h, ʔ/ (see also the devoicing of sonorant consonants above), e.g. /ʔaːtʃi hinina/ "they two are the same" as [ʔaːtʃhinina] (cf. /ʔaːtʃi jeːlahka/ "the two of them ran" where the final /i/ of /ʔaːtʃi/ is not deleted), and /ʔasselaʔ ʔelaje/ "they two are the same" as [ʔasːɛlʔɛlajɛ] (cf. /ʔasselaʔ powaje/ "the two of them ran" where the final /aʔ/ of /ʔasselaʔ/ is not deleted).

[edit] Syllable and phonotactics

Zuni syllables have the following specification:

C1(C2)V(ː)(C3)(C4)

That is, all syllables must start with a consonant in the syllable onset. The onset may optionally have two consonants. The syllable coda is optional and may consist of a single consonant or two consonants. There are restrictions on the combinations with long vowels, which are listed below.

Onset. When the onset is a single consonant (i.e., CV(ː), CV(ː)C, or CV(ː)CC), C1 may be any consonant. When the onset is a two consonant cluster (i.e., CCV(ː), CCV(ː)C, or CCV(ː)CC), C1 may only be /ts, tʃ, k, kʷ/, and C2 may only be /ʔ/. These onset clusters can occur word-initially.

Nucleus. Any vowel of either length may be the syllable nucleus when open (i.e., has no coda: CV(ː) or CCV(ː)) or with a single consonant coda (i.e., CV(ː)C or CCV(ː)C). When the coda consists of two consonant cluster, the nucleus may be any short vowel; however, long vowels only occur with coda consisting of /tsʔ, tʃʔ, kʔ, kʷʔ/.[3]

Coda. A single coda C3 may be any consonant. When the coda is a two consonant cluster (i.e., CV(ː)CC or CCV(ː)CC), any combination of consonants may occur with the following exception: if C3 is /ts, tʃ, kʷ/, then C4 can only be either /ʔ/ or an identical consonant (C3 = C4).

Non-tautosyllabic combinations. Inside words, a short vowel plus a two consonant coda (i.e., CVCC or CCVCC) may only be followed by a syllable with a /ʔ/ onset. Likewise, a long vowel plus a single consonant coda (i.e., CVːC or CCVːC) may only be followed by a /ʔ/ onset. An open syllable (i.e., CV(ː) or CCV(ː)) and a short vowel plus a single consonant coda (i.e., CVC or CCVC) may be followed by a syllable with any possible onset.

[edit] Prosody


At the word level, the first syllable of lexical words receive stress. Although the acoustic correlates of stress are not fully described in Newman's grammar, at least vowel length is a significant correlate: short vowels are lengthened under syllable-initial stress. Stressed long vowels do not appear to have perceptible variation in duration.

Stress at the phrase level was not fully studied by Newman, and, therefore, its details are not well-known. Pronouns and certain particles consisting of a single syllable are unstressed when inside clauses, but are stressed at the beginning of phrases.

[edit] Morphosyntax

Word order is Zuni is fairly free with a tendency toward SOV. There is no case-marking on nouns. Verbs are complex, compared to nouns, with loose incorporation. Like other languages in the Southwest, Zuni employs switch-reference.

Newman (1965, 1996) classifies Zuni words according to their structural morphological properties (namely the presence and type of inflectional suffixes) and not according to their associated syntactic frames. His terms, noun and substantive, are, therefore, not synonymous.

[edit] Nouns


[edit] Pronouns

Zuni uses overt pronouns for first, second and third person referents. These pronouns distinguish three numbers (singular, dual and plural) and three cases (subject, object and possessive). In addition, some subject and possessive pronouns have different forms depending on whether they appear utterance-medially or utterance-finally (object pronouns do not occur utterance-medially). All the pronoun forms are shown in the following table:

Subject Object Possessive
medial final         medial final
1sg. ho' hoo'o hom hom homma
2sg. to' too'o tom tom tomma
3sg. -- -- 'an 'an 'aani
1du. hon ho'no ho'na' ho'na' ho'na'
2du. ton to'no to'na' to'na' to'na'
3du. 'aachi 'aachi 'aachiya' 'aachiya' 'aachiya'
1pl. hon ho'no ho'na' ho'n'aawan ho'n'aawan
2pl. ton to'no to'na' to'n'aawan to'n'aawan
3pl. -- -- 'aawan 'aawan 'aawan

Note the syncretism between dual and plural non-possessive forms in the first and second persons. Utterances with these pronouns are typically disambiguated by the fact that plural pronouns agree with plural-marked verb forms.

[edit] Verbs


[edit] Enclitics


[edit] Particles


[edit] Sociolinguistic aspects


  • storytelling (telapnaawe) - Tedlock (1972)
  • ceremonial speech - Newman (1955)
  • slang - Newman (1955)

Names – Teknonymy. Zuni adults are often known after the relationship between that adult and a child. For example, a person might be called "father of so-and-so", etc. This circumlocution is used to avoid using adult names, which have religious meanings and are very personal (Kroeber 1917).

[edit] Orthography

A writing system based on the Roman alphabet was developed for Zuni by linguist Stanley Newman (Newman 1954). This practical orthography essentially followed Americanist phonetic notation with the substitution of some uncommon letters with other letters or digraphs (two letter combinations). A further revised orthography is used in Dennis Tedlock's transcriptions of oral narratives.

A comparison of the systems is in the table below.

Tedlock Newman Americanist IPA
ʼ / ʔ /ʔ/
ʼʼ // ʔʔ /ʔʔ/
a a a /a/
aa a: /aː/
ch ch č /ʧ/
cch chch čč /ʧʧ/
e e e /e/
ee e: /eː/
i i i /i/
ii i: /iː/
h j h /h/
hh jj hh /hh/
k k k /k/
kk kk kk /kk/
kw q /kʷ/
kkw qq kʷkʷ /kʷkʷ/
l l l /l/
ll ll ll /ll/
lh lh ł /ɬ/
llh lhlh łł /ɬɬ/
m m m /m/
Tedlock Newman Americanist IPA
mm mm mm /mm/
n n n /n/
nn nn nn /nn/
o o o /o/
oo o: /oː/
p p p /p/
pp pp pp /pp/
s s s /s/
ss ss ss /ss/
sh sh š /ʃ/
ssh shsh šš /ʃʃ/
t t t /t/
tt tt tt /tt/
ts z c /ʦ/
tts zz cc /ʦʦ/
u u u /u/
uu u: /uː/
w w w /w/
ww ww ww /ww/
y y y /j/
yy yy yy /jj/

In Newman's orthography (used in his dictionary, Newman 1958), the symbols, ch, j, lh, q, sh, z, /, : replaced Americanist č, h, ł, kw, š, c, ʔ, and · (used in Newman's grammar, Newman 1965).

Tedlock's orthography uses ʼ instead of Newman's / except at the beginning of words where it is not written. Additionally, in Tedlock's system, long vowels are written doubled instead with a length mark : as in Newman's system (e.g. aa instead of a:) and h and kw are used instead of j and q. Finally, Tedlock writes the following long consonants — cch, llh, ssh, tts — with a doubled initial letter instead of Newman's doubling of the digraphs — chch, lhlh, shsh — and kkw and tts are used instead of Newman's qq and zz.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ To be written.... See: Davis (1966), Newman (1965, 1967), Walker (1966, 1972).
  2. ^ The other articles are Davis (1966), Newman (1967), Michaels (1971), Walker (1966, 1972).
  3. ^ Newman (1965) reports only /kʔ/ after long vowels, but further fieldwork by Walker (1966) also finds /tsʔ, tʃʔ, kʷʔ/.

[edit] References

  • Bunzel, Ruth L. (1932a). Zuñi origin myths. In 47th annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology for the years 1929-1930 (pp. 545-609). Washington.
  • Bunzel, Ruth L. (1932b). Zuñi ritual poetry. In 47th annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology for the years 1929-1930 (pp. 611-835). Washington.
  • Bunzel, Ruth L. (1933). Zuni texts. Publications of the American Ethnological Society (No. 15). New York: G.E. Steckert & Co. ISBN 0-404-58165-X
  • Bunzel, Ruth L. (1934). Zuni. In Handbook of American Indian languages (Vol. 3, pp. 383-515). Gluckstadt: J. J. Augustin.
  • Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
  • Cannell, Joseph R. (2007). On the Language Family Classifications of Zuni [Online] Available: www.josephcannell.yahoo.com [2007, April 15]
  • Condie, Carol. (1973). Problems of a Chomskyan analysis of Zuni transitivity. International Journal of American Linguistics, 39, 207-223.
  • Cook, Curtis D. (1975). Nucleus and margin of Zuni clause types. Linguistics, 13 5-37.
  • Cushing, Frank Hamilton. (1975). Zuni breadstuff. Indian notes and monographs (Vol. 8). AMS Press. ISBN 0-404-11835-6
  • Foster, Michael K. (1996). Language and the culture history of North America. In I. Goddard (Ed.) Handbook of North American Indians: Languages (Vol. 17, pp. 64-110). Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
  • Davis, Nancy Yaw. (2000). The Zuni enigma. Norton. ISBN 0-393-04788-1
  • Davis, Irvine. (1966). [Review of Zuni grammar by Stanley Newman]. International Journal of American Linguistics, 32, 82-84.
  • Dutton, Bertha P. (1983). American Indians of the Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
  • Goddard, Ives. (1996). The classification of the native languages of North America. In I. Goddard (Ed.) Handbook of North American Indians: Languages (Vol. 17, pp. 290-323). Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
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  • Hickerson, Nancy P. (1975). Two studies of color: Implications for cross-cultural comparability of semantic categories. In M. D. Kinkade, K. Hale, & O. Werner (Eds.), Linguistics and anthropology: In honor of C. F. Voegelin (pp. 317-330). The Peter De Ridder Press.
  • Hymes, Dell H. (1957). Some Penutian elements and the Penutian hypothesis. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 13, 69-87.
  • Kroeber, Albert L. (1917). Zuñi kin and clan. Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History (Vol. 18, Pt. 2). New York: The Trustees. (Online: digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/handle/2246/97).
  • Michaels, David. (1971). A note on some exceptions in Zuni phonology. International Journal of American Linguistics, 37, 189-191.
  • Miller, Wick R. (1996). The ethnography of speaking. In I. Goddard (Ed.) Handbook of North American Indians: Languages (Vol. 17, pp. 222-243). Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
  • Miner, Kenneth L. (1986). Noun stripping and loose incorporation in Zuni. International Journal of American Linguistics, 52, 242-254.
  • Mithun, Marianne (Ed.). (1999). The languages of native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Newman, Stanley. (1954). A practical Zuni orthography. In J. Roberts & W. Smith (Eds.), Zuni law: A field of values (pp. 163-170). Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology (Vol. 43, No. 1). Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum, Harvard University. ISBN 0-527-01312-9
  • Newman, Stanley. (1955). Vocabulary levels: Zuni sacred and slang usage. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 11, 345-354.
  • Newman, Stanley. (1958). Zuni dictionary. Indiana University research center publications (No. 6). Bloomington: Indiana University.
  • Newman, Stanley. (1964). Comparison of Zuni and California Penutian. International Journal of American Linguistics, 30, 1-13.
  • Newman, Stanley. (1965). Zuni grammar. University of New Mexico publications in anthropology (No. 14). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico.
  • Newman, Stanley. (1967). Zuni grammar: Alternative solutions versus weaknesses. International Journal of American Linguistics, 33, 187-192.
  • Newman, Stanley. (1967). The Zuni verb 'to be'. In J. W. Verhaar (Ed.), Foundations of language, supplemental series (Vol. 1). The Humanities Press.
  • Newman, Stanley. (1996). Sketch of the Zuni language. In I. Goddard (Ed.) Handbook of North American Indians: Languages (Vol. 17, pp. 483-506). Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
  • Nichols, Lynn. (1990). Direct quotation and switch reference in Zuni. In Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (No. 16, pp. 90-100).
  • Nichols, Lynn. (1993). Recovering Zuni auxiliaries and their role in event classification. Harvard Studies in Linguistics, 3, 92-108.
  • Nichols, Lynn. (1998). Topics in Zuni syntax. (Doctoral dissertation, Harvard).
  • Parsons, Elsie Clews. (1927). Zuñi names and naming practices. The Journal of American Folklore, 36 (140), 171-176.
  • Shaul, David. (1982). Glottalized consonants in Zuni. International Journal of American Linguistics, 48 (1), 83-85.
  • Stout, Carol. (1972). Zuni transitivity: A generative approach. (Doctoral dissertation, University of New Mexico).
  • Tedlock, Dennis. (1969). The problem of k in Zuni phonemics. International Journal of American Linguistics, 35, 67-71.
  • Tedlock, Dennis. (1972). Finding the center: Narrative poetry of the Zuni Indians. New York: Dial.
  • Tedlock, Dennis. (1978). Coyote and Junco. In W. Bright (Ed.), Coyote stories (pp. 171-177). Chicago: The Chicago University Press.
  • Tedlock, Dennis. (1983). The spoken word and the work of interpretation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
  • Tedlock, Dennis. (1999). Finding the center: The art of the Zuni storyteller (2nd ed.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
  • Walker, Willard. (1964). Reference, taxonomy and inflection in Zuni. (Doctoral dissertation, Cornell University).
  • Walker, Willard. (1966). [Review of Zuni grammar by Stanley Newman]. Language, 42 (1), 176-180.
  • Walker, Willard. (1966). Inflection and taxonomic structure in Zuni. International Journal of American Linguistics, 32 (3), 217-227.
  • Walker, Willard. (1972). Toward a sound pattern of the Zuni. International Journal of American Linguistics, 38 (4), 240-259.
  • Walker, Willard. (1979). Zuni semantic categories. In A. Ortiz (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest (Vol. 9, pp. 509-513). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
  • Walker, Willard. (1983). What Zuni is really like. In F. Agard, G. Kelley, A. Makkai, V. B. Makkai (Eds.), Essays in honor of Charles F. Hockett (pp. 551-562). Leiden: E. J. Brill.
  • Watts, Linda. (1992). Relational terminology at Zuni Pueblo: A social semiotic case study. (Doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University).
  • Yumitani, Yukihiro. (1987). A comparative sketch of Pueblo languages: Phonology. In Kansas working papers in linguistics (No. 12, pp. 119-139). University of Kansas.

[edit] External links