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Assessing the effects of language contact on Northeastern Pomo

  • Neil Alexander Walker
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Language Contact and Change in the Americas
This chapter is in the book Language Contact and Change in the Americas

Abstract

Northeastern Pomo is one of seven mutually unintelligible Pomoan languages of California. It was the last Pomoan language identified by academia and the first to become extinct. No publications are devoted solely to it, and what little documentation exists is of varied quality. Scholars have nevertheless sought to determine the place of Northeastern Pomo within Pomoan for more than a century. This paper examines aspects of Northeastern Pomo phonology and grammar and categorizes them as retentions from Proto Pomo, language-internal innovations, or contact-induced changes. On the basis of the large number of retentions and language-internal innovations, Northeastern Pomo is proposed to be a relictual speech community that separated from Proto Pomo earlier than its westernmost congeners.

Abstract

Northeastern Pomo is one of seven mutually unintelligible Pomoan languages of California. It was the last Pomoan language identified by academia and the first to become extinct. No publications are devoted solely to it, and what little documentation exists is of varied quality. Scholars have nevertheless sought to determine the place of Northeastern Pomo within Pomoan for more than a century. This paper examines aspects of Northeastern Pomo phonology and grammar and categorizes them as retentions from Proto Pomo, language-internal innovations, or contact-induced changes. On the basis of the large number of retentions and language-internal innovations, Northeastern Pomo is proposed to be a relictual speech community that separated from Proto Pomo earlier than its westernmost congeners.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. Language contact and change in the Americas 1
  5. Part I North America: California
  6. Yuki, Pomoan, Wintun, and Athabaskan 17
  7. The role of passives in the formation of hierarchical systems in Northern California 33
  8. Assessing the effects of language contact on Northeastern Pomo 67
  9. Synchronic and diachronic accounts of phonological features in Central Chumash languages 91
  10. Part II North America: Athabaskan, Iroquoian, and Uto-Aztecan
  11. Contact and semantic shift in extreme language endangerment 107
  12. “Excorporation” in a Dene (Athabaskan) language 139
  13. Contact and change in Oneida 167
  14. Huron/Wendat interactions with the Seneca language 189
  15. The usual suspects 219
  16. Part III Northern Mexico, Mesoamerica, and South America
  17. Language documentation and historical linguistics 249
  18. The Jakaltek Popti’ noun classifier system 273
  19. Language contact and word structure 297
  20. Auxiliation and typological shift 315
  21. Discourse pattern replication in South Conchucos Quechua and Andean Spanish 339
  22. Part IV The Americas and beyond
  23. Measuring language typicality, with special reference to the Americas 365
  24. Words for ‘dog’ as a diagnostic of language contact in the Americas 385
  25. Index 411
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.173.04wal

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. Language contact and change in the Americas 1
  5. Part I North America: California
  6. Yuki, Pomoan, Wintun, and Athabaskan 17
  7. The role of passives in the formation of hierarchical systems in Northern California 33
  8. Assessing the effects of language contact on Northeastern Pomo 67
  9. Synchronic and diachronic accounts of phonological features in Central Chumash languages 91
  10. Part II North America: Athabaskan, Iroquoian, and Uto-Aztecan
  11. Contact and semantic shift in extreme language endangerment 107
  12. “Excorporation” in a Dene (Athabaskan) language 139
  13. Contact and change in Oneida 167
  14. Huron/Wendat interactions with the Seneca language 189
  15. The usual suspects 219
  16. Part III Northern Mexico, Mesoamerica, and South America
  17. Language documentation and historical linguistics 249
  18. The Jakaltek Popti’ noun classifier system 273
  19. Language contact and word structure 297
  20. Auxiliation and typological shift 315
  21. Discourse pattern replication in South Conchucos Quechua and Andean Spanish 339
  22. Part IV The Americas and beyond
  23. Measuring language typicality, with special reference to the Americas 365
  24. Words for ‘dog’ as a diagnostic of language contact in the Americas 385
  25. Index 411
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