Proto-Salish is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Salishan languages.
| Proto-Salish | |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction of | Salishan languages |
| Region | Lower Fraser River, Salish Sea |
| Era | c. 5000 – c. 3000 BCE |
Evolution
editThe first scholar to suggest a homeland for Proto-Salish was Franz Boas in the 19th century. Boas suggested that the Salishan languages originated on the interior, and the ancestors of the speakers of Coast Salish migrated to the coast. Boas' origin hypothesis was first challenged by Wayne Suttles and William W. Elmendorf, who argued in the 20th century for a coastal origin of the Salishan languages based on ethnographic and linguistic evidence. Kinkade (1990) furthered this hypothesis based on linguistic evidence; reconstructed Proto-Salish terms for flora and fauna suggest a coastal origin for Proto-Salish.[1][2]
Proto-Salish is estimated to have been spoken between five and as many as seven thousand years ago. The magnitude of the time depth makes establishing a genetic relationship between the Salishan languages and any other family difficult, as shared features may be due to language contact rather than a common ancestor.[3]
Phonology
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | |||||
| Nasal | *m | *n | *ŋ̰ʷ | |||||||||
| Stop | voiceless | *p | *t | *ts | *k | *kʷ | *q | *qʷ | *ʔ | |||
| ejective | *pʼ | *tʼ | *tsʼ | *kʼ | *kʷʼ | *qʼ | *qʷʼ | |||||
| lateral ejective | *tɬʼ | |||||||||||
| Fricative | plain | *ɬ | *s | *x | *xʷ | *χ | *χʷ | (*h) | ||||
| voiced | *ɣ | *ʕ | *ʕʷ | |||||||||
| laryngealized | *ɣ̰ | *ʕ̰ | *ʕ̰ʷ | |||||||||
| Trill | plain | (*r) | ||||||||||
| laryngealized | (*r̰) | |||||||||||
| Approximant | plain | *l | *j | *w | ||||||||
| laryngealized | *l̰ | *j̰ | *w̰ | |||||||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | *i | *u | |
| Mid | *ə[a] | ||
| Open | *a |
The appearance of schwa in Salishan languages is complicated and varies widely within the family. It is closely tied to stress; in some languages, such as Lushootseed, stress is easily predictable. In most Interior Salish languages, morphemes can be strong, weak, or variable in stress assignment. Upper Chehalis, a Tsamosan language, has a modification of this system, but stress tends towards the root. Kinkade (1998) argued that the stress system of Proto-Salish resembled the stress system of the Interior Salish languages.[4] Kinkade argued that schwa should not be reconstructed in Proto-Salish as a stressed consonant, but only as an epenthetic vowel, which is how it occurs in all Salishan languages.[5]
Morphology
editProto-Salish likely had subject enclitics attached to the predicate or preceding auxiliary in order to mark transitivity.[6]
Proto-Salish likely had at least two categories for marking, that being feminine (or secondary) and unmarked (or primary) as well as marked absent and marked present. A third system, marking near vs. remote, may have been present as well.[7]
Proto-Salish may have had a complex system for negation, using several negatives that each had different force.[7]
Lexicon
editKinkade (1991) reconstructed a number of Proto-Salish terms for fauna in the Proto-Salish area. Below are a sample:[8]
| English | Proto-Salish |
|---|---|
| beaver | *s-qelawʼ |
| bobcat | *pʼəkʼam |
| chipmunk | s-qʼʷəcʼwʼ |
| coyote | *s-nkʼə́l(=áp) |
| dog | *s-qáx̣aʔ |
| mountain goat | *s-x̣ʷiƛ̓áyʼ |
| marmot | *s-kʷúykʷuy |
| mink | *mə́skumʼ |
| muskrat | *kəláxʷ |
| sea otter | *pʼítkʷəl |
Notes
edit- ↑ Debated by Kinkade (1998).
References
edit- ↑ Kinkade 1990, pp. 1–3.
- 1 2 3 Campbell 2024, p. 51
- ↑ Swadesh 1952, p. 233
- ↑ Kinkade 1998, p. 208.
- ↑ Kinkade 1998, p. 198.
- ↑ Thompson 1979, pp. 737–739.
- 1 2 Thompson 1979, p. 745.
- ↑ Kinkade 1991, pp. 234–237.
Bibliography
edit- Campbell, Lyle (2024). The Indigenous Languages of the Americas: History and Classification. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780197673461.001.0001. ISBN 9780197673461. LCCN 2023033270.
- Kinkade, M. Dale (1990). "Prehistory of Salishan Languages" (PDF). International Conference on Salish and Neighboring Languages. 25 (13).
- Kinkade, M. Dale (1991). "Proto-Salishan Mammals: The Data" (PDF). International Conference on Salish and Neighboring Languages. 26 (11): 233–238.
- Kinkade, M. Dale (1998). "How much does a schwa weigh?". In Czaykowska-Higgins, Ewa; Kinkade, M. Dale (eds.). Salish Languages and Linguistics: Theoretical and Descriptive Perspectives. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 197–218. ISBN 3-11-015492-7.
- Swadesh, Morris (1952). "Salish Phonologic Geography". Language. 28 (2): 232–248. doi:10.2307/410516. JSTOR 410516.
- Thompson, Laurence C. (1979). "Salishan and the Northwest". In Campbell, Lyle; Mithun, Marianne (eds.). The Languages of Native America: Historical and Comparative Assessment. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 692–765. ISBN 978-0-292-74624-4.
Further reading
edit- Ingram, David (1975). "A Note on Word Order in Proto-Salish". International Journal of American Linguistics. 41 (2): 165–168. ISSN 0020-7071.
- Kinkade, M. Dale; Thompson, Laurence C. (1974). "Proto-Salish *r". International Journal of American Linguistics. 40 (1): 22–28. ISSN 0020-7071.
- Kuipers, Aert H. (2002). "Salish Etymological Dictionary". University of Montana Occasional Papers in Linguistics (16).