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California Indian Languages

by Victor Golla (Author)
Hardcover Paperback eBook
Price: $34.95 / £30.00
Publication Date: Feb 2022
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 400
ISBN: 9780520389670
Trim Size: 8.5 x 11
Illustrations: 84 photos, 39 maps, 80 tables
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About the Book

Nowhere was the linguistic diversity of the New World more extreme than in California where an extraordinary variety of village-dwelling peoples spoke seventy-eight mutually unintelligible languages. This comprehensive illustrated handbook a major synthesis of more than 150 years of documentation and study reviews what we now know about California's indigenous languages. Victor Golla outlines the basic structural features of more than two dozen language types and cites all the major sources both published and unpublished for the documentation of these languages—from the earliest vocabularies collected by explorers and missionaries to the data amassed during the twentieth-century by Alfred Kroeber and his colleagues to the extraordinary work of John P. Harrington and C. Hart Merriam. Golla also devotes chapters to the role of language in reconstructing prehistory and to the intertwining of language and culture in pre-contact California societies making this work the first of its kind an essential reference on California’s remarkable Indian languages.

About the Author

Victor Golla, a leading expert on the native languages of California, is Professor of Anthropology at Humboldt State University. He is the editor of The Sapir-Kroeber Correspondence: Letters Between Edward Sapir and Alfred Kroeber, 1905–1925 and of several volumes of The Collected Works of Edward Sapir.

Table of Contents

PREFACE
PHONETIC ORTHOGRAPHY

PART ONE Introduction: Defining California as a Sociolinguistic Area
1.1 Diversity 
1.2 Tribelet and Language
1.3 Symbolic Function of California Languages
1.4 Languages and Migration
1.5 Multilingualism
1.6 Language Families and Phyla

PART TWO History of Study

Before Linguistics 
2.1 Earliest Attestations
2.2 Jesuit Missionaries in Baja California 
2.3 Franciscans in Alta California
2.4 Visitors and Collectors 1780–1880

Linguistic Scholarship 
2.5 Early Research Linguistics 1865–1900 
2.6 The Kroeber Era 1900 to World War II
2.7 Independent Scholars 1900–1940
2.8 Structural Linguists
2.9 The Survey of California (and Other) Indian Languages
2.10 The Contemporary Scene: Continuing Documentation and Research within and beyond the Academy

PART THREE Languages and Language Families

Algic Languages
3.1 California Algic Languages (Ritwan)
3.2 Wiyot
3.3 Yurok

Athabaskan (Na-Dene) Languages 
3.4 The Pacific Coast Athabaskan Languages
3.5 Lower Columbia Athabaskan (Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanai)
3.6 Oregon Athabaskan Languages
3.7 California Athabaskan Languages

Hokan Languages
3.8 The Hokan Phylum
3.9 Karuk 
3.10 Chimariko
3.11 Shastan Languages
3.12 Palaihnihan Languages
3.13 Yana
3.14 Washo
3.15 Pomo Languages
3.16 Esselen
3.17 Salinan
3.18 Yuman Languages
3.19 Cochimí and the Cochimí-Yuman Relationship
3.20 Seri

Penutian Languages
3.21 The Penutian Phylum
3.22 Takelma 
3.23 Klamath-Modoc
3.24 Maiduan Languages
3.25 Wintuan Languages 
3.26 Yokuts
3.27 Miwok Languages 
3.28 Costanoan (Ohlone) Languages
3.29 Utian

Uto-Aztecan Languages
3.30 Uto-Aztecan and Northern Uto-Aztecan
3.31 Numic Languages
3.32 Takic Languages
3.33 Tubatulabal
3.34 Giamina (Omomil)

Languages of Uncertain Affiliation
3.35 Yukian Languages
3.36 Chumash Languages
3.37 Southern Baja California Languages: Monqui Waikuri and Pericú

PART FOUR Typological and Areal Features: California as a Linguistic Area

Phonology
4.1 Consonants
4.2 Vowels
4.3 Pitch Accent and Tone

Grammar
4.4 Morphological Processes
4.5 Structural Patterns
4.6 Case Marking
4.7 Marking of Plurality
4.8 Stem Derivation
4.9 Switch Reference

Linguistic Culture
4.10 Numerals
4.11 Names
4.12 Diminutive and Other Expressive Symbolism
4.13 Social and Situational Varieties
4.14 Precontact Lexical Borrowing
4.15 Postcontact Lexical Borrowing

PART FIVE Linguistic Prehistory
5.1 The Oldest Stratum? Waikuri Chumash Yukian
5.2 Hokan
5.3 Penutian 
5.4 Uto-Aztecan
5.5 Algic 
5.6 Athabaskan

APPENDIX A. C. HART MERRIAM'S VOCABULARIES AND NATURAL HISTORY WORD LISTS FOR CALIFORNIA INDIAN LANGUAGES
APPENDIX B. MATERIALS ON CALIFORNIA INDIAN LANGUAGES IN THE PAPERS OF JOHN PEABODY HARRINGTON
APPENDIX C. PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION SYSTEMS WIDELY USED IN CALIFORNIA INDIAN LANGUAGE MATERIALS
APPENDIX D. BASIC NUMERALS IN SELECTED CALIFORNIA LANGUAGES
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

Reviews

“A once-in-a-hundred year work which is not only scholarly, well-footnoted, well-referenced, and bibliographically complete. It is also readable and enjoyable. . . . A landmark in the study of native Californian languages. . . . This is a book to be used, not just admired.”
— California Archaeology
"This monograph on the indigenous languages of California 'has been long in coming,' as Golla himself points out in the preface, but the wait has been worth it. . . . This book is more than just an authoritative statement of the accumulated wisdom concerning the languages of a particular region. It is also a pleasure to read and to behold. Golla’s writing style is lucid and engaging; a plethora of tables, maps, and photographs adorn the pages, and the University of California Press has done an outstanding job on the visual presentation of information. Golla’s enthusiasm for California’s indigenous languages and cultures, and his interest in the scholars and scholarly traditions by which they are known outside of indigenous communities themselves, shine through on every page."
— International Journal of American Linguistics
"This is probably the most valuable book ever published on California Indian languages and cultures, and it should be on the shelf of any serious California scholar."
— Anthropological Linguistics
"Bringing together the linguistic records of explorers and missionaries, as well as the research of anthropologists Alfred Kroeber, John P. Harrington, and C. Hart Merriam, this is an essential reference for linguistics collections."
— Library Journal
"A lush and handy primer."
— Books & Culture: A Christian Review
"Victor Golla has been the leading scholar of California Indian languages for most of his professional life and this book shows why. His ability to synthesize centuries of fieldwork and writings while bringing forward new ideas and fresh ways of looking at California’s famous linguistic diversity will make this the primary text for anyone interested in California languages."—Leanne Hinton Professor Emerita of Linguistics University of California Berkeley and author of How to Keep Your Language Alive

“This book is a wonderful contribution that only Golla could have written. It is a perfect confluence of author and subject matter.”—Ives Goddard Senior Linguist Emeritus Smithsonian Institution

“This is a truly magnificent work at once authoritative comprehensive accessible to a wide readership and fascinating. Masterfully integrating linguistic archaeological historical and cultural information the author describes not just the languages but also the major figures in the story: speakers explorers missionaries and scholars. It is beautifully written a great pleasure to read and difficult to put down."—Marianne Mithun author of The Languages of Native North America

"Golla is a gifted polymath and California Indian Languages is certainly his landmark achievement required reading for any linguist archaeologist ethnographer or historian interested in aboriginal California."—Robert L. Bettinger Professor of Anthropology University of California Davis and author of Hunter-Gatherer Foraging

"The preeminent figure in his field Victor Golla has written a masterpiece filled with treasures for every audience: Indian communities working toward cultural and linguistic revival; general readers interested in the many cultures of Native California; and scholars in the fields of language archaeology and prehistory. The information here is so detailed that it supersedes all previous reference works."—Andrew Garrett Professor of Linguistics University of California Berkeley and Director of the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages

Awards

  • Leonard Bloomfield Book Award 2012, Linguistic Society of America