California Indian languages

"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basic structural features of more than two dozen language types, and cites all the major sources, both published and unpublished, for the documentation of these languages--from the earliest vocabularies collected by explorers and missionaries, to the data amassed during the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, and 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 the 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." -- Publisher's Description Frontmatter PREFACE (page ix) PHONETIC ORTHOGRAPHY (page xiii) PART ONE - Introduction: Defining California as a Sociolinguistic Area PART TWO - History of Study Before Linguistics (page 12) Linguistic Scholarship (page 32) PART THREE - Language and Language Families Algic Languages (page 61) Athabaskan (Na-Dene) Languages (page 68) Hokan Languages (page 82) Penutian Languages (page 128) Uto-Aztecan Languages (page 169) Languages of Uncertain Affiliation (page 188) PART FOUR - Typological and Areal Features: California as a Linguistic Area Phonology (page 204) Grammar (page 209) Linguistic Culture (page 218) PART FIVE - Linguistic Prehistory APPENDIX A. C. HART MERRIAM'S VOCABULARIES AND NATURAL HISTORY WORD LISTS FOR CALIFORNIA INDIAN LANGUAGES (page 259) APPENDIX B. MATERIALS ON CALIFORNIA INDIAN LANGUAGES IN THE PAPERS OF JOHN PEABODY HARRINGTON (page 273) APPENDIX C. PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION SYSTEMS WIDELY USED IN CALIFORNIA INDIAN LANGUAGE MATERIALS (page 283) APPENDIX D. BASIC NUMERALS IN SELECTED CALIFORNIA LANGUAGES (page 287) NOTES (page 295) BIBLIOGRAPHY (page 323) INDEX (page 371) 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. Pt. 1. Defining California As A Sociolinguistic Area -- Pt. 2. History Of Study. Before Linguistics ; Linguistic Scholarship -- Pt. 3. Languages And Language Families. Algic Languages ; Athabaskan (na-dene) Languages ; Hokan Languages ; Penutian Languages ; Uto-aztecan Languages ; Languages Of Uncertain Affiliation -- Pt. 4. Typological And Areal Features : California As A Linguistic Area. Phonology ; Grammar ; Linguistic Culture -- Pt. 5. Linguistic Prehistory. Victor Golla. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.