Chimariko
Native to	USA
Region	California
Ethnicity	Chimariko
Extinct	1950s, with the death of Martha Zigler
Language family	Hokan ? Chimariko
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cid
Glottolog	chim1301
Pre-contact distribution of Chimariko

Chimariko is an extinct language isolate formerly spoken in northern Trinity County, California, by the inhabitants of several independent communities. While the total area claimed by these communities was remarkably small, Golla (2011:87–89) believes there is evidence that three local dialects were recognized: Trinity River Chimariko, spoken along the Trinity River from the mouth of South Fork at Salyer as far upstream as Big Bar, with a principal village at Burnt Ranch; South Fork Chimariko, spoken around the junction of South Fork and Hayfork Creek, with a principal village at Hyampom; and New River Chimariko, spoken along New River on the southern slopes of the Trinity Alps, with a principal village at Denny.

Genetic relations

Proposals linking Chimariko to other languages in various versions of the hypothetical Hokan family have been advanced. Roland Dixon suggested a relationship between Chimariko and the Shastan and Palaihnihan families. Edward Sapir's famous 1929 classification grouped Chimariko with Shastan, Palaihnihan, Pomoan, and the Karuk and Yana languages in a Hokan sub-grouping known as Northern Hokan. A Kahi family consisting of Chimariko, Shastan, Palaihnihan, and Karuk has been suggested (appearing also within Sapir's 1929 Northern Hokan). Most specialists currently find these relationships to be undemonstrated, and consider Chimariko to remain best considered an isolate.^[1]

Documentary history

Stephen Powers collected the first word list from Chimariko speakers in 1875 (Golla, 2011, p. 89). Soon after, Jeremiah Curtin documented a substantial amount of information (p. 89). Roland Dixon began work on the Chimariko language in the early 1900s, when there were few remaining speakers. Dixon worked with two: Mrs. Dyer and a man who was named Friday.^[2] While doing work with nearby Hupa, Edward Sapir collected data and also commented on the earlier Dixon work (Golla, 2011, p. 89). Later, extensive documentation on the language was carried out by J.P. Harrington, who worked with Sally Noble, the last speaker of the language.^[3] None of this work has been published, but slides of all of Harrington's work can be viewed on the Smithsonian Institution's website.^[4] Harrington's assistant John Paul Marr also made recordings of the language with speaker Martha Zigler.^[5] George Grekoff collected previous works of linguistics intending to write a grammar, but died before it was completed (Golla, 2011, p. 89). The last Chimariko speaker was Martha Ziegler who died in the 1950s (Golla, 2011, p. 89). According to Golla, bilingual Hupa-Chimariko speakers native to the South Fork of the Trinity River, Burnt Ranch and New Rivers areas, organized as the Tsnungwe Tribe (from Hupa cʰe:niŋxʷe: 'Ironside Mountain people') and are seeking federal acknowledgement, but emphasize Hupa for purposes of cultural revitalization". There are no programs available to either teach or revitalize Chimariko from its current status of extinct (p. 89).

Phonology

Morphology

Noun incorporation is present in Chimariko.^[9] The verbs have prefixes, suffixes and a circumfix.^[10]

Verb templates:^[11]

Grammatical characteristics

Because the documentary corpus of Chimariko was limited, the description of the grammar of the language was not complete.^[2] However, general observations were made.

Among the recorded grammatical characteristics are the following: Chimariko had reduplication in many nominal forms, particularly in the names of fauna (e.g., tsokoko-tci "bluejay", himimitcei "grouse"). Like many American languages (such as Shasta, Maidu, Wintun, as well as Shoshoni, Siouan, and Pomo), Chimariko verbs had a series of instrumental and body-part prefixes, indicating the particular body part or object with which an action was carried out.^[2] Instrumentals are attached at the beginning of the verb root and often occur with a suffix which indicates the motion in the verb, such as -ha "up", -hot "down", and -usam "through".^[12]

Chimariko does not use numeral classifiers.^[13] Also lacking is a clear pattern to indicate control.^[14]

^[15]

    čʰ-uweš         'my horn'(deer says)
    noˀot huweš-ˀi  'my horn' (Frank says)

Vocabulary

References

Bibliography

• Campbell, Lyle (1997) American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Goddard, Ives (ed.) (1996) Languages. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-048774-9.
• Golla, Victor (2011) California Indian Languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-26667-4.
• Jany, Carmen (2007) "Is there any evidence for complementation in Chimariko?", International Journal of American Linguistics, Volume 73, Issue 1, pp. 94–113, Jan 2007
• —— (2007) "Chimariko in Areal and Typological Perspective." Order No. 3274416 University of California, Santa Barbara. Ann Arbor: ProQuest.
• —— (2009) Chimariko Grammar: Areal and Typological Perspective. UC Press.
• Mithun, Marianne (1999) The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.

External links

Wiktionary has a word list at Appendix:Chimariko word list

• Public Resources on the Chimariko Language
• Fieldnotes on Chimariko by Alfred Kroeber at the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley
• Chimariko language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• Chimariko basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
• "Chimariko Sound recording". Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
• OLAC resources in and about the Chimariko language
• Tsnungwe Official Website