Purisimeño language
Extinct Chumashan language of California, US
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Purisimeño was one of the Chumashan languages traditionally spoken along the coastal areas of Southern California near Lompoc. It was also spoken at the La Purisima Mission.[2]
| Purisimeño | |
|---|---|
| Native to | California, United States |
| Region | Lompoc |
| Extinct | early 1900s |
Chumashan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | puy |
| Glottolog | puri1259 |
Purisimeño | |
 | |
A vocabulary of "La Purrissima or Kagimuswas (Purismeno Chumash)" was collected by Henry Wetherbee Henshaw in 1884.[3] John P. Harrington also documented the language, and wrote a sketch of the grammar.[4]
Dr. Timothy Henry of the Western Institute for Endangered Language Documentation (WIELD) created a dictionary of the language.[5]
Phonology
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | Voiced | Voiceless | Voiced | ||||||||
| Plosive | Plain | p | t | k | q | ʔ | |||||
| Aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | qʰ | |||||||
| Ejective | pʼ | tʼ | kʼ | qʼ | |||||||
| Fricative | Plain | s | ʃ | χ | ħ | h | |||||
| Aspirated | sʰ | ʃʰ | |||||||||
| Ejective | sʼ | ʃʼ | |||||||||
| Affricate | Plain | ts | ʧ | ||||||||
| Aspirated | tsʰ | ʧʰ | |||||||||
| Ejective | tsʼ | ʧʼ | |||||||||
| Approximant | Plain | w | ɬ | l | j | ||||||
| Glottalized | ˀw | ˀl | ˀj | ||||||||
| Nasal | Plain | m | n | ||||||||
| Glottalized | ˀm | ˀn | |||||||||
The exact backness of /a/ is difficult to determine. It was either a central or back vowel.[6]
Grammar
Nouns
Articles
Like many Chumashan languages, Purisimeño contains articles which can and possibly must be used in combination with nouns. Their exact function is unclear but some inferences can be gained. The first article, the prefix ’a- seemingly was used a default in citation form and can tentatively be interpreted as a marker of indefiniteness or unidentifiability, while the second article, the prefix ka- can in turn be interpreted as a marker of definiteness and/or identifiability. Though, due to a lack of surviving sources on the language it is difficult to say this with certainty.[6]
Associative case
The associative case in Purisimeño is marked by the prefixes itš-, is-, iš-, or its̓-; and is used with nouns that usually have a strong association with a particular person such as the words for friend (itšantǝk), carrying net (ištiwa’a), pinkie (išwatimitš’i), and thumb (išwatinox̂).[6]
Tense
Purisimeño had three tense markers for future, immediate future, and past tensek with the past tense -waš being attested in nouns which had some relation to the past but where somehow still relevant in the present such as footprint (’e’ewaš).[6]
Orthography
| ’ | a | e | ǝ | h | i | k | l ~ ł | l̓ | m | m̓ | n | n̓ | o | p | pʰ | p̓ | q | qʰ | q̓ | s |
| sʰ | s̓ | š | šʰ | š̓ | t | tʰ | t̓ | ts | tsʰ | ts̓ | tš | tšʰ | tš̓ | u | w | w̓ | x ~ x̂ | x̓ | y | y̓ |
