Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Valley Yokuts

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Ethnicity
  
Yokut

ISO 639-3
  
(included in yok)

Region
  
San Joaquin Valley, California

Native speakers
  
8 Chukchansi speakers (2011)

Language family
  
Yok-Utian ? Yokutsan Nim Valley Yokuts

Glottolog
  
vall1251  (Valley Yokuts) yoku1256  (Yokuts (Yawelmani))

Valley Yokuts is a dialect cluster of the Yokutsan language family of California.

Contents

Chukchansi, which is still spoken natively, has language classes and a preschool for children. It is also taught at a local elementary school. Though there are no longer any native speakers, Tachi has a Headstart language program.

Varieties

Valley Yokuts is sometimes considered three languages, of which only Northern Valley Yokuts is still spoken.

  • Far Northern Valley Yokuts (AKA Delta Yokuts) (†)
  • Yachikumne (AKA Chulamni) Chalostaca Lakisamni Tawalimni
  • Northern Valley Yokuts
  • Nopṭinṭe Chawchila Chukchansi Kechayi Dumna
  • Southern Valley Yokuts (†)
  • Wechihit Nutunutu–Tachi Chunut (AKA Sumtache) Wo’lasi–Choynok Wowol Telamni Koyeti–Yawelmani

    Of these, Yawelmani /jɑːwɛlˈmɑːni/, also known as Yowlumni, is the best known. See also Chukchansi dialect.

    Sounds

    Yawelmani will be taken as representative.

    Vowels

    Yawelmani has 8 vowel phonemes:

  • There are 4 short-long vowel pairs.
  • Short high vowels may become more centralized in fast speech: /i/ → [ɪ], /u/ → [ʊ].
  • Long high vowels are almost always lower than their short counterparts: /iː/ → [ɛː], /uː/ → [ɔː].
  • All long vowels may be shortened by a phonological process. Thus, a single long vowel has two different phonetic realizations:
  • /iː/ → [ɛ, ɛː],
  • /aː/ → [a, aː],
  • /uː/ → [ɔ, ɔː],
  • /ɔː/ → [ɔ, ɔː].
  • Note that the high long vowel /uː/ is usually pronounced the same as /ɔ/ and /ɔː/.
  • As can be seen, Yawelmani vowels have a number of different realizations (phones) which are summarized below:

    Syllable & phonotactics

    The Yawelmani syllables can be either a consonant-vowel sequence (CV), such as deeyi- 'lead', or a consonant-vowel-consonant sequence (CVC), such as xata- 'eat'. Thus the generalized syllable is the following:

    CV(C)

    Word roots are bisyllabic and have either one of two shapes:

  • CV.CV
  • CV.CVC
  • vowel shortening

    When long vowels are in closed syllables, they are shortened:

    vowel harmony

    Yawelmani has suffixes that contain either an underspecified high vowel /I/ or an underspecified non-high vowel /A/.

  • Underspecified /I/ will appear as /u/ following the high rounded vowel /u/ and as /i/ following all other vowels /i, a, ɔ/:
  • Underspecified /A/ will appear as /ɔ/ following the non-high rounded vowel /ɔ/ and as /a/ following all other vowels /i, u, a/:
  • vowel epenthesis

    Yawelmani adds vowels to stems, when suffixes with an initial consonant are affixed to word with two final consonants in order to avoid a triple-consonant-cluster.

    Grammar

  • ablaut
  • suffix
  • deeyi 'to lead' deeyen 'he will lead' deyhin 'he led' diyhatinhin 'he wanted to lead' diyee’iy 'place where one got the lead' (subjective) diyaa’an 'he is leading' deydiyen 'he will lead repeatedly' diyidyiisaahin ’anam 'they led each other repeatedly' diyeediyic’ 'one who is leading repeatedly' (subjective) deyday 'act of leading repeatedly' (subjective)
  • reduplication
  • ’ɔɔṭ’hun 'he stole' - ’ɔɔṭ’uṭ’hun 'he stole often' ’ɔɔṭ’al 'he might steal' - ’ɔɔṭ’uṭ’al 'he might steal often'

    References

    Valley Yokuts Wikipedia