Mosan is a hypothetical language family consisting of the Salishan, Wakashan, and Chimakuan languages of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It was proposed by Edward Sapir in 1929 in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Little evidence has been adduced in favor of such a grouping, no progress has been made in reconstructing it, and it is now thought to reflect a language area rather than a genetic relationship.[1] The term persists outside academic linguistic literature because of Sapir's stature.[citation needed]
| Mosan | |
|---|---|
| (obsolete) | |
| Geographic distribution | British Columbia, Washington |
| Linguistic classification | Algonquian–Wakashan ? |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | None |
An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)[2] found lexical similarities between Salishan and Chimakuan. Wakashan was not included. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.
External relationships
editMichael Fortescue suggested in 1998 that Nivkh might be related to the Mosan languages of North America.[3] Later, in 2011, he argued that Nivkh, which he referred to as an "isolated Amuric language", was related to the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages, forming a Chukotko-Kamchatkan–Amuric language family.[4] However, Glottolog considers the evidence to be "insufficient".
In 2015, Sergei Nikolaev argued in two papers for a systematic relationship between Nivkh and the Algic languages of North America, and a more distant relationship between these two together and the Wakashan languages of coastal British Columbia.[5][6]
Vocabulary
editBelow is a comparison of reconstructions of selected basic vocabulary items in Proto-Salishan, Proto-Wakashan, and Proto-Chimakuan.
- Abbreviations
- K = Proto-Kwakiutlan
- N = Proto-Nootkan
gloss Proto-Salishan[7] Proto-Wakashan[8] Proto-Chimakuan[9] head *q’ʷum *t’uχʷ-/*t’uq-; *-qiː *-t̍ikʷ hair *t’amin 'fur, feathers' *míɬkʷ; *-sini; *q̍a-, *q̍a (?) eye *ğas- *ɬaq̍ʷo (?) ear *t’ani/aʔ *p’ayp’ay(ʔiː)/*p’asp’ay(ʔiː) nose *-‘i(ː)ɬba(ː)/*-’i(ː)ɬta(ː) *-os tooth *gi(ː)g-/*gi(ː)k- tongue *tixʷc *k’ulm *-ɬito mouth *s-pl-ucin *-aqs(iɬ)/*-’aqs(iɬ) *pil- hand *kalax K *ʔay̍asu/*hay̍asu *-t̍ay foot *q’ʷax̆/x̆ʷ *-(k)si(ː)(s)/*-kc’i(ː)ɬ; *gʷi(ː)gʷi(ː) *law̍- breast *s-qam K *zam̍a, N *ʔanma *máqas (?) meat K *ʔlz-/ʔls- blood *cay N *ƛaːƛaːw̍aqmis *can- bone *s-c’ụ/ạm; *q’awał *χa(ː)x/*χa(ː)xaq- *q̍a- person *qal-mixʷ *-as *póʔoqʷo name *kʷac, *kʷast K *λiq- *t̍ísoqʷoɬ dog *s-qax̆aʔ N *q’iniːƛ(č) *kináno fish *ciłn *m̍iː- louse *qʷətíx̆aʔ *ği(ː)x(k)- tree *cəq, *ʕ/ɣap (also 'stand') *suč’(as) *hám̍aʔa; *ya- 'tree, wood' leaf *packl *-ɬi flower *p’aq’-m *luːlačχ-/*laː(ʔ)ulačx- water *qʷuʔ, *ʔuqʷ, *qu/al N *č’a(ʔakʷ) *-c̍i, *-c̍o; *-sina fire *yəqʷ, *həyqʷ 'fire(wood)' *ʔana(kʷ) *-so; *-spa stone *s-xanx K *luʔχʷk’ʷs *k̍áλ̍a, *k̍át̍ia earth *tmixʷ 'world, nature, earth' K *t’k- *c̍iq̍át- 'ground, world, universe' salt *dum- road *t’ax- *-ɬimt eat *ʔup; *ʔił(t)n *ha(ː)w̍(a)-/*ham̍(a)- *-lax̣ die *ƛ’lal K *-‘alis(m); N *qaχ- *k̍ʷiq-
See also
edit- Algonquian–Wakashan languages (Almosan)
References
edit- ^ Beck, D. (2000). Grammatical Convergence and the Genesis of Diversity in the Northwest Coast Sprachbund. Anthropological Linguistics, 42(2), 147-213.
- ^ Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013).
- ^ Fortescue, M. (1998). Language relations across Bering Strait: reappraising the archaeological and linguistic evidence.
- ^ Fortescue, Michael (2011). "The relationship of Nivkh to Chukotko-Kamchatkan revisited". Lingua. 121 (8): 1359–1376. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2011.03.001.
- ^ Nikolaev, S. (2015)
- ^ Nikolaev, S. (2016)
- ^ Kuipers, Aert H. (2002). Salish Etymological Dictionary. Missoula, MT: Linguistics Laboratory, University of Montana.
- ^ Fortescue, Michael (2007). Comparative Wakashan Dictionary. Munich: Lincom Europa.
- ^ Powell, James V. (1975). Proto-Chimakuan: Materials for a Reconstruction. Working Papers in Linguistics, University of Hawaii 7/2. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Further reading
edit- Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
- Beck, David (1997). Mosan III: a problem of remote common proximity. International Conference on Salish (and Neighbo(u)ring) Languages.