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Chimariko
C'imariko
Native to	USA
Region	California
Ethnicity	Chimariko
Extinct	1950s, with the death of Martha Zigler
Language family	Language isolate orHokan ? Chimariko
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cid
Glottolog	chim1301
Pre-contact distribution of Chimariko
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Chimariko is anextinctlanguage isolate formerly spoken in northernTrinity 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 theTrinity River from the mouth of South Fork at Salyer as far upstream as Big Bar, with a principal village atBurnt Ranch;South Fork Chimariko, spoken around the junction of South Fork and Hayfork Creek, with a principal village atHyampom; andNew River Chimariko, spoken along New River on the southern slopes of theTrinity Alps, with a principal village atDenny.

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 theShastan andPalaihnihan families.Edward Sapir's famous1929 classification grouped Chimariko with Shastan,Palaihnihan,Pomoan, and theKaruk andYana languages in a Hokan sub-grouping known asNorthern Hokan. AKahi family consisting of Chimariko,Shastan, Palaihnihan, andKaruk has been suggested (appearing also within Sapir's 1929Northern Hokan). Most specialists currently find these relationships to be undemonstrated, and consider Chimariko to remain best considered an isolate.^[1]

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 byJ.P. Harrington, who worked withSally 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 theSmithsonian Institution's website.^[4] Harrington's assistantJohn 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 theTsnungwe Tribe (from Hupacʰe: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).

The consonant inventory of Chimariko is:^[6]

The vowel inventory of Chimariko is: i, e, a, o, u.^[7]

Chimariko shares syllabic similarities with other languages in Northern California. The most common syllable structures for Chimariko are CV and CVC, with the largest possible structures being CCVC or CVCC.^[8]

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

Verb templates:^[11]

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 hadreduplication in many nominal forms, particularly in the names offauna (e.g.,tsokoko-tci "bluejay",himimitcei "grouse"). Like many American languages (such asShasta,Maidu,Wintun, as well asShoshoni,Siouan, andPomo), Chimariko verbs had a series ofinstrumental and body-partprefixes, 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]

According to Carmen Jany, "no other language has the exact same system as Chimariko".^[16] Chimariko uses both adecimal andquinary numeral systems.^[17] Numerals appear in noun phrases, do not take affixes (except for the determinative suffix-lle), can either follow or precede the noun, and can appear without a noun.^[18]

There are two demonstrative pronouns in Chimariko indicating "here" and "there".Qè- indicates here, or near the speaker, andpa- indicates there, or a distance from the speaker.^[12] To indicate "this" and "that", the intensive suffix-ut is added:

This:qèwot,qât

That:pamut,paut,pât^[12]

^[19]

The modal system in Chimariko is abundant.^[20] Modal suffixes attach at the very end of a verb after all other suffixes are applied and generally don't occur with aspectual suffixes.^[20] The modal suffixes function as interrogatives, negatives, dubitatives, speculatives, conditionals, emphatics, potentials, potential futures, purposive futures, optatives, desideratives, imperatives, admonitives, intensives, inferentials, resultatives, and evidentials.^[21]

The research available indicates a variation in opinion about Chimariko's word order. Dixon claimed that usual word order is SVO or SOV, but in some cases the object precedes the subject, especially when the subject is pronominal.^[12] Jany claims that word order is not rigid but is mainly verb-final.^[22] The clauses are separated by brackets and the verbs are bolded in the following example:

Inside noun phrases, there is variation in order of modifiers and the noun; sometimes the noun comes before other elements of the phrase, sometimes after.^[24] When dealing with possession, the subject always precedes the object.^[25]

Chimariko has an agent/patient case system.^[26] For first persons, agent and patient are differentiated in both transitive and intransitive clauses, and third persons are not.^[27] Person hierarchy in the argument structure is present as well where speech act participants are favored over third persons.^[28]

Chimariko differentiates alienable and inalienable possession.^[30] Alienable possessions such as objects and kinship are marked by suffix, while inalienable possessions such as body parts are marked by prefix, on the possessed.

^[30]

Examples from JP Harrington field notes (Jany 2007) contrasting alienable and inalienable possession:

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

In Chimariko, there is no grammatical complementation, however there are a few strategies to convey semantic complementation including separate clauses, verbal affixes, the use of attitude words, and using the desiderativeimiˀna 'to want'.^[31]

Examples from Jany (2007):

Complements with utterance predicates (separate clauses):

Desiderative imiˀna ‘to want’ with clausal arguments

In Chimariko, relativization can be done one of two ways – using a special verb suffix-rop/-rot to form internally headed clauses, and or by a headless relative clause. There is a relative pronounmap'un that is sometimes used.^[31]JP Harrington field note example found in Jany (2007):

The relative clause is in brackets.map’un is the head.

• deer: 'a'a
• salmon: 'umul
• bear: čʰisamra
• coyote: čʰirintoosa
• wildcat: ṭaknil
• elk: 'a'eno'
• wolf: šiičiwi
• cottontail rabbit: hemuxolla
• dog or horse: šičela
• raccoon: yetuwa
• fox: 'apʰančʰolla
• mouse: p'usul
• red-tailed hawk: yekyek
• duck: xa'xa'čʰei
• butterfly: ṭamilla
• ant: pelo'
• worm: xawin
• abalone: selhim
• snail: č'anapa
• slug: nexatre

• acorn: yuṭi
• manzanita: čʰičʰi
• elderberry: č'ičxi
• serviceberry: čimiya'na
• black oak: mune
• tan oak: yuṭʰuina'
• willow: pačʰu
• tobacco: 'uwu
• redwood: mutuma
• brake fern: tewtewna'
• maple: čʰupxaṭi'na
• potato: sawu
• soaproot: hopʰata'na
• camas: qʰačʰi
• onion: sapxi
• blackberry: xamuwa'na
• wildcherry: paxa
• gooseberry: ts'eri'na
• thimbleberry: xopuwa'na
• wild grapes: čʰiya'na

This table lists a few present-day locations in Chimariko territory.^[32]

Location	Chimariko	Gloss
Burnt Ranch	č'utamtače	'Place of the fishing hole'
Ironside Mountain	čalitan 'awu	N/A
Hawkin's Bar	'amaitače	'Place of their land'
Hoboken	šiičiwi 'aqʰai	'wolf's water'
Big Bar	hičʰeqʰut	'Down at the deer lick'
Big Flat	čuntxapmu	N/A
Helena	'ak'iče	'Place of the salt'
Junction City	hisa'emu	'Road goes uphill'
Weaverville	ho'raqtu	'Small owl in water'
Hyampom	xawinpom	N/A
Hayfork	ṭanqʰoma	N/A
Salyer	qʰa'etxattače	'Place of the rocks everywhere'
Cedar Flat	hots'i'nakčʰa xotai	'Three cedars'
Del Loma	čʰičʰa'anma	'Red manzanita land'

• 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.

Wiktionary has a word list atAppendix:Chimariko word list

• Public Resources on the Chimariko Language
• Fieldnotes on Chimariko byAlfred Kroeber at theBancroft Library atUC Berkeley
• Chimariko language overview at theSurvey of California and Other Indian Languages
• Chimariko basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
• "Chimariko Sound recording".Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved2012-07-20.
• OLAC resources in and about the Chimariko language
• Tsnungwe Official Website

• Chimariko language
• Language isolates of North America
• Indigenous languages of California
• Extinct languages of North America
• Hokan languages
• Languages extinct in the 1950s
• 1950s disestablishments in the United States

• CS1 errors: ISBN date
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages with non-English text lacking appropriate markup from December 2024
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