| Timbisha | |
|---|---|
| Panamint | |
| Nümü nangkawih, Sosoni nangkawih | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | California,Nevada |
| Ethnicity | 100Timbisha (1998)[1] |
Native speakers | 20 (2007)[1] |
Uto-Aztecan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | par |
| Glottolog | pana1305 |
| ELP | Panamint |
 Panamint is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
| Timbisha (tümpisa) "Rock Paint" | |
|---|---|
| Person | Nümü |
| People | Nümü Tümpisattsi |
| Language | Nümü Nangkawih |
| Country | Tupippuh Nümü |
Timbisha (Tümpisa) orPanamint (also calledKoso) is the language of theNative American people who have inhabited the region in and aroundDeath Valley, California, and the southernOwens Valley since late prehistoric times. There are a few elderly individuals who can speak the language inCalifornia andNevada, but none are monolingual, and all useEnglish regularly in their daily lives. Until the late 20th century, the people called themselves and their language "Shoshone." The tribe then achieved federal recognition under the nameDeath Valley Timbisha Shoshone Band of California. This is an Anglicized spelling of the native name ofDeath Valley,tümpisa, pronounced[tɨmbiʃa], which means "rock paint" and refers to the rich sources ofred ochre in the valley. Timbisha is also the language of the so-called "Shoshone" groups atBishop,Big Pine,Darwin,Independence, andLone Pine communities in California and theBeatty community in Nevada. It was also the language spoken at the former Indian Ranch reservation in Panamint Valley.
Timbisha is one of theCentral Numic languages of theNumic branch ofUto-Aztecan. It is most closely related toShoshoni andComanche.
Timbisha was formerly spoken in the region between theSierra Nevada mountains of easternCalifornia and the region just to the east ofDeath Valley inNevada. Principal valleys where villages were located were (from west to east)Owens Valley,Indian Wells Valley,Saline Valley,Panamint Valley, andDeath Valley. In addition, there were villages along the southern slopes of theKawich Range in Nevada.
Each valley had its own variety of Timbisha with mostlylexical differences between them. There was, however, a general loss ofh as one moved west across Timbisha territory withh virtually gone inOwens Valley varieties. McLaughlin's grammar is based on the far eastern variety fromBeatty, Nevada,[2] while Dayley's is based on a central variety fromDeath Valley.[3]
Timbisha also has a typicalNumicvowel inventory of five vowels. In addition, there is the commondiphthongai, which varies rather freely withe, although certainmorphemes always containai and others always containe. (The official orthography is shown in parentheses.)
| front | central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɨ⟨ü⟩ | u |
| Non-High | a | o | |
| Diphthong | ai⟨ai, e⟩ |
Timbisha has a typicalNumic consonant inventory. (The official orthography is shown in parentheses.):
| Bilabial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labial. | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ⟨ng⟩ | ŋʷ⟨ngw⟩ | ||
| Plosive | p | t | k | kʷ | ʔ | |
| Affricate | ts | |||||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||
| Semivowel | j⟨y⟩ | w | ||||
Timbisha stops (including the affricate) and nasals are voiced and lenited between vowels, are voiced in nasal-stop clusters, and are lenited (but not voiced) followingh.
Voiceless vowels are less common in Timbisha than inShoshoni andComanche.
Timbisha spelling is based on Dayley[3][4] and uses the Roman alphabet.Ü is used forɨ andng forŋ.
Study of Timbisha has been carried on by Jon Dayley and John McLaughlin, both of whom wrote grammatical descriptions.[3][2][5] Dayley has published a dictionary.[4]
Timbishaword order is usually SOV as in:
taipo
white-man
kinni'a
falcon
punittai
saw
taipo kinni'a punittai
white-man falcon saw
"The white man saw a falcon"
Theaccusative case andpossessive case are marked withsuffixes. Adverbial relationships are marked withpostpositions onnouns as well as with trueadverbs. For example:
kahni-pa'a
house-on
kahni-pa'a
house-on
"on the house"
Adjectives are usually prefixed to the nouns they modify, unless the relationship is temporary when they are independent words with special suffixes. Comparetosa-kapayu, 'white-horse', "palomino or other pale-colored breed" andtosapihtü kapayu, 'white/pale horse', "white or pale horse" (who happens to be white or pale, but whose siblings may be any color).
Verbs are marked forgrammatical aspect withsuffixes.Valence is marked with bothprefixes andsuffixes. Some commonintransitive verbs havesuppletive forms for singular or plural subjects and some commontransitive verbs havesuppletive forms for singular or plural objects. Otherwise, there is nogrammatical agreement marked by the verb.
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