Cahuilla (, ), or ’Ivillu’at ( or ), is an endangered Uto-Aztecan language, spoken by the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the Coachella Valley, San Gorgonio Pass and San Jacinto Mountains region of southern California."Cahuilla." Ethnologue Report for the Language Code: chl. (retrieved 13 December 2009) The Cahuilla demonyms include or – speakers of ’Ivillu’at (’Ivi’a) – or taxliswet meaning "person.""Cahuilla Indian Language (Iviatim)." Native Languages of the Americas. 2009 (retrieved 13 December 2009) A 1990 census revealed 35 speakers in an ethnic population of 800. With such a decline, ’Ivillu’at is classified as "critically endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger as most speakers are middle-aged or older with limited transmission rates to children.
Three dialects are known to exist: Desert, Mountain and Pass, as well as some other sub-dialects.
Classification Cahuilla is a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Together with Cupeño it forms the Cupan subdivision of the Californian subgroup, other members of which are Serrano, Kitanemuk, Luiseño and Tongva (Gabrielino). This Californian subgroup consisting of Cupan and Serran languages was once known as the Takic group, a name which has fallen out of use.
Exonyms and endonyms One of the indigenous designations for the language is , while Cahuilla could call themselves (singular) / (plural), 'speaker(s) of .' Other variations include and . However, both the language and the people are oftentimes called 'Cahuilla.'
Phonology Cahuilla has the following vowel and consonant phonemes (Bright 1965, Saubel and Munro 1980:1-6, Seiler and Hioki 1979: 8-9):
Consonants + IPA chart of Cahuilla consonants Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal plain labial. Nasal Stop voiceless voiced () Affricate Fricative voiceless () voiced () () Approximant Lateral Flap Consonants in parentheses only occur in loans.
Vowels FrontCentralBackshortlongshortlongshortlong Close Near-close 1 1 Mid ()2 () Open-mid 3 Near-open 3Open 4 Diphthongs 5 and are allophones of and , respectively, when in an unstressed or secondary stress position. However, both and appear in the stressed position and are preceding any of the following consonants: , , , , . Lengthened version of both result in their opened variant occurring. Finally, word final instances of and are always open ( and are considered word final even when followed by ). Both long and short only appear in borrowings. As an allophone of , -distribution is unclear, conforming to the same rules of and sometimes. The word final variant of is always the open . Similar to the high and mid vowels, sees similar allophonic distribution where occurs under stress and falls in unstressed positions. is found in monosyllabic and polysyllabic words containing only one instance of the . The semivowels, and , are difficult to distinguish from their counterpart diphthongs: and . When the semivowel is following an or , it is realized as or ( or ). When , or is followed by , the usually becomes half-long.
Voiceless vowels A salient feature found in ’Ivillu’at is the phenomenon of voiceless vowels (written ’) which occur in word-final positions or around . Word-finally, voiceless vowels occur as -Vh (a vowel followed by ).
muut = / 'owl' net = / 'ceremonial chief' tukumulu'uk = / 'the day before yesterday' nepi’ = / 'my breast' hemu’ = / 'his nose' nesek’a = / 'my shoulder'
Phonotactics Words in ’Ivillu’at may never start with a vowel, and consonant clusters generally indicate the break between morphemic units. Whereas is treated as a regular consonant in word-initial locations, it occurs in consonant clusters via infixation or insertion and is not representative of a morphemic break.
Stress There are three primary types of stress in ’Ivillu’at: primary, secondary and unstressed. Primary is distinguished from an unstressed syllable by loudness and elevation of pitch. Secondary stress carries less volume and the pitch is not as elevated as with primary stress. Generally, stress falls on the first syllable of the root, however there are numerous cases of doubt and ambiguity. The general pattern is: ... CV̀CVCV́CVCV̀CVCV̀ ..., where regular alternation occurs after the primary stress and secondary stress is added to the first syllable if followed by an additional -CV- group without stress. Long vowels function also as a distinct -CV- unit and take stress with the following syllable unit also taking stress: ... CV́VCV̀ ... This process can be seen here: CV́VCCV̀CVC : 'palo verde,' plur. CV́CVCV̀CVC : 'one-eyed ones'
Grammar
Cahuilla is an agglutinative language. It uses various affixes, both prefixes and suffixes, to change the meaning and grammatical function of words. As well, Cahuilla leans heavily on descriptive properties in the construction of nouns, turning predicates into nouns.
Morphology Cahuilla has a rich morphology. For example, the word 'arrow,' , is derived from 'it is straightened' () which has been transformed into 'that which is straightened' or 'the straightened one' ( + ), where the verb stem 'to straighten' is immediately recognizable. This phenomenon permeates the language such that some words are examples of a double derivation, such as 'blue/green' (). The word for the colour, , is derived from 'that which comes from heaven' which in turn comes from 'the thing where carrying [of the sun?] takes place,' where means 'sky' and is from ('to carry,' with being the realized suffix).
Nouns and noun phrases Some, but not all, nouns occur in two different states: absolutive and construct. Outside of these two states fall certain other nouns that both refuse to take a P1 (see below) nor a construct state form such as ('dog') and almost all additional animal terms which cannot be directly possessed; however, there is indication that some of these nouns show historical ties to both states, and issues present with either state usage tend to be semantic.
Distinguishing a noun from a verb can sometimes be difficult in Cahuilla, however, whereas both verbs and nouns can take P1 prefixes, only nouns can take P2 ones.
Absolutive and construct states Absolutive, also known as non-possessed nouns (NPN), and construct states help in the classification of nouns. For nouns that take either state, the process can either exhibit itself where the noun takes one form, both forms or even more productive derivations. For example, the word for (its) flower/blossom can be: ('the flower' or 'the blossom'), ('its blossom'), ('its flower') where means to blossom and is the relativizing and absolutive suffix. Thus, means 'blossom/flower' or, more literally, 'having completed the act of blossoming.'
The absolutive state occurs when a relational expression is transformed into an absolute expression, or when a predicate becomes an argument that can then be assigned to a particular place in a predicate. This state is constructed using the absolutive suffix, being one of four consonants (, , , ). The suffix often is found in amalgamation with the preceding vowel, mostly or ; however the case may be that there are more complex underlying functions than just that of the absolutive suffix.
The construct state is marked with P1 relational constructions and translates very roughly to possession.
: 'my eye' : 'my pet' : 'my little basket'
: 'the eye, seed(s)' : 'the pet' : 'the little basket'
: 'my little basket'
Inflection Prefixes Inflection in Cahuilla is realized through both prefixation and suffixation, where prefixes mark the distinction of persons and suffixes mark plurality and case. Both O and P2 may co-occur, which sees O precede P2; P2 may precede P1. Never can all three prefixes occur simultaneously. O, for example, cannot combine with P1 within nouns (it can within verbs); P2 can only occur in nouns.
+VerbsNounsNouns O + P1 P2 + P1 O + P2
+ O or object prefixesSingularPlural 1st 2nd 3rd
+ P2 prefixesSingularPlural 1st , 2nd 3rd or Ø2 Ø
+ P1 prefixesSingularPlural 1st 2nd 3rd or Ø1
is only found alongside monosyllabic noun stems. only occurs if an O prefix precedes it.
Suffixes Number is marked with the suffixes , , and ( 'the Indigenous people'), making a simple singular/plural distinction. Some nouns are not pluralizable, such as 'acorn(s)' or 'mesquite bean(s).'
The object is marked with the oblique case suffix () , and which sometimes includes glottalization either through insertion or infixation:
: 'the Indigenous person' (sing. subject) : 'id.' (sing. object) : 'the Indigenous people' (plur. subject) : 'id.' (plur. object)
The other cases are the: locative (), lative () and abl (), marking roughly location/placement, direction/towards and point of departure, respectively. The lative case appears to combine only with construct state nouns only: : 'fire' ( + ) / : 'in the fire' / : 'into the fire'
Case and plural endings can combine with one another, especially the locative and ablative: : 'the Indigenous people' / : 'from the earth'
Pronouns Pronouns in ’Ivillu’at can be broken down into three categories: personal, question/answer – indefinite and non-personal – non-question/answer – non-indefinite.
+ Independent personal pronounsSingularPlural Accented Clitic Accented Clitic1st subj. obj. 2nd subj. obj.
Nominalizers Nominalization, or the creation of nouns from verbs and adverbs as is the case in ’Ivillu’at, occurs fairly frequently.
Verbial nominalizers Seiler lists ten nominalizers attached to the verb playing a wide range of functions.
'inceptive' Using Seiler's terminology, this nominalizer indicates an oriented relationship in the noun/action, very similar to the nominal suffix (see below). As tense plays little role in the language, this should not be taken to mean 'future.'
SUFF:suffix PRON:pronoun STEM:stem P2:P2 prefix P1:P1 prefix O:object prefix
'excellence' This denotes goodness or excellence.
'supposed to fulfill function' This denotes where one is supposed to fulfill a specialized function, notably in a socio-cultural context.
'completed action or process' Denotes a completed action or being completed as a process.
'performing in a special situation' Denotes performing an act in a specially defined situation. Compare the following examples:
'habitual or competent performer' Functioning similarly to , denotes a competent or habitual performer. When in combination with the durative (, ) or stative (, ), it takes the form . Compare the following examples:
& 'abstract nominalizers' These makes abstract verbs into nouns. Where and can attach to abstract verbs with few restrictions, is restricted to abstract verbs which are then possessed once nominalized.
'unrealized subordination' Nominalizes verbs that both indicates subordination and something that has not yet happened.
'event already occurring or occurred' Nominalizes verbs in regard to occurrence of the action.
'located event' A complex of suffixes where the verbal suffix indicates 'locale, place' such as:
Combining with the abstract nominalizer, there become forms such as:
Adverbial nominalizers There is only one adverbial nominalizer according to Seiler's Grammar, which is . It can either affix to adverbs to denote being from a place or time or denote ordering.
Place/Time
Place/Time
Ordering
Declension There are three major forms of declension in Cahuilla: oriented relationship, diminutive (DIM) and special marking.
The suffix indicated an oriented relationship which is used most notably in kinship terms, // marks the diminutive and indicates someone or something that is marked in a special or notable way.
Oriented Relationship
Diminutive
Special Marking
Verbs and verb phrases