Numic ( or ) is the northernmost branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It includes seven languages spoken by Native American peoples traditionally living in the Great Basin, Colorado River basin, Snake River basin, and southern Great Plains. The word "Numic" comes from the cognate word in all Numic languages for "person", which reconstructs to Proto-Numic as . For example, in the three Central Numic languages and the two Western Numic languages, the word for "person" is . In Kawaiisu, it is , and in Colorado River, it is , , and .
Classification
These languages are classified into three groups:
Numic Central Numic languagesJohn E. McLaughlin. 1992. "A Counter-Intuitive Solution in Central Numic Phonology," International Journal of American Linguistics 58:158–181.John E. McLaughlin. 2000. "Language Boundaries and Phonological Borrowing in the Central Numic Languages," Uto-Aztecan: Temporal and Geographical Perspectives. Ed. Gene Casad and Thomas Willett. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. Pp. 293–304.Wick Miller, Dirk Elzinga, and John E. McLaughlin. 2005. "Preaspiration and Gemination in Central Numic," International Journal of American Linguistics 71:413–444.John E. McLaughlin. 2023. Central Numic (Uto-Aztecan) Comparative Phonology and Vocabulary. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 86. Munich, Germany: LINCOM GmbH. ComancheLila Wistrand Robinson & James Armagost. 1990. Comanche Dictionary and Grammar. Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics Publication 92. Dallas, Texas: The Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington.Jean O. Charney. 1993. A Grammar of Comanche. Studies in the Anthropology of North American Indians. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.Anonymous. 2010. Taa Nʉmʉ Tekwapʉ?ha Tʉboopʉ (Our Comanche Dictionary). Elgin, Oklahoma: Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee. Timbisha (a dialect chain with main regional varieties being Western, Central,Jon P. Dayley. 1989. Tümpisa (Panamint) Shoshone Grammar. University of California Publications in Linguistics Volume 115. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.Jon P. Dayley. 1989. Tümpisa (Panamint) Shoshone Dictionary. University of California Publications in Linguistics Volume 116. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. and EasternJohn E. McLaughlin. 2006. Timbisha (Panamint). Languages of the World/Materials 453. Muenchen: LINCOM Europa.) ShoshoniJohn E. McLaughlin. 2012. Shoshoni Grammar. Languages of the World/Materials 488. Muenchen: LINCOM Europa. (a dialect chain with main regional varieties being Western,Richley H. Crapo. 1976. Big Smokey Valley Shoshoni. Desert Research Institute Publications in the Social Sciences 10. Reno: University of Nevada Press.Beverly Crum & Jon Dayley. 1993. Western Shoshoni Grammar. Boise State University Occasional Papers and Monographs in Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics Volume No. 1. Boise, Idaho: Department of Anthropology, Boise State University. Gosiute,Wick R. Miller. 1972. Newe Natekwinappeh: Shoshoni Stories and Dictionary. University of Utah Anthropological Papers 94. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.Wick R. Miller. 1996. "Sketch of Shoshone, a Uto-Aztecan Language," Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 17, Languages. Ed. Ives Goddard. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Pages 693–720.Dirk Allen Elzinga. 1999. "The Consonants of Gosiute", University of Arizona Ph.D. dissertation. Northern,Drusilla Gould & Christopher Loether. 2002. An Introduction to the Shoshoni Language: Dammen Daigwape. Salt Lake City, Utah: The University of Utah Press. and EasternD.B. Shimkin. 1949. "Shoshone, I: Linguistic Sketch and Text," International Journal of American Linguistics 15:175–188.D. B. Shimkin. 1949. "Shoshone II: Morpheme List," International Journal of American Linguistics 15.203–212.Malinda Tidzump. 1970. Shoshone Thesaurus. Grand Forks, North Dakota.) Southern Numic languages KawaiisuMaurice L. Zigmond, Curtis G. Booth, & Pamela Munro. 1991. Kawaiisu, A Grammar and Dictionary with Texts. Ed. Pamela Munro. University of California Publications in Linguistics Volume 119. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. Colorado River (a dialect chain with main regional varieties being Chemehuevi,Margaret L. Press. 1979. Chemehuevi, A Grammar and Lexicon. University of California Publications in Linguistics Volume 92. Berkeley, California. University of California Press.Laird, Carobeth. 1976. The Chemehuevis. Malki Museum Press, Banning, California. Southern Paiute,Edward Sapir. 1930. Southern Paiute, a Shoshonean Language. Reprinted in 1992 in: The Collected Works of Edward Sapir, X, Southern Paiute and Ute Linguistics and Ethnography. Ed. William Bright. Berlin: Mouton deGruyter.Edward Sapir. 1931. Southern Paiute Dictionary. Reprinted in 1992 in: The Collected Works of Edward Sapir, X, Southern Paiute and Ute Linguistics and Ethnography. Ed. William Bright. Berlin: Mouton deGruyter.Pamela A. Bunte. 1979. "Problems in Southern Paiute Syntax and Semantics," Indiana University Ph.D. dissertation. and UteTalmy Givón. 2011. Ute Reference Grammar. Culture and Language Use Volume 3. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.Jean O. Charney. 1996. A Dictionary of the Southern Ute Language. Ignacio, Colorado: Ute Press.) Western Numic languagesMolly Babel, Andrew Garrett, Michael J. House, & Maziar Toosarvandani. 2013. "Descent and Diffusion in Language Diversification: A Study of Western Numic Dialectology," International Journal of American Linguistics 79:445–489. Mono (two main dialects: EasternSidney M. Lamb. 1957. "Mono Grammar," University of California, Berkeley Ph.D. dissertation.Rosalie Bethel, Paul V. Kroskrity, Christopher Loether, & Gregory A. Reinhardt. 1993. A Dictionary of Western Mono. 2nd edition. and WesternEvan J. Norris. 1986. "A Grammar Sketch and Comparative Study of Eastern Mono," University of California, San Diego Ph.D. dissertation.) Northern PaiuteSven Liljeblad, Catherine S. Fowler, & Glenda Powell. 2012. The Northern Paiute–Bannock Dictionary, with an English–Northern Paiute–Bannock Finder List and a Northern Paiute–Bannock–English Finder List. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. (a dialect chain with main regional varieties being Southern Nevada,Anonymous. 1987. Yerington Paiute Grammar. Anchorage, Alaska: Bilingual Education Services.Arie Poldevaart. 1987. Paiute–English English–Paiute Dictionary. Yerington, Nevada: Yerington Paiute Tribe. Northern Nevada,Allen Snapp, John Anderson, & Joy Anderson. 1982. "Northern Paiute," Studies in Uto-Aztecan Grammar, Volume 3, Uto-Aztecan Grammatical Sketches. Ed. Ronald W. Langacker. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics Publication Number 57, Volume III. Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington. Pages 1–92. Oregon,Timothy John Thornes. 2003. "A Northern Paiute Grammar with Texts," University of Oregon Ph.D. dissertation. and BannockSven Liljeblad. 1966–1967. "Northern Paiute Lessons," manuscript.Sven Liljeblad. 1950. "Bannack I: Phonemes," International Journal of American Linguistics 16:126–131)
Apart from Comanche, each of these groups contains one language spoken in a small area in the southern Sierra Nevada and valleys to the east (Mono, Timbisha, and Kawaiisu), and one language spoken in a much larger area extending to the north and east (Northern Paiute, Shoshoni, and Colorado River). Some linguists have taken this pattern as an indication that Numic speaking peoples expanded quite recently from a small core, perhaps near the Owens Valley, into their current range. This view is supported by lexicostatistical studies.James A. Goss. 1968. "Culture-Historical Inference from Utaztekan Linguistic Evidence," Utaztekan Prehistory. Ed. Earl H. Swanson, Jr. Occasional Papers of the Idaho State University Museum, Number 22. Pages 1–42. Fowler's reconstruction of Proto-Numic ethnobiology also points to the southern Sierra Nevada as the homeland of Proto-Numic approximately two millennia ago.Catherine Louise Sweeney Fowler. 1972. "Comparative Numic Ethnobiology". University of Pittsburgh PhD dissertation. A mitochondrial DNA study from 2001 supports this linguistic hypothesis.Frederika A. Kaestle and David Glenn Smith. 2001. "Ancient Mitochondrial DNA Evidence for Prehistoric Population Movement," American Journal of Physical Anthropology 115:1–12. The anthropologist Peter N. Jones thinks this evidence is circumstantial nature,Peter N. Jones. 2005. Respect for the Ancestors: American Indian Cultural Affiliation in the American West. Boulder, CO: Bauu Institute. but this is a distinctly minority opinion among specialists in Numic.David B. Madsen & David Rhode, ed. 1994. Across the West: Human Population Movement and the Expansion of the Numa. University of Utah Press. David Shaul has proposed that the Southern Numic languages spread eastward long before the Central and Western Numic languages expanded into the Great Basin.David Leedom Shaul. 2014. A Prehistory of Western North America, The Impact of Uto-Aztecan Languages. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Bands of eastern Shoshoni split off from the main Shoshoni body in the very late 17th or very early 18th century and moved southeastward onto the Great Plains.Thomas W. Kavanagh. 1996. The Comanches: A History, 1706–1875. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Changes in their Shoshoni dialect eventually produced Comanche. The Comanche language and the Shoshoni language are quite similar, although certain low-level consonant changes in Comanche have inhibited mutual intelligibility.John E. McLaughlin. 2000. "Language Boundaries and Phonological Borrowing in the Central Numic Languages," Uto-Aztecan: Temporal and Geographical Perspectives. Ed. Gene Casad and Thomas Willett. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. Pp. 293–304.
Recent lexical and grammatical diffusion studies in Western Numic have shown that while there are clear linguistic changes that separate Northern Paiute as a distinct variety, there are no unique linguistic changes that mark Mono as a distinct variety.Molly Babel, Andrew Garrett, Michael J. House, & Maziar Toosarvandani. 2013. "Descent and Diffusion in Language Diversification: A Study of Western Numic Dialectology," International Journal of American Linguistics 79:445–489.
Major sound changes The sound system of Numic is set forth in the following tables.David Iannucci. 1972. "Numic historical phonology," Cornell University PhD dissertation.Michael Nichols. 1973. "Northern Paiute historical grammar," University of California, Berkeley PhD dissertationWick R. Miller. 1986. "Numic Languages," Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 11, Great Basin. Ed. by Warren L. d’Azevedo. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. Pages 98–106.
Vowels Proto-Numic had an inventory of five vowels. front backunrounded backrounded High Non-High
Consonants Proto-Numic had the following consonant inventory: Bilabial Coronal Palatal Velar Labializedvelar Glottal Stop Affricate Fricative Nasal () Semivowel
In addition to the above simple consonants, Proto-Numic also had nasal-stop/affricate clusters and all consonants except , , , and could be geminated. Between vowels, short consonants were lenited.
Major Central Numic consonant changes The major difference between Proto-Central Numic and Proto-Numic was the phonemic split of Proto-Numic geminate consonants into geminate consonants and preaspirated consonants. The conditioning factors involve stress shifts and are complex. The preaspirated consonants surfaced as voiceless fricatives, often preceded by a voiceless vowel.