Yawelmani Yokuts (also spelled Yowlumne and Yauelmani) is an endangered dialect of Southern Valley Yokuts historically spoken by the Yokuts living along the Kern River north of Kern Lake in the Central Valley of California. Today, most Yawelmani speakers live on or near the Tule River Reservation.
Name Academic sources frequently use the name Yawelmani while referring to the language, though tribe members more often use the name Yowlumne. The difference in terminology comes from the language itself, where the form Yowlumne is singular and Yawelmani is the paucal form, that is, it refers to a small group. An increasing number of academic sources, including Weigel (2005), have opted to use Yowlumne instead, as the use of Yawelmani can be regarded as a misnomer.
When referencing their language, modern speakers of Yawelmani use the terms (Indian), and (speech of the Yowlumne).
Speakers A 2011 estimate by Victor Golla placed the number of fluent and semi-fluent Yawelmani speakers at "up to twenty-five."
Revitalization efforts In 1993, the Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program piloted a series of language programs that included Yawelmani. The program was reportedly effective in teaching conversational Yawelmani to tribal members without prior knowledge and increasing language use among elders.
Phonology Consonants +Consonant phonemes BilabialDentalRetroflexPalatalVelarGlottalStopplain p t ṭ k ʼ aspirated ph th ṭh kh ejective pʼ tʼ ṭʼ kʼ Affricateplain c c̣ aspirated ch c̣h ejective cʼ c̣ʼ Fricative s ṣ x h Nasal plain m n glottalized mʼ nʼ Approximant plain w l y glottalized wʼ lʼ yʼ
Vowels Yawelmani has 10 vowel phonemes:
Unrounded Rounded short long short long High Mid Low
There are 5 short-long vowel pairs. Short high vowels may become more centralized in fast speech: , . Long high vowels are almost always lower than their short counterparts: , . All long vowels may be shortened by a phonological process. Thus, a single long vowel has two different phonetic realizations: , , , , . Note that the high long vowel is usually pronounced the same as and . Note that the high long vowel is usually pronounced the same as and .
As can be seen, Yawelmani vowels have a number of different realizations (phones) which are summarized below; [ɪ] and [ʊ] are variants in rapid speech of /i/ and /u/, respectively:
Front Back short long short long High Near-high Mid Low
Syllable & phonotactics
The Yawelmani syllables can be either a consonant-vowel sequence (CV), such as in 'however', or a consonant-vowel-consonant sequence (CVC), such as in 'eating, food'. Thus the generalized syllable is the following:
CV(C)
Verbal roots are disyllabic and have either one of two shapes:
CV.CV CV.CVC
Outside of verbal roots, more complex phonotactic forms are also permitted, so long as each syllable has the structure CV(C).
Restrictions exist on the distribution of certain glottalized consonant phonemes in surface form: glottalized nasals and approximants cannot appear word-initially or after another consonant; if they would otherwise appear after another consonant, they lose their glottalized quality.
Phonological processes Vowel shortening When long vowels are in closed syllables, they are shortened:
| → | | p̓axaat̕it | 'mourn (passive aorist)' | ( remains long)
| → | | p̓axat̕hin | 'mourn (aorist)' | ( is shortened)
| → | | c̓uyoohun | 'urinate (aorist)' | ( remains long)
| → | | c̓uyot | 'urinate (passive aorist)' | ( is shortened)
Vowel harmony Yawelmani has suffixes that contain either an underspecified high vowel or an underspecified non-high vowel . Underspecified will appear as following the high rounded vowel and as following all other vowels :
| -hun/-hin | (aorist suffix)
| → | | muṭhun | 'swear (aorist)'
| → | | giy̓hin | 'touch (aorist)'
| → | | gophin | 'take care of infant (aorist)'
| → | | xathin | 'eat (aorist)'
Underspecified will appear as following the non-high rounded vowel and as following all other vowels :
| -tow/-taw | (nondirective gerundial suffix)
| → | | goptow | 'take care of infant (nondir. ger.)'
| → | | giy̓taw | 'touch (nondir. ger.)'
| → | | muṭtaw | 'swear (nondir. ger.)'
| → | | xattaw | 'eat (nondir. ger.)'
Vowel epenthesis Yawelmani adds vowels to stems, when suffixes with an initial consonant are affixed to word with two final consonants in order to avoid a triple-consonant-cluster.
Grammar
Case system Yawelmani is a primary object language.
A. L. Kroeber documented the language's case system in his 1907 paper The Yokuts Language of South Central California. +Case suffixes (per Kroeber)ObjectiveNoun -a (-i)Demonstrative -n, -in(plural), Pronoun -waPossessive -inInstrumental -niLocative -uAblative -nit
In his 1944 grammar of the Yokuts language, Newman analyzed the case system in greater depth, taking care for the different realizations of the case suffixes with nouns based primarily on the phonotactic profile of the root or stem to which the nouns attach, as in the table below. Note that the forms represent the basic case suffixes; in Newman's analysis, vowel harmony with the preceding syllable may apply as appropriate. Elements in parentheses are analyzed by Newman to be added to the root in preparation for the affix (which he terms an "inorganic protective element"), rather than forming part of the affix itself. Moreover, Newman treats the CV:C category (his IAb type) as generally a variant of CVC (his IAa type), except for two unique members of the CV:C class, 'one' and 'sweathouse'.
+Case suffixes (per Newman) Subjective Objective Possessive Indirect Objective Ablative Locative CVC (IAa) - -i, -a -in (V:)-ni (V:)-nit (V)-w CV:C (IAb) - - -in -ni -nit (V)-w CV: (IBa) (')- (')-in, (')-an (')-in -ni -nit -w CV: verb nominalizations (IBb) (')- -i, -a (')-in -ni -nit -w CV.CVC (IIA) - -i, -a -in (V:)-ni (V:)-nit (V)-w CV.CV:C (IIBa) - -, -i, -a -in -ni -nit (V)-w CV.CV:C variant form (IIBb) - - -in -ni -nit (V)-w CV.CV:C limited set of words (IIBc) - -i, -a -in (V:)-ni (V:)-nit (V)-w
Examples of these paradigms are provided in the following table. +Example case paradigms (per Newman) Word root Subjective Objective Possessive Indirect Objective Ablative Locative CVC (IAa) pil 'road' pil pila pilin pilni or pilaani pilnit or pilaanit pilaw CV: (IBa) samaa 'mouth' sama' samaa'in samaa'in samaani samaanit samaw CV: verb nominalizations (IBb) damnaa 'act of trying' damna' damna damnin damnaani damnaanit damnaw CV.CVC (IIA) biwiineelis 'one who is made to sew' biwiineelis biwiinelsi biwiinelsin biwiinelseeni biwiinelseenit biwiinelsiw CV.CV:C (IIBa) lagaa'eey 'a place for staying overnight' lagaa'iy lagaa'ey lagaa'eeyin lagaa'eyni lagaa'eyni lagaa'eeyaw
Selected vocabulary
Notes These include, for example, Kiparsky (2023). That is, "bases" in Newman's (1944) sense.
References
External links
English/Yowlumne dictionary Yowlum'nen Trexul: Yowlumne phrase and lesson book