Hupa language

Hupa (native name: , Template:Lit) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock) spoken along the lower course of the Trinity River in Northwestern California by the Hoopa Valley Hupa () and Tsnungwe/South Fork Hupa () and, before European contact, by the Chilula and Whilkut peoples, to the west.

Speakers

The 2000 US Census estimated the language to be spoken by 64 persons between the ages of 5 and 17, including 4 monolingual speakers. As of 2012, there were fewer than 10 individuals whose Hupa could be called fluent, at least one of whom (Verdena Parker) was a fully fluent bilingual. Perhaps another 50 individuals of all ages have restricted control of traditional Hupa phonology, grammar and lexicon. Beyond this, many tribal members share a small vocabulary of words and phrases of Hupa origin.

Phonology

The consonants of Hupa in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in slashes):

Hupa consonantsTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

		Labial	Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Uvular	Glottal
			central	lateral	plain	labial.	plain	labial.		plain	labial.
Nasal		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr				Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Plosive	plain	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr		Template:IPA link Template:AngbrTemplate:Efn		(Template:IPA link Template:Angbr)Template:Efn		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
	aspirated		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr		Template:IPA link Template:AngbrTemplate:Efn		(Template:IPA link Template:Angbr)Template:Efn
	ejective		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr		Template:IPA link Template:AngbrTemplate:Efn		(Template:IPA link Template:Angbr)Template:Efn		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Affricate	plain		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
	aspirated		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr			Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
	ejective		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	(Template:IPA link Template:Angbr)Template:Efn
Fricative			Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	(Template:IPA link Template:Angbr)Template:Efn		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr		Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Approximant				Template:IPA link Template:Angbr	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr			Template:IPA link Template:Angbr

Hupa vowel phonemesTemplate:Sfn

	Front	Central	Back
Close-mid	Template:IPA link ~ Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Open		Template:IPA link

Vowels may be lengthened.

Golla 1996 presents a different vowel system:Template:Sfn

	Front	Central	Back
Near-close	Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Close-mid			Template:IPA link Template:Angbr
Open-mid	ɛ Template:Angbr		ʌ Template:Angbr
Open			Template:IPA link Template:Angbr

Vowels Template:IPA link, ɛ and Template:IPA link can be lengthened.

Orthography

The Hupa alphabet is as follows:

Hupa alphabetTemplate:Sfn

Spelling	a	a꞉	b	ch	chʼ	chw	chwʼ	d	dz	e	e꞉	g	gy	h	i	j	k	kʼ	ky	kyʼ	l	ł	m	n	ng	o	o꞉	q	qʼ	s	sh	t	tʼ	tł	tłʼ	ts	tsʼ	u	w	wh	x	xw	y	ʼ
Phoneme	a	aː	p	tʃʰ	tʃʼ	tʃʷʰ	tʃʷʼ	t	ts	ɛ	ɛː	k	kʲ	h	ɪ	tʃ	kʰ	kʼ	kʲʰ	kʲʼ	l	ɬ	m	n	ŋ	o	oː	q	qʼ	s	ʃ	tʰ	tʼ	tɬʰ	tɬʼ	tsʰ	tsʼ	ʌ	w	hʷ	χ	χʷ	j	ʔ

Morphology

Verb themes and classes

As with other Dene languages, the Hupa verb is based around a theme. Melissa Axelrod has defined a theme as "the underlying skeleton of the verb to which prefixes or strings of prefixes or suffixal elements are added in producing an utterance. The theme itself has a meaning and is the basic unit of the Athabaskan verbal lexicon."Template:Sfn In addition to a verb stem, a typical theme consists of a classifier, one or more conjunct prefixes, and one or more disjunct prefixes.Template:Sfn

According to Victor Golla (1970, 2001 and others), each Hupa theme falls into one of eight structural classes according to its potential for inflection, along the following three parameters: active vs. neuter, transitive vs. intransitive, and personal vs. impersonal.Template:Sfn

1. Active themes are inflected for aspect-mode categories, while neuter themes are not.
2. Transitive themes are inflected for direct object, while intransitive themes are not.
3. Personal themes are inflected for subject, while impersonal themes are not.

Golla (2001) presents examples of themes from each of the eight structural classes.Template:Sfn Orthography has been changed to conform to the current accepted tribal orthography:

Active themes:

• Transitive

Personal: Template:Gloss

Impersonal: Template:Gloss

• Intransitive

Personal: Template:Gloss

Impersonal: Template:Gloss

Neuter themes:

• Transitive

Personal: Template:Gloss

Impersonal: Template:Gloss

• Intransitive

Personal: Template:Gloss

Impersonal: Template:Gloss

Verb template

As with other Dene languages, the Hupa verb is composed of a verb stem and a set of prefixes. The prefixes can be divided into a conjunct prefix set and disjunct prefix set. The disjunct prefixes occur on the outer left edge of the verb. The conjunct prefixes occur after the disjunct prefixes, closer to the verb stem. The two types of prefixes can be distinguished by their different phonological behavior. The prefix complex may be subdivided into 10 positions, modeled in the Athabaskanist literature as a template, as follows:

Hupa verb template

11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0
Template:Gcl	thematic material	Template:Gcl/aug-thematic	Template:Gcl.Template:Gcl	Template:Gcl	thematic material	Template:Gcl	Template:Gcl-thematic	mode-Template:Gcl	Template:Gcl.Template:Gcl/Template:Gcl.Template:Gcl	classifier (voice/valency marker)	verb stem

Pronouns, pronominal inflection

Hupa verbs have pronominal (i.e., pronoun) prefixes that mark both subjects and objects. The prefixes can vary in certain modes, particularly the perfective mode (See e.g., Mode and Aspect for a discussion of modes in Navajo, a related Dene language). The prefixes vary according to person and number. The basic subject prefixes are listed in the table below:

		Subject Prefixes		Object Prefixes
		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st person		-wh-	-di-	-wh-	-noh-
2nd person		ni-	-oh-	ni-
3rd person	animate	-chʼi-		xo-
	obviative	yi-		-Ø-
	indefinite	kʼi-		-Ø-
	impersonal (areal-situational)	-xo-		-Ø-
Reflexive		–		ʼa꞉di-
Reciprocal		–		n- łi

The subject prefixes occur in two different positions. The first and second subject prefixes (-wh- (or allomorph -e꞉ ), -di-, -ni-, -oh-) occur in position 2, directly before the classifier (voice/valency) prefixes. The animate, obviative, indefinite and "areal-situational" subject prefixes (chʼi-, yi-, kʼi- and xo-) are known as "deictic subject pronouns" and occur in position 8.

The direct object prefixes occur in position 7.

The Hupa free personal subject pronouns are as follows:

	singular	plural
1st person	whe꞉	nehe
2nd person	ning	nohni
3rd person	xong, min (low animacy)	xong

Golla (2001) notes that the 3rd person free pronouns are very rarely used, with demonstrative pronouns being used in their place.Template:Sfn

Demonstrative pronouns

• < Template:Gloss
• < Template:Gloss ( Template:Gloss)
• < Template:Gloss ( Template:Gloss)
• < Template:Gloss ( Template:Gloss)
• < Template:Gloss ( Template:Gloss)

Bibliography

• Template:Cite thesis

External links

• Danny Ammon's Hupa Language Page
• Hupa language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• Hupa Language Dictionary and Texts
• Hupa basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
• OLAC resources in and about the Hupa language