Tolowa language

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The Tolowa language (also called Chetco-Tolowa, or Siletz Dee-ni) is a member of the Pacific Coast subgroup of the Athabaskan language family. Together with three other closely related languages (Lower Rogue River Athabaskan, Upper Rogue River Athabaskan or Galice-Applegate and Upper Umpqua or Etnemitane) it forms a distinctive Oregon Athabaskan cluster within the subgroup.

Geographic distribution

At the time of first European contact Tolowa was spoken in several large and prosperous village communities along the Del Norte County coast in the far northwestern corner of California and along the southern coast of adjacent Curry County, Oregon. Today the term Tolowa (or sometimes Smith River) is used primarily by those residing in California, most of whom are affiliated with the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation. Those residing in Oregon, most of whom are affiliated with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz southwest of Portland, where their ancestors were removed in the 1850s (Beckham 1971), refer to themselves as Chetco, Tututni, or Deeni.

For details of the linguistic documentation of Chetco-Tolowa and a survey of Oregon Athabaskan phonology and grammar, see Golla (2011:70-75).

Tolowa language revitalization

Loren Bommelyn, a fluent speaker and linguist, has published several pedagogical books and teaches young Tolowa students in Crescent City, California.

Three alphabets have been used since the formation of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Language program, sponsored by the Del Norte Indian Welfare Association in 1969. The first was a Tolowa version of the Uni-fon alphabet, written by hand.

Unifon Tolowa alphabet
File:Latin capital letter Tl.svg X B C Ↄ D E Ɪ G H File:Latin capital letter I with long stroke overlay.svg File:Latin capital letter stirrup I.svg J K L M N File:Latin capital letter phonotypic Eng.svg O File:Latin capital letter vertically barred O.svg File:Latin capital letter O with low half vertical bar.svg File:Latin capital letter O-with-right-half-horizontal-stroke I.svg P R S T U File:Latin capital letter closed U.svg W Y

A new Practical Alphabet was devised in 1993 for purposes of typing on the computer. In 1997, Loren Bommelyn developed an alphabet which did not require a barred l or nasal hook characters called the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Alphabet.[1][2]

Siletz Dee-ni

Siletz Dee-ni is a form of Tolowa historically spoken by members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians on the Siletz Indian Reservation in Oregon, "restricted to a small area on the central Oregon coast". According to a report by the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, it is the last of many languages spoken on the reservation and was said in 2007 to have only one living speaker.[3] However, the language has since been at least partially revived, and in some areas, ‘many now text each other in Siletz Dee-ni’.[4]

Courses for 6th- through 8th-graders have been offered at Oregon's Siletz Valley Charter School. Alfred "Bud" Lane has gathered 14,000 words of Siletz Dee-ni, in an online audio/picture dictionary for the use of the community.[5][6][7]

Phonology

As with many Athabaskan languages, Tolowa features contrasting aspirated, unaspirated, and ejective stops, as well as contrasting vowel length and nasality. Tolowa is not fully tonal, but instead has a pitch accent.[8] This is typical of the Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages.

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain sibilant retroflex plain lab.
Occlusive unaspirated Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
aspirated Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
ejective Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
Continuant voiceless Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
voiced Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
Sonorant plain Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
glottalized Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink

/ɬ/ is affricated to Template:IPAblink after vowels. /j/ is realized as Template:IPAblink after nasal vowels.[8]

Vowels

Front Central Back
short long short long short long
Close oral Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
nasal Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Close-mid Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Open oral Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
nasal Template:IPA link Template:IPA link

Tolowa vowels have some degree of allophonicity. /u/ and /o/ are in free variation; Template:IPAblink is an allophone of /a/ after palatals and velars; /ə/ is raised to Template:IPAblink near palatals and to Template:IPAblink before velars, and is nasalized ([ə̃]) before nasal consonants.[8] In addition, Tolowa has three diphthongs: [ai], [au], and [ui].[9]

Alphabet

Syllables are usually separated with an en dash (-) for clarity. The 1997 Tolowa Dee-niʼ alphabet (below) replaces the special characters ą, į, ɨ, ł, ų, and ʉ with a~, i~, lh, u~ and v, respectively. Note that the distinction between ɨ and ʉ is lost.

Tolowa Dee-niʼ alphabet [9]
Spelling a aa a~ aa~ b ch chʼ d dr e ee g gh gw h i ii i~ ii~ kʼ krʼ l lh m n p s sh sr t t’ trʼ tsʼ u uu u~ uu~ v w x xw y ʼ
Phoneme a aː ã ãː p tʃʰ tʃʼ t tʃ e eː k ɣ kʷ h i iː ĩ ĩː kʼ kʷʼ l ɬ m n pʰ s ʃ ʂ tʰ t’ ʈʂʼ tsʼ u uː ũ ũː ə w x xʷ j ʔ

Notes

Template:Reflist

Bibliography

  • Beckham, Stephen Dow (1971). Requiem for a People: The Rogue River Indians and the Frontiersmen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Bommelyn, Loren (1995). Now You're Talking Tolowa. Arcata: Humboldt State University, Center for Indian Community Development.
  • Collins, James (1998). Understanding Tolowa Histories: Western Hegemonies and Native American Responses. London: Routledge
  • Golla, Victor (2011). California Indian Languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. Template:ISBN.
  • Macnaughtan, Don. Oregon Athapaskan Languages: Bibliography of the Athapaskan Languages of Oregon.

External links

Template:Sister project

Template:Athabaskan languages Template:Languages of Oregon Template:Languages of California

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  9. ↑ a b Siletz Talking Dictionary
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