Re: Help with US SW langs + new lang

On Thu, 14 Mar 2002, Dirk Elzinga wrote:
>
> I wonder why you think that immigrant Modzhi speakers would be more
> likely to accept influence from native languages of the region
> *there* than either Spanish or English speakers have *here*. Spanish
> and English have adopted occasional loanwords, but there has been no
> other perceptible influence from the native languages of the region.
> Now a related question would be how the native population would alter
> the immigrant Modzhi language -- the analogue *there* to "Indian
> English" *here*. But I suspect that that's not what you're after.
Well, for one I think that because a large part of the Modzhi are still
"nature worshippers" (for lack of knowing a better term), they would adapt
the names of local flora and fauna from the local languages.

I understand what you are saying, though; it's like how Mansi *here* took
on many Russian loans, but not vice versa. I think, though, that the
Modzhi had quite mixed in with the locals, and while smaller nations
(example, the Shuswap) were directly assimilated (with perhaps
regionalisms and a different accent from that of the Capital), the larger
nations exerted perhaps a bit of influence on Modzhi in that since the
Empire is divided into Dominions with the largest of the local languages
having co-official status with Modzhi in that Dominion (example, Utah
could be one of the Dominions, with Ute and Modzhi being the official
languages), I think the fact that the local language is official there and
probably in equal use, some transfer of words would occur. For the most
part I think this would be regionalisms, I think the more common ones, for
example those from a language with a large number of speakers like Ute,
might well pass into the standard language, though of course those which
come from Halkomelem into the Capital district dialect of Modzhi would be
most present in standard Modzhi. Nevertheless, for a bit of flavour I
wouldn't mind having some words from other languages too :)

>
> That said, I suspect that the most influential languages would be the
> Numic languages Shoshoni and Ute. I say this not because I'm partial
> to them (which I am :-), but because they are spread across the
> widest area. Shoshoni is spread across the whole of the Great Basin
> (except for the corner occupied by Washo speakers), and the Utes
> occupy the Rocky Mountain valleys of Utah and Colorado. Northern
> California is a patchwork of small ethnic groups which don't seem to
> have banded together in any significant way. There were some
> charismatic Shoshoni and Ute leaders who managed to muster widely
> separated bands for military purposes, though.
>
If Northern California is like that, then I think the nations there would
probably be directly assimilated into Modzhi (or, perhaps, the nearest
large native group), similar to BC.

Can you recommend sources for names of flora and fauna in Ute and
Shoshoni? Also, a map which would illustrate where what languages
are/were?

Lastly: What was the largest that Tohono O'odham ever was?

Cheers, Ferko

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