Re: Help with US SW langs + new lang

At 11:55 AM -0800 03/14/02, Frank George Valoczy wrote:
>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?
For the map, look in the Smithsonian Institution's _Handbook of North
American Indians_, vol 11. Lists of flora and fauna are a bit more
difficult to come across. There were two articles written in the
beginning of the 20th century which give Gosiute plant and animal
names, but the transcription is lousy (the author was a biologist,
not a linguist). Crum and Dayley's _Western Shoshoni Grammar_ or
_Western Shoshoni Texts_ have large glossaries with pretty good
coverage (the _Texts_ is probably better for your purposes).
Unfortunately, the Utes have been a little more closed-mouthed; there
is precious little linguistic information on Northern Ute. Southern
Ute has a dictionary published by the tribe; if your local university
libarary has a copy, it's pretty good. If it doesn't, there's not
much chance of getting one anymore -- they aren't responding to
requests for the dictionary or the grammar (at least not to mine).
Sapir's 1930 study of Southern Paiute includes a dictionary as well
which could be useful for the redrocks area of southern Utah/northern
Arizona. In the reprint by Mouton de Gruyter there is also a Northern
Ute Ethnography bound in the same volume (it's in MdG's collected
works of E.S., vol X). Further afield, you might want to look at Kay
Fowler's article in IJAL, vol 49.3. It's on Uto-Aztecan ethnobotany,
but she has some short region-specific lists that might be useful.

>Lastly: What was the largest that Tohono O'odham ever was?
In area or population? I don't know about area, but they are
currently as large in population as they have ever been -- about
25,000 strong in Southern Arizona and adjacent Sonora. I'm guessing
that they never did get further north than Phoenix or further east
than Tucson, but I'm only guessing. I have no idea about their
western or southern boundaries.

>Cheers, Ferko

--
Dirk Elzinga                  Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

Man deth swa he byth thonne he mot swa he wile.
'A man does as he is when he can do what he wants.'

- Old English Proverb

Replies