Rumsen, Rumsien, Costanoan.

As I had hoped, that Rumsien/Rumsen dictionary did arrive for me today,
via the Interlibrary loan. Turns out this book is a thesis by a Jonathan
Wendell Jackson, and was presented to the Faculty of CSU Fullerton.

Anyway, it only has a dictionary of words, since the source he used had
only made word lists, and not invested time studying the language. The
words were collected in 1878 by an Alphonse Pinart, and then again in 1884
by a H.W. Henshaw. The sources were two indians, both from Carmel Mission
here in California.

Jackson uses c with a caron (upside down ^, no?)for /tS/ i assume. Pinart
writes this as <tc>. Jackson also has a character of c with what looks
like an accent, but I dont know what this sound is, since it's strangely
not listed in his list of sounds (only c with caron is). Pinart shows that
as tj. Pinart shows c as k always. but Henshaw uses it for /S/, except
oddly in one instance: <cai> > /kaj/.

Anyway, here's the symbols / sounds Jackson has for Rumsien (for the
sounds I dont know how to represent, words are given in English, as
Jackson gives them_:

Vowels:

a - as in far, father.
a with half circle shape above (i *think*it's the "breve" ) - close to
what, not
ä - /&/
â - as in law, all, lord (these should all sound the same)
e - /e/
e + "breve"- /E/
ai - /aj/
i - /i/
o - /o/
o + breve - as in german "soll"
u - /u/
u + breve - as in pull,full
ü - as in german kühl
û - /V/ (i think...it's the same as in but, run, son)

Diphthongs

âi - /oj/
au - /au/

Consonants

b -/b/
c + caron - /tS/
c + "accent" (not listed)
d - /d/
f - /f/
g - /g/
h - /h/
k -/k/
m - /m/
n - /n/
p - /p/
r - /r/
s - /s/
s + caron - /S/
t - /t/
w - /w/
y - /j/

Sample words (montreianized at the very ends):

/tSatS/ -  Buckeye (Aesculus californica): chach
/me:nS/ - bull rush,tule: menxe
/sililk/ -  butterfly: sililque
/penEk/ - cat: penec
/pusen/ -  Ceanothus (listed in this book as a species of Chamiso with
blue flowers, and this is the only one I know of): pusen
/SuruS/ - Chamiso (this may be Chamise, or Adenostoma fasciculatum): xurux
/summirx/, /summen/- cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa - Monterey Cypress):
sumirc, sumen
/kakaruS/ - crow: cacarux
/hatS/ - iris: jach
/xeks/ - mountain lion: quecs
/iS/ - Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata): ix
/tottSon/ - toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia): tochon
/tarraS/ - willow : tarrax

This dictionary is absolutely wonderful. Lots of words I can use for
Montreiano that specify things native to the area or to California in
general. However, the discrepencies between the two men who transcribed
the language leave some questions as to the true pronunciation, though it
seems there are variations.



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