Re: Piata (was: Re: Invaluable conlang links: new site)

Roger Mills wrote:

> Near what town?  I can hop in my car and do field work
> for you :-))) Perhaps they've started a casino.
:) I was thinking somewhere between Traverse City and Manistee.
I've never been to the US, so I'm relying on an atlas from 1986.
(Bad choice of year to make an atlas! :)

If they've indeed started a casino, do you think I can get
in on the revenues, since I'm doing them a major service
by helping them save their language? :)

> I seem to recall, years ago, seeing papers by Mary Haas (?),
> in which she related words from the Calif. languages to Proto
> Alg. by dropping random phonemes out of the protoform. (Well,
> "random" is a little strong; there _was_ a sort-of system.)
> It all seemed a little suspect at the time, though the longer
> you looked at it, the more reasonable it came to seem. I think
> I've still got the copy, we'll see......
> And in fact, I think the relationship is now accepted.
Aha! Very interesting! I don't really want to make an a
posteriori language, but I have to say that this really
helps to make it more naturalistic. I can look at other
languages further off than just the close neighbors. As for
now, I've found online wordlists of Potawatomi and Ojibwe,
which will be used purely for loanwords. But knowing that I
can look at other languages for "inspiration" is, well, inspiring.

If you find the copy and could give me the reference it would
be great!

I only have about 15 words so far, but one of them is actually
a loanword from Chickasaw, and even though it's spoken in
Oklahoma, there are speakers in LA as well.

(The word, btw, is _ili_ 'die', which I included because it's
something me and my girlfriend use when we're annoyed at
someone, but don't really want to yell "Die!" at them. :)

More info on Piata will follow as soon as I write it up.

Daniel Andreasson

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