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Hupa language

Not to be confused with the Hup language.

Hupa (native name: Na꞉tinixwe Mixine꞉wheʼ, lit. "language of the Hoopa Valley people") is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock) spoken along the lower course of the Trinity River in Northwestern California by the Hoopa Valley Hupa (Na꞉tinixwe) and Tsnungwe/South Fork Hupa (Tse꞉ningxwe) and, before European contact, by the Chilula and Whilkut peoples, to the west.

Hupa
Na꞉tinixwe Mixine꞉wheʼ
Native toUnited States
RegionCalifornia (Hoopa Valley)
Ethnicity2,000 Hupa (2007)
Native speakers
1 (2015, Hupa)[1]
2-3? (1994, Whilkut)[2]
RevivalL2 users: 30 (2007)
Dialects
Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-2hup
ISO 639-3hup
Glottologhupa1239
ELPHupa
Hupa and other Californian Athabaskan languages
Hupa is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Speakers

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The 2000 US Census estimated the language to be spoken by 64 persons between the ages of 5 and 17, including 4 monolingual speakers. As of 2012, there were fewer than 10 individuals whose Hupa could be called fluent, at least one of whom (Verdena Parker) was a fully fluent bilingual.[citation needed] Perhaps another 50 individuals of all ages have restricted control of traditional Hupa phonology, grammar and lexicon. Beyond this, many tribal members share a small vocabulary of words and phrases of Hupa origin.

Phonology

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The consonants of Hupa in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in slashes):

Hupa consonants[3][4]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
central lateral plain labial. plain labial. plain labial.
Nasal m ⟨m⟩ n ⟨n⟩ ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive plain p ⟨b⟩ t ⟨d⟩ kʲ ⟨g, gy⟩[a] (k ⟨G⟩)[b] q ⟨q⟩ ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩
aspirated tʰ ⟨t⟩ kʲʰ ⟨k, ky⟩[a] (kʰ ⟨K⟩)[b]
ejective tʼ ⟨tʼ⟩ kʲʼ ⟨kʼ, kyʼ⟩[a] (kʼ ⟨Kʼ⟩)[b] qʼ ⟨qʼ⟩
Affricate plain ts ⟨dz⟩ tʃ ⟨j⟩
aspirated tsʰ ⟨ts⟩ tʃʷʰ ⟨chw⟩
ejective tsʼ ⟨tsʼ⟩ tɬʼ ⟨tłʼ⟩ tʃʼ ⟨chʼ⟩ (tʃʷʼ ⟨chwʼ⟩)[c]
Fricative s ⟨s⟩ ɬ ⟨ł⟩ (ʃ ⟨sh⟩)[d] x ⟨x⟩ xʷ ⟨xw⟩ h ⟨h⟩ hʷ ⟨wh⟩
Approximant l ⟨l⟩ j ⟨y⟩ w ⟨w⟩
  1. ^ a b c The palatal stops ⟨g⟩, ⟨k⟩, and ⟨kʼ⟩ are written ⟨gy⟩, ⟨ky⟩, and ⟨kyʼ⟩ before the letters ⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩, and ⟨u⟩.
  2. ^ a b c The velar stops ⟨G⟩, ⟨K⟩, and ⟨Kʼ⟩ have a limited distribution; G and K are only found in diminutive words.
  3. ^ The sound ⟨chwʼ⟩ occurs mainly as a variant pronunciation of ⟨chw⟩ in some words.
  4. ^ The sound sh is rare and occurs mainly in exclamations or loanwords.
Hupa vowel phonemes[5]
Front Central Back
Close-mid ɪ ~ e o
Open a

Vowels may be lengthened.

Golla 1996 presents a different vowel system:[4]

Front Central Back
Near-close ɪ ⟨i⟩
Close-mid o ⟨o⟩
Open-mid ɛ ⟨e⟩ ʌ ⟨u⟩
Open ɑ ⟨a⟩

Vowels ɑ, ɛ and o can be lengthened.

Orthography

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The Hupa alphabet is as follows:

Hupa alphabet[4]
Spelling a a꞉ b ch chʼ chw chwʼ d dz e e꞉ g gy h i j k kʼ ky kyʼ l ł m n ng o o꞉ q qʼ s sh t tʼ tł tłʼ ts tsʼ u w wh x xw y ʼ
Phoneme a aː p tʃʰ tʃʼ tʃʷʰ tʃʷʼ t ts ɛ ɛː k kʲ h ɪ tʃ kʰ kʼ kʲʰ kʲʼ l ɬ m n ŋ o oː q qʼ s ʃ tʰ tʼ tɬʰ tɬʼ tsʰ tsʼ ʌ w hʷ χ χʷ j ʔ

Morphology

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Verb themes and classes

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As with other Dene languages, the Hupa verb is based around a theme. Melissa Axelrod has defined a theme as "the underlying skeleton of the verb to which prefixes or strings of prefixes or suffixal elements are added in producing an utterance. The theme itself has a meaning and is the basic unit of the Athabaskan verbal lexicon."[6] In addition to a verb stem, a typical theme consists of a classifier, one or more conjunct prefixes, and one or more disjunct prefixes.[7]

According to Victor Golla (1970, 2001 and others), each Hupa theme falls into one of eight structural classes according to its potential for inflection, along the following three parameters: active vs. neuter, transitive vs. intransitive, and personal vs. impersonal.[8]

  1. Active themes are inflected for aspect-mode categories, while neuter themes are not.
  2. Transitive themes are inflected for direct object, while intransitive themes are not.
  3. Personal themes are inflected for subject, while impersonal themes are not.

Golla (2001) presents examples of themes from each of the eight structural classes.[9] Orthography has been changed to conform to the current accepted tribal orthography:

Active themes:

  • Transitive
Personal: OBJ-ƚ-me꞉n 'fill OBJ'
Impersonal: no꞉=OBJ-d-(n)-ƚ-tan 'OBJ gets used to something'
  • Intransitive
Personal: tsʼi-(w)-la꞉n/lan 'play (at a rough sport)'
Impersonal: (s)-daw 'melt away disappear'

Neuter themes:

  • Transitive
Personal: OBJ-si-ƚ-ʼa꞉n 'have (a round object) lying'
Impersonal: OBJ-wi-l-chwe꞉n 'OBJ has been made, created'
  • Intransitive
Personal: di-n-chʼa꞉t 'ache, be sick'
Impersonal: kʼi-qots 'there is a crackling sound'

Verb template

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As with other Dene languages, the Hupa verb is composed of a verb stem and a set of prefixes. The prefixes can be divided into a conjunct prefix set and disjunct prefix set. The disjunct prefixes occur on the outer left edge of the verb. The conjunct prefixes occur after the disjunct prefixes, closer to the verb stem. The two types of prefixes can be distinguished by their different phonological behavior. The prefix complex may be subdivided into 10 positions, modeled in the Athabaskanist literature as a template, as follows:

Hupa verb template[10]
11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
ADV thematic material PL/aug-thematic 3.SBJ OBJ thematic material ADV DISTR-thematic mode-ASP 1.SBJ/2.SBJ classifier (voice/valency marker) verb stem

Pronouns, pronominal inflection

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Hupa verbs have pronominal (i.e., pronoun) prefixes that mark both subjects and objects. The prefixes can vary in certain modes, particularly the perfective mode (See e.g., Mode and Aspect for a discussion of modes in Navajo, a related Dene language). The prefixes vary according to person and number. The basic subject prefixes are listed in the table below:

Subject Prefixes Object Prefixes
Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st person -wh- -di- -wh- -noh-
2nd person ni- -oh- ni-
3rd
person 		animate -chʼi- xo-
obviative yi- -Ø-
indefinite kʼi- -Ø-
impersonal
(areal-situational) 		-xo- -Ø-
Reflexive – ʼa꞉di-
Reciprocal – n- łi

The subject prefixes occur in two different positions. The first and second subject prefixes (-wh- (or allomorph -e꞉ ), -di-, -ni-, -oh-) occur in position 2, directly before the classifier (voice/valency) prefixes. The animate, obviative, indefinite and "areal-situational" subject prefixes (chʼi-, yi-, kʼi- and xo-) are known as "deictic subject pronouns" and occur in position 8.

The direct object prefixes occur in position 7.

The Hupa free personal subject pronouns are as follows:

singular plural
1st person whe꞉ nehe
2nd person ning nohni
3rd person xong, min (low animacy) xong

Golla (2001) notes that the 3rd person free pronouns are very rarely used, with demonstrative pronouns being used in their place.[11]

Demonstrative pronouns

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  • hay(i) < hay-i 'the one (who)'
  • hay-de꞉ < hay-de꞉-i 'the one here' (de꞉ 'here')
  • hay-de꞉d < hay-de꞉-d-i 'this one here' (de꞉-di 'this here')
  • hay-yo꞉w < hay-yo꞉w-i 'the one there (close)' (yo꞉wi 'there')
  • hay-ye꞉w < hay-ye꞉w-i 'the one in the distance' (ye꞉wi 'yonder')

References

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  1. ^ Hupa at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
  2. ^ Hinton, Leanne (1996). Flutes of fire: essays on California Indian languages (2nd print., rev ed.). Berkeley, Calif: Heyday Books. ISBN 978-0-930588-62-5.
  3. ^ Golla 1970, pp. 25–34.
  4. ^ a b c Golla 1996.
  5. ^ Golla 1970, p. 25.
  6. ^ Axelrod 1993, p. 17.
  7. ^ Sapir & Golla 2001.
  8. ^ Sapir & Golla 2001, p. 817.
  9. ^ Sapir & Golla 2001, p. 818.
  10. ^ adapted from Campbell (2007)
  11. ^ Sapir & Golla 2001, p. 865-866.

Bibliography

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