another correspondence: Haida q'- : Proto-Miwok *t.-

[Geoffrey Caveney]

I posted previously on this list about the correspondence in core lexicon
items between Haida initial velar stops and Proto-Miwok initial *k- before
a stressed vowel ('liver', 'bone', 'I/my'), and between Haida initial
uvular stops and Proto-Miwok initial *k- before an unstressed vowel
('black', 'night', 'one').

I have found another striking sound correspondence between Haida and
Proto-Miwok: Haida initial /q'-/ corresponds to Proto-Miwok initial /*t.-/.
The Miwok languages have two distinct /t/ phonemes, and the dot after the t
indicates the alveolar /t./ as opposed to the dental /t/. (In the standard
orthography the dot is below the t, which is difficult to reproduce in
computer typing.) I think it is plausible that the Proto-Miwok dental *t-
corresponds to Haida d- and t- while the Proto-Miwok alveolar *t.- could
correspond to Haida q'-.

Initial /*t-/ is relatively rare among Proto-Miwok and Proto-Eastern Miwok
forms, with only 15 such forms reconstructed in Broadbent and Callaghan's
definitive 1960 article, and initial alveolar /*t.-/ is even rarer,
appearing only as an alternative phoneme in 2 such forms. But for both of
these forms there is a corresponding Haida form with initial /q'-/:

Proto-Eastern Miwok **t/t.is*í:nay- 'ant'
Haida *qaj q'iisdang* 'ant'

Proto-Miwok **t/t.yy*... 'to rest'
Haida *q'a* 'sleep'

Further, there are several other comparisons for which the Sierra Miwok
languages have initial alveolar /t.-/ and Haida has initial /q'-/:

Proto-Eastern Miwok **tál*ka- 'skin'
Central Sierra Miwok *t.álka- *'skin'
Southern Sierra Miwok *t.olla *'skin'
Haida *q'ál* 'skin'

Proto-Miwok **ty*... 'to shoot'
Central Sierra Miwok *t.**ýkky- *'to shoot'
Lake Miwok *túw-en *'to shoot' (with dental /t/ but the rest of the form
corresponds closely to the Haida form)
Haida *q'wáan- *'to fire at'

Proto-Sierra Miwok **t.o**ʔ*-nge- 'to sit down'
Haida *q'awa *'sit'

Finally there are a couple more comparisons where the Miwok forms have only
dental /t-/ but they otherwise appear to correspond well to Haida forms
with /q'-/:

Proto-Eastern Miwok **tukú*:n- 'salmon'
Haida *q'áagw *'freshwater sockeye salmon'

Proto-Miwok **túmay* 'stick'
Haida *q'awáay *'plank, board, lumber'

It is striking that in all of these comparisons the Haida forms have the
specific phoneme /q'-/, the uvular ejective stop, not just any uvular stop.
With such a small number of Proto-Miwok forms with initial alveolar /*t.-/,
the probability of such a significant number of them corresponding to Haida
forms with initial /q'-/ by chance coincidence must be extremely small.

Geoffrey Caveney
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/athapbasckan-l/attachments/20130811/2e801e38/attachment.htm>