Nootkan 'mystery language' / SSILA Bulletin #88 (fwd)

[David Robertson]

LaXayEm, shiks,

The mystery language below is Nootkan, isn't it?  Would any of you like to
write to the author of this note with more authoritative information?
I've already sent him a brief note, but some of you are much more expert
with Nootkan than I.

Hayash mehrsi!
Dave

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 08:49:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott DeLancey <delancey at darkwing.uoregon.edu>
Reply-To: ssila at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU
To: ssila at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU

88.3  MYSTERY LANGUAGES IN MISSION NOTEBOOK

>>From John R. Johnson (jjohnson at sbnature2.org) 17 May 1999:

The Santa Barbara Mission Archive Library recently received an old
missionary notebook, the existence of which has been previously unknown
to historians or linguists.  It was used for a variety of purposes.
At Mission Santa Cruz, it served as a record of accounts between 1812
and 1813.  It had briefly seen prior use at Mission Soledad as a two-
page journal/account book from July to October 1795.  Probably most
interesting for SSILA members is that it was used for linguistic
purposes several times while in missionary hands.

I believe the notebook was employed initially as a lexicon to record
terms from two different native languages -- neither apparently Central
or Southern California Indian, at least not from a language used at any
of the missions then in existence.  Later some anonymous missionary (at
Mission Santa Cruz?) recorded an incomplete catechism in the form of
questions and answers about the Catholic faith translated into a Yokuts
language, which is described as being "la Lengua de los Llanos."

With regard to the two vocabularies in the fragmentary lexicon section
(the A and B sections are missing), one -- with 138 surviving entries --
is unidentified, while the other -- with 43 total entries -- is labelled
"Sn. Luis."  I initially got quite excited, thinking that these
vocabularies might have been prepared by the missionary stationed at
Soledad, Fr. Jose' de la Cruz Espi', who signed the journal/account book
section.  Geiger's book on Franciscan missionary biographies notes that
Espi' sometimes officiated at Mission San Luis Obispo.  Also, I wondered
whether the other vocabulary might not be Esselen.  Unfortunately, when

I checked Kathryn Klar's manuscript Obispen~o lexicon and the other
Esselen sources, there were no matches, nor were there for any of the
Salinan, Costanoan, Miwok, or Yokuts dialects.

I also scanned Juanen~o, Luisen~o, Cahuilla, and Dieguen~o word lists,
all to no avail.  So now I am wondering whether these vocabularies might
be in a Northern California, Northwest Coast, Native Alaskan, Baja
California, or Mexican Indian language, because the notebook could have
been used somewhere else before it was brought to California.

Here are a few of the words that were documented in the two languages.
Can anyone identify either of them?

    cabeza 'head':  tocksite (unid.), po (Sn. Luis)

    cabellos 'hair': abstup (unid.), qo (Sn. Luis)

    capitan 'chief': tayy (unid.), s' [or sri'?] (Sn. Luis)

    cielo 'sky':  guacamex (unid.), enani (Sn. Luis)

    comer 'to eat': ajock (unid.), ay (Sn. Luis)

    dientes 'teeth': chichistm (unid.), nixio (Sn. Luis)

    hablar 'to speak':  sisani (unid.), orero (Sn. Luis)

    hijo 'son':  tana (unid.), mataqapu (Sn. Luis)

    hombre 'man':  jacobs (unid.), tanata (Sn. Luis)

    nariz 'nose': kluskoack (unid.), hi-o' (Sn. Luis)

    ojos 'eyes': capsiz (unid.), hinogi (Sn. Luis)

    orejas 'ears': pappe' (unid.), popoya' (Sn. Luis)

    si 'yes': eyoo (unid.), jera (Sn. Luis)

    sol 'sun':  upol (unid.), agi (Sn. Luis)


The following numerals are given in the unidentified language:

    1 sahuac
    2 acla
    3 capsa
    4 mu
    5 sucxa
    6 nup'
    7 aclsp'
    8 atlaqual
    9 sauaqual
   10 ayoo

There are also words given only in the unidentified language for:

    piel de oso 'bear skin': clitac

    piel de nutria 'otter skin': cotlaak

    pino 'pine': such's

With regard to the "doctrina" (catechism), the "Lengua de los Llanos"
looks close to Noptinte Yokuts, but is in a different orthography than
that employed by Fr. Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta (published by Beeler),
and the questions and answers are sometimes written in differently
phrased sentences than those used by Padre Arroyo.  I have transcribed
it and matched quite a few of the words with those presented in Beeler's
article on Noptinte Yokuts.  Randy Milliken made an informed guess that
the notebook might have been used at Mission San Cruz about 1810 when
Yokuts groups from the area around Los Banos came to the mission.

                                                            --John Johnson
                                                   Curator of Anthropology
                                   Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
                                                       2559 Puesta del Sol
                                              Santa Barbara, CA 93105-2998