Comecrudan languages


Comecrudan refers to a group of possibly related languages spoken in the southernmost part of Texas and in northern Mexico along the Rio Grande of which Comecrudo is the best known. Very little is known about these languages or the people who spoke them. Knowledge of them primarily consists of word lists collected by European missionaries and explorers. All Comecrudan languages are extinct.

Family division

The three languages were:
  1. Comecrudo '
  2. Garza '
  3. Mamulique

    Genetic relationships

In John Wesley Powell's 1891 classification of North American languages, Comecrudo was grouped together with the Cotoname and Coahuilteco languages into a family called Coahuiltecan.
John R. Swanton grouped together the Comecrudo, Cotoname, Coahuilteco, Karankawa, Tonkawa, Atakapa, and Maratino languages into a Coahuiltecan grouping.
Edward Sapir accepted Swanton's proposal and grouped this hypothetical Coahuiltecan into his Hokan stock.
After these proposals, documentation of the Garza and Mamulique languages was brought to light, and Goddard believes that there is sufficient similarity between them and Comecrudan for them to be considered genetically related. He rejects all other relationships.
Powell's original Coahuiltecan, renamed Pakawan and extended with Garza and Mamulique, has been defended by Manaster Ramer, who also sees a relationship with Karankawa probable and Atakapa as a more distant possibility.

Evidence

The following table of common core vocabulary constitutes the complete evidence given by Goddard in support of a Comecrudan family:
ComecrudoGarzaMamuliquemeaning
alaiatl'sun'
eskanankan'moon'
apelapiero–'sky'
naknarxekessem'man'
kemkemkem'woman'
apaneklaaxeaha'water'
aaulaie–'road'

Archives