Southeastern Pomo language


Southeastern Pomo, also known by the dialect names Elem Pomo, Koi Nation Lower Lake Pomo and Sulfur Bank Pomo, is one of seven distinct languages comprising the Pomoan language family of Northern California. In the language's prime, Southeastern Pomo was spoken primarily in an area surrounding East Lake and Lower Lake, in Lake County, along the eastern coast of Clear Lake, in Northern California by the Pomo people. Southeastern Pomos inhabited an area on the northern bank of Cache Creek, and the Sulfur Bank Rancheria. Dialectal differences between the two sites of habitation seem to be minimal, and may be limited to a small number of lexical differences.

Phonology

Vowels

Southeastern Pomo has six vowels, as depicted in the following table. Vowels that are inserted via epenthesis sometimes depend upon the adjacent consonants. Because of the variability of inserted vowels, they have been hypothesized to be excrescent. Southeastern Pomo is the only language in the Pomoan language family with only a marginal vowel length distinction.

Consonants

The consonants in Southeastern Pomo are as laid out in the following table. Following Moshinsky, if the parenthesized segments were to be removed, the inventory of segments would be present at a systematic phonemic and abstract phonemic level. The voiced stop /d/, can in some cases be retroflexed, as in the production of the word 'gopher snake'. The ejective stops of /k/ and /q/ are often distinguished by articulatory position.

Stress

Words are stressed on the first syllable. Although, in some cases a short epenthetic vowel is inserted to break up word-initial consonant clusters. Examples of these cases are:
In cases of loanwords, which are often borrowed from Spanish, the stress is changed from later stresses that are found in the Spanish language to an initial stress. Some examples of words that are borrowed from Spanish are as follows:
Primary stress is applied to the first stem vowel within the categories of noun and verb, this vowel is also often the first phonemic vowel in the word. Although there are two distinct exceptions to this rule: when a directional prefix comes before the vowel and in reduplication, when the vowel is the second occurrence in the stem.

Stress Placement

Examples of this, as noted by Moshinsky are:
/ca+qla+m+t/ 'it flew down to the ground'
→ cáqlamat		/cicala/ 'pea'
→ cícala		/qlacac/ 'woodpecker'
→ qəlácac

Phonological processes

Sonorant Syllabicization

In this phonological rule, /m/ and /l/ become syllabic when they precede a consonant which has the same point or articulation. Examples of this are as follows:
/lde/ 'mountain lion'/lṭa/ 'shoulder blade'/mpu+k+t/ 'he whistles'/mbo+l+k+t/ 'it exploded'
→ ldé
→ ḷdé		→ lṭá
→ ḷṭá		→ mpú+k+t
→ ṃpú+k+t
→ ṃpú+ki+t
→ ṃpúkit		→ mbó+l+k+t
→ ṃbó+l+k+t
→ ṃbó+l+ki+t
→ ṃbólkit

D-Deletion

This rule is as follows: d → ø / _ C
D-deletion occurs when it appears before a consonant, and Moshinsky has hypothesized that this may occur in order to eliminate two-consonant clusters when the first consonant is an alveolar stop or resonant. Some examples of d-deletion in Southeastern Pomo are:
/lod+t/ 'my hair is falling out'/bṭed+lay/ 'women'
→ lód+t
→ ló+t
→ lót		→ bṭéd+lay
→ bəṭéd+lay
→ biṭéd+lay
→ biṭé+lay
→ biṭélay

Pretonic Vowel Epenthesis

This rule inserts a schwa between stem-initial consonants, preceding the stress vowel. This phonological process most often appears in the most difficult to articulate constant clusters, such as two stops.
/blay/ 'blood'/qbandu x̣le/ 'white oak tree'
→ bláy
→ bláy
→ buláy		→qbándu x̣lé
→qbándu x̣lé ~ qbándu x̣lé
→qbàndu x̣lé

Vowel Lowering

This rule lowers /i/ and /u/ to /e/ and /o/, respectively. This lowering occurs morpheme-finally: /i/ lowering before /s/, /u/ before /cʹ/ and both /i/ and /u/ lowering before /l/.
/ca+mlu+l+t/ 'he ran around'/cʹi+mkʹu+cʹ+t/ 'those three are fighting each other'
→ cá+mlu+l+t
→ cá+mlu+li+t
→cá+mlo+li+t
→cámlolit		→ cʹí+mkʹu+cʹ+t
→ cʹí+mkʹu+cʹi+t
→ cʹí+mkʹo+cʹi+t
→cʹímkʹocʹit

Stop Metathesis

This rule metathesizes the last two segments of the suffix -mkʹu- when it is directly preceded by a consonant.
/pʹutʹ+mkʹu+t/ 'they kissed each other'/mxex+mkʹu+tta+t/ 'the two of them swapped something'
→ pʹútʹ+mkʹu+t
→ pʹútʹ+mukʹ+t
→ pʹútʹ+mukʹi+t
→pʹútʹmukʹit		→ mxéx+mkʹu+tta+t
→ mxéx+mukʹ+tta+t
→ mxéx+mukʹ+ta+t
→mxéxmukʹtat

Morphology

Nouns

Noun morphology is significantly more limited than among verbs. However, there are still some cases of morphological rules.

[Reduplication]

There are some nouns that show reduplication. As noted by Moshinsky, these nouns include derived verbs, and the semantic domains of small animals, plants and birds. Below are a few examples of nouns with reduplication in the Southeastern Pomo language:

Verbs

Verbs take a great variety of suffixes divided into many position classes. There are also instrumental prefixes that figure crucially in the use of many verb stems.

Position classes

Moshinsky identifies the following position classes; it can be seen that there is far more complexity in the set of suffixes than in the prefixes.
Reduplicative Morphemes
  • HAB habitual
  • INST intensive
  • DISTR distributed
  • ITCOM iter. to comp.
  • PLS plural source
  • PLF plural figure
  • ITER iterative
Suffix Position 1
  • -b- intensive change
  • -š- forceful contact
  • -pʹ- with force
  • -t- iterative
  • -y- plural figure
    		• Suffix Position 2 Directionals
  • -mlu- circulative
  • -qla- downward
  • -qlo-~-ql- upward
    		• Suffix Position 3
  • -mg- down towards a surface
  • -qc- causative
  • -qp- non-singular
  • -qx- to away from
    		• -
    Suffix Position 4
  • -mi- iterative
  • -n- figure separation
    		• Suffix Position 5
  • -mkʹu- reciprocal
  • -w- plural action
    		• Suffix Position 6
  • -ki- inceptive
  • -kp- plural figure, source
  • -ks- semelfactive
    		• Suffix Position 7
  • -mp- plural source
  • -ćx- to away
    		• -
    Suffix Position 8
  • -cʹr- reflexive
  • -kp- plural figure, source
    		• Suffix Position 9
  • -l- durative
    		• Suffix Position 10
  • -cʹp- plural action
  • -qc- causative
  • -qp- non-singular
  • -ki- inceptive
    		• Suffix Position 11
  • -x̣ot- negative
    		• -
    Suffix Position 12
  • -tta- dual
    		• Suffix Position 13MODE
    • -d- potential
    • -dey- about to
    • -mlaʔm- almost
    		Suffix Position 14

    Reduplication

    There are six verb affixes that are realized phonologically by reduplication, and they are as follows:
    1. Habitual
    2. Intensive
    3. Iterative
    4. Iterative to Completion
    5. Plural source of motion
    6. Plural figure
    Many, but not all, verb stems that occur with reduplication can also occur without it. There are four reduplication rules for verbs, that accompany the reduplicative morphemes in the above table.
    Reduplication 1. Stem reduplication, + + Root → ++Root++Root
    • /b+la+ITCOM+k+t/ → bláblàtkit 'lap it up'
    Reduplication 2. Directional prefix + -o-
    • /qʹwo+ITCOM+t/ → qʹwóqʹwòt 'cough something up'
    Reduplication 3. Stem-final Consonant Loss
    • /ʔ+loy+HAB+l+t/ → ʔlóylòlit 'he skins an animal every day'
    Reduplication 4. Root+Suffix, Root+Suffix → Root+Suffix+Root+Suffix
    • /ʔ+na+PLF+t/ → ʔnáʔnàt '1 ties 3 up'

      Instrumental prefixes

    Instrumental prefixes in Southeastern Pomo are significantly more limited than other Pomo languages. Moshinsky found that this is the result of a pre-Southeastern Pomo phonological rule which deleted an unstressed vowel that preceded the stressed root vowel, reducing in shape from CV- to C-. Because many of the prefixes are now rather similar, there is reduced analyzability of their meanings. The instrumental prefixes are as follows:
    • ʔ- 'with the hand'
    ʔbóʔkit 'pull a plant out of the ground'
    ʔbétit 'destroy, run out of'
    • ʔ- 'with one or more fingers or claws'
    ʔlótit 'touch with the finger'
    • b- 'with a protrusion; with the mouth, tongue, beak; talking, eating'
    bqóyit 'to chop something into two pieces'
    • b- 'handling a number of objects'
    bʔélit 'gather food'
    cdót 'see'
    • c- 'with a massive object, with a knife'
    cqát 'he put it down'
    • cʹ- 'momentaneous, intensive action, projecting from a surface'
    cʹlétit 'it's dripping'
    • f- 'with the end of a long object'
    fádakʹit 'to dress a deer'
    • f- 'with the side of a long object, piercing'
    fqʹálit 'knock nuts off a tree'
    • k- 'poking, piercing, pounding, squeezing, mashing'
    kcát 'to kick'
    • m- 'with a projection at the end of a long object; with the fingers, with the butt of the hand, with the foot'
    mdútkit 'squeeze with the fingers'
    • m- 'with internal energy; with heat, exploding, burning; with the emotions'
    mhólkit 'wood turns to charcoals'
    • m- 'with the projected end of an object'
    mpúkit 'to whistle, blow a whistle'
    • q- 'with a biting, scratching, tearing, mashing action'
    qcékit 'to eat along with, in addition to'
    • s- 'cutting, slicing, shearing'
    sqóyit 'cut with scissors; saw off"
    • s- 'with water'
    swótkiqat 'dissolve'
    • š- 'with a long, often flexible object'
    šbút 'weave a basket'
    • š- 'spreading out, stretching'
    šmó 'foam'
    • x̣- 'break, undo'
    x̣lókit 'unwind, tear down, erase'
    As noted by Sally McLendon, most of the prefixes are cognate with prefixes in Pomoan languages. Among those that are not direct cognates with the prefixes in these other languages, they are highly related. An example of this with two languages in the Pomoan family is c- 'with the front end, by flowing water';, which is cognate with Kashaya /cû/ and may be related to Eastern Pomo /ku-/.

    Syntax

    Word Order

    While Moshinsky notes that Southeastern Pomo has a somewhat free word order, and that sentences are often generated in the neutral order, Southeastern Pomo is a largely SOV language.
    Some examples of this are as follows:
    • cʹada wil da cix̣otkle. - 'No one bothered us.'
    • ʔà yìl syímya. - 'I borrowed it.'
    Object-Verb sentences are also exemplified in the Moshinsky grammar:
    • xa qlakmat, bxe cʹamat, xacʹit cʹamat. - 'We went fishing, deer hunting, mudhen hunting'

      Case Marking

    Southeastern Pomo is classified as a nominative-accusative in nature. Some examples of this syntactic feature, as noted by Bernard Comrie are:
    • hàyu wóʔwòʔkikle. - 'The dog barks.'
    • mà ba mè l bxè bkúq’ha. - 'Did you shoot this deer?'
    • ʔa tilodeyʔha. - 'Should I leave?'
    • cada wi l da cʹix̣otkle. - 'No one bothered us.'
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