Mono language (California)

For other uses, see Mono language.
Mono
Native toUnited States
RegionCalifornia
EthnicityMono and Owens Valley Paiute
Native speakers
(41 cited 1994, Mono)[1]
50 (1994, Owens Valley Paiute)
Uto-Aztecan
  • Northern
Dialects
  • Mono
  • Owens Valley Paiute
Language codes
ISO 639-3mnr
Glottologmono1275
ELPMono (United States)
Mono is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Mono (/ˈmoʊnoʊ/ MOH-noh) is a Native American language of the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, the ancestral language of the Mono people. Mono consists of two dialects, Eastern and Western. The name "Monachi" is commonly used in reference to Western Mono and "Owens Valley Paiute" in reference to Eastern Mono.[2] In 1925, Alfred Kroeber estimated that Mono had 3,000 to 4,000 speakers. As of 1994, only 37 elderly people spoke Mono as their first language.[1] It is classified as critically endangered by UNESCO.[3] It is spoken in the southern Sierra Nevada, the Mono Basin, and the Owens Valley of central-eastern California. Mono is most closely related to Northern Paiute; these two are classified as the Western group of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.[2][4]

Western Mono

Story in Mono recorded by the UCLA Phonetics Lab in 1984

The number of Native speakers in 1994 ranged from 37 to 41. The majority of speakers are from the Northfork Rancheria and the community of Auberry. The Big Sandy Rancheria and Dunlap have from 12 to 14 speakers.[1] The Northfork Mono are developing a dictionary, and both they and the Big Sandy Rancheria provide language classes. While not all are completely fluent, about 100 members of Northfork have "some command of the language."[5] In the late 1950s, Lamb compiled a dictionary and grammar of Northfork Mono.[6] The Western Mono language has a number of Spanish loanwords dating to the period of Spanish colonization of the Californias,[7] as well as loanwords from Yokuts and Miwok.[8][9]

Owens Valley Paiute

In the mid-1990s, an estimated 50 people spoke the Owens Valley Paiute language, also known as Eastern Mono.[1] Informal language classes exist and singers keep native language songs alive.[5] Linguist Sydney Lamb studied this language in the 1950s and proposed the name Paviotso, but that was not widely adopted.[10][11]

Phonemes

Vowels

front central back
High i ɨ[a] u
Non-High e a o
  1. ^ Represented phonemically as /y/ by Lamb, but is described as being phonetically [ɨ] after front consonants and [ʉ] after back consonants.
  • Vowel length is also evenly distributed among the dialects.

Consonants

Below is given the consonant phoneme inventory of Northfork Western Mono and Owens Valley Paiute as presented by Lamb (1958) and Liljeblad & Fowler (1986).

Consonants of Western Mono[12]
Bilabial Coronal Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
plain lab. plain lab.
Nasal m n
Plosive p t k kʷ q[a] qʷ ʔ
Affricate ts
Fricative s x h
Semivowel j w
  1. ^ /k/ and /q/ are in semi-complementary distribution: /k/ occurs before /i/ and /e/, /q/ occurs before /o/ and /u/. They contrast only before /a/.
Consonants of Eastern Mono[13]
Bilabial Coronal Palatal Velar Glottal
plain lab.
Nasal m n ŋ ŋʷ
Plosive p t k kʷ ʔ
Affricate ts tʃ
Fricative s h
Semivowel j w
  • Geminated sounds of plosives, nasals and fricatives are also evenly distributed.

Suprasegmental

Lamb (1958) also described four suprasegmental features[which?] that he ascribed phonemic status.

Morphology

Mono is an agglutinative language, in which words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Hinton 1994, p. 30.
  2. ^ a b "Mono." Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley. 2009-2010 (retrieved 6 May 2010)
  3. ^ "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger".
  4. ^ Klein 1959.
  5. ^ a b Hinton 1994, p. 31.
  6. ^ Miller 1986, p. 101.
  7. ^ Kroskrity & Reinhardt 1985.
  8. ^ Loether 1998.
  9. ^ Loether 1993.
  10. ^ Miller 1986, p. 98.
  11. ^ The Handbook of Indians of California, by A. L. Kroeber (1919) says that the Owens Valley Paiutes are Northern Paiute or Mono/Bannock.
  12. ^ Lamb 1958.
  13. ^ Liljeblad & Fowler 1986, pp. 412–434.

Sources

Further reading

  • Bethel, Rosalie; Kroskrity, Paul V.; Loether, Christopher; Reinhardt, Gregory A. (1993). A Dictionary of Western Mono. Los Angeles: American Indian Studies Center, University of California.
  • Lamb, Sydney M. Monachi dictionary (PDF). Ms., Survey of California and Other Indian Languages. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
  • Norris, Evan J. (1986). A Grammar Sketch and Comparative Study of Eastern Mono (PhD dissertation). University of California, San Diego.

Language revitalization