The Pakawan languages are a proposed small language family formerly spoken in what is today northern Mexico and southern Texas.
Classification
Five clear Pakawan languages are attested: Coahuilteco, Cotoname, Comecrudo, Garza and Mamulique. The first three were first proposed to be related by John Wesley Powell in 1891, in a grouping then called Coahuiltecan. Goddard (1979) groups the latter three in a Comecrudan family while considering the others language isolates. This is followed by more modern scholars.[1] The current composition and the present name "Pakawan" are due to Manaster Ramer (1996).
The term Coahuiltecan languages today refers to a slightly expanded and less securely established grouping. Most Pakawan languages have at times been included also in the much larger and highly hypothetical Hokan "stock".[2]
Common vocabulary
The following word comparisons are given by Manaster Ramer (1996):
Vocalization of word-final *l in Cotoname: 'sun', 'straw', red'
Lenition of *p to /xw/ in Coahuilteco between vowels: #apel', #mapi
Syncope of
Apocope of final e (perhaps /ə/) in Comecrudo: 'man', 'low [water]', 'to kneel'.
/k/, /kw/ in other languages correspond to /x/, /xw/ in Cotoname, when before /a/ ('man', 'low [water]', 'to eat', 'to suck', 'to write'), as well as in Coahuilteco, when before any low vowel (__examples).
/kiV/ in Comecrudo corresponds to /kuV/ in Coahuilteco: 'blood', 'to go'
s ~ l (perhaps indicating a lateral fricative /ɬ/) in Comecrudo corresponds to s in Coahuilteco: Comecrudo 'blood', 'devil', 'to fall'.
Initial y in Comecrudo corresponds to /ts/ in Coahuilteco: I, chest, to hear
^ abcdSwanton, John. 1940. Linguistic material from the tribes of southern Texas and northern Mexico.
^Hoijer, Harry. 1949. An analytical dictionary of the Tonkawa language. University of California publications in linguistics, 5(1). Berkeley: University of California Press.
^Swanton, John R. 1940. Linguistic material from the tribes of Southern Texas and Northeastern Mexico. (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 127). Washington: Government Printing Office.
^del Hoyo, Eugenio. 1960. Vocablos de la Lengua Quinigua de los Indios Borrados del Noreste de México. Anuario del Centro de Estudios Humanisticos, Universidad de Nuevo León 1. 489-515.
^Weitlaner, Roberto J.. 1948. Un Idioma Desconocido del Norte de México. In Actes du XXVIII Congrès International de Américanistes, 205-227. Paris.
^Hoijer, Harry. 1949. An analytical dictionary of the Tonkawa language. University of California publications in linguistics, 5(1). Berkeley: University of California Press.
