Background

Hikóómayíi is a highly endangered language, spoken with full fluency by a few dozen people (all over the age of 50), plus several hundred individuals (including some adolescents) with passable competency or who are able to understand but not speak it. The form spoken by younger individuals shows a number of simplifications and features heavily influenced by the dominant language of the region, Réĝledh, and such speakers tend to code-switch between Hikóómayíi and Réĝledh (which is understood by all members of the community). This story was told by an elderly fluent native speaker, and is representative of "traditional" Hikóómayíi.

Hikóómayíi speakers live in a desert, similar ecologically to the Chihuahuan Desert of North America.

Hikóómayíi is part of the larger Gonyii family, and specifically of the Moose branch. It is phonologically highly divergent from other Moose languages, although grammatically it seems to be more conservative and less innovative than most of its sisters. Phonological changes that have served to make Hikóómayíi highly distinct include:

• *k → ʔ, followed by *l, *t → k
  e.g. *kooli "dog" > ʔááki (cf. cognates: kol, goola, kolɨ, koohe, chuli, kuuri, koyi)

• *p → x (→ s in most contexts)
  e.g. *pohthii "vulture" > sačíí (cf. cognates: pse, vošii, pɨshi, poosii, boshi, həətthii, peesi)

• *ts → h /__i(ː), e(ː)
  e.g. *tsilaa "person" > hkóó (cf. cognates tsla, šalaa, chɨla, tsiraa, silo, ṭṣaa, činõ)

• *w → m /__i(ː)
  e.g. *weeyo "fish hook" > mííya (cf. cognates: wey, geeyo, wiyɨ, eeʔo, wisho, wiə)

• *w → b in a number of environments
  e.g. *aawa "two" > hóobo (cf. cognates: aw, aawa, awə, aaʔa, owa, aava, hõwa)

• *q → w
  e.g. *√qaatsoo "go" > |wóóθáá| (cf. cognates: |qatso|, |kacho|, |ʔaatsoo|, |g(os)u|, |kõnčo|)

• *a(ː) and *o(ː) appear to "switch" in most environments (cf. most examples above)

• *kk → w~y (depending on environment, and sometimes further → b)
  e.g. *ⁿdaakke "ash tree" > bóóyi (cf. cognates: nnakʸ, naaše, dahkə, raakke, noche, ḍaakkə, gõnča)
  *nahthekko "sage" > nočíwa (cf. cognates: sekʸ, našeko, nasekko, nashecho, naasahkə)
  *hiikk "harrier" > híib (cf. cognates: ekʸ, hihk, hiik, yich, çíìk, hihk)

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

Unimportant!

Tone

There are two tonemes: high (marked with acute accents: <á>, <áá>) and low/falling, realized as low on short vowels, and falling on long vowels (low tone is unmarked: <a>; while falling is marked with acute+unmarked: <áa>). Hikóómayíi is the only tonal Moose language, and high and falling tones historically derive from stressed vowels. Pre-Hikóómayíi had an iambic stress pattern, with every long vowel stressed as well as every other short vowel counting rightwards from the beginning of the word or the most recent long vowel. At some point after stress was converted to tone, a rule (still productive in modern Hikóómayíi) arose that lowered the tone of any vowel in a closed syllable. Later simplification of many clusters rendered the system somewhat opaque.

In the synchronic underlying representation, three tone categories can be recognized: (a) high tone vowels, (b) low tone vowels, and (c) variable-tone vowels (marked with superscript "H"). High tone vowels surface with high tone unless blocked by a following cluster, word final consonant, or morpheme that always conditions preceding low tone (which are marked with leading <`>). Low tone vowels always surface with low tone. Variable-tone vowels surface as high tone if they are an even number of syllables from the beginning of the word, the most recent long vowel, or the most recent (underlying) high tone vowel (again, unless blocked by a cluster or `-morpheme).

Phonological Processes

There are several important phonological processes illustrated in the story. One of the most pervasive is penultimate vowel deletion (PVD). PVD deletes penultimate (surface) low tone short vowels. It is blocked (a) when the antepenult is also low tone, (b) when the penult precedes a surface or historical consonant cluster, (c) when the penult is part of one of the aspectual suffixes, and (d) irregularly before certain morphemes, such as the inanimate plural noun suffix.

PVD is illustrated in a number of words in the story, but one recurring example involves the word for "old man." Underlyingly this is //káʔahóow// (including the obviative suffix -`:w). However, the low tone penultimate vowel -a- is deleted by PVD, so this word surfaces throughout the story as kaʔóow (with lowering of the tone of the -á- when preceding a cluster, followed by simplification of the resulting -ʔh- cluster). The underlying penultimate vowel resurfaces when other suffixes are applied that render -a- no longer in the penult: //káʔahó-:wáá// (old.man-pej) = káʔahóówáá (line 54).

Another example, illustrating both the tone rules and PVD, is the term for "mat," which is underlying //saᴴyiᴴhiᴴpaᴴn//. By the tone rules this becomes intermediate //sayíhipán// > //sayíhipan//. By PVD, this then becomes //sayíhpan//, followed by lowering of the tone in the closed syllable, resulting in surface sayihpan (e.g. line 21). Adding a prefix to the stem for "mat" results in a different surface tone arrangement (and blocked PVD due to a high tone penult): //ka-saᴴyiᴴhiᴴpaᴴn// > kasáyihípan "OBV's mat" (line 19).

Other important processes include rules of cluster simplification/modification (for example, ʔ-y over a morpheme boundary surfaces as t, as in //θááwóó-fóóʔ-yóó-yoᴴ// > θááwóófóotóóyo "he grabbed them" (line 56)); resolution of vowel hiatuses through either glottal stop epenthesis or deletion of the second vowel; and the treatment of the morphophoneme // I //, which is deleted in metrically weak position as in (1) below, and in metrically strong position surfaces as i in open syllables ((2) below) and as o in (underlying or surface) closed syllables ((3) below).

(1) //sóó-θIᴴ-ho-θoᴴč-`yóos-yoᴴ// > sóoθhoθočóošyo
"(the other one) said to him"
(e.g. line 25)

(2) //ʔááxi-θIᴴ-ho-sóó-`yóos// > ʔááxiθíhosóoyóos
"(the other one) said it to him"
(line 49)

(3) //sohIᴴk// > sohok
"spring"
(passim)

Grammatical Overview

Animacy

Hikóómayíi nouns are either animate or inanimate. Animate nouns include all humans, animals, and spiritual beings. Inanimate nouns include plants and most non-living objects and abstract concepts. However, there are a handful of notionally inanimate nouns that are treated as grammatically animate, including -fIᴴhaᴴmi- "face," háaská "fire," -hkíí- "penis," koxákíič "arrowhead," -miᴴxiᴴ- "tongue," nop "alcohol," nóósíípan "mescal," spóóhi "seed," šáapó "edible leafy plant," θinišxá "pus," -θoᴴʔííł- "claw," -θoᴴšoᴴ- "finger," and θóóhíí "prickly pear." It's not always clear why these nouns are classified as animate, although some trends are apparent. Many of these unexpected animates can be classified as items with "spiritual power" (alcoholic drinks, fire, arrowheads [which take away life]), items related to generating life (seed, penis), and body parts that either have a clear connection with a person's soul/emotions (face) or are small and highly mobile and have a certain degree of 'agency' (tongue, finger, claw, penis again).

Animacy is instantiated in a number of areas in the grammar. Singular nouns are not overtly marked for animacy, but animate and inanimate nouns have distinct plural suffixes. There are distinct pronouns for animate and inanimate third person (woyóok third singular animate (proximate), ka third singular inanimate, θóó third plural animate (proximate), and θoʔob third plural inanimate). Verbal person cross-referencing also distinguishes (proximate) animate and inanimate third persons (with inanimate merged with obviative third person). Only animate nouns are sensitive to obviative assignment (see below). Inverse marking is determined by a prominence hierarchy in which animate nouns outrank inanimates (see below). Finally, many derivational verb suffixes can only occur with animate or inanimate referents. For example, -θóó ("be quality, be description, be [noun]") forms intransitive verbs with inanimate subjects; -yoᴴč (same meaning) forms intransitive verbs with animate subjects:

(4) |ʔaᴴkiᴴ|-θóó > -ʔakíθóó-
old-be:inan
"(it) is old"

(5) |ʔaᴴkiᴴ|-yoᴴč > -ʔakíyoč-
old-be:an
"(s/he) is old"

Obviation

Animate third persons are also marked as either proximate or obviative. In a given section of discourse, there can only be one proximate animate NP; all other animate NPs are obviative. The proximate NP is generally the most topical participant in the discourse, though there are some specific rules of obviation assignment — for example, in a sentence with a human and an animal participant, the human is always given proximate status; while one animate third person referent possessed by another must be obviative (the possessor can be proximate or obviative, depending on the prior discourse situation). Obviation assignment can be switched (with "proximate" status assigned to a different NP) by restating the newly-proximate NP without obviative marking, though this is not as frequent in Hikóómayíi as in most natlangs which have obviation. There are no obviation switches in this story, in which Mosquito remains proximate throughout, while the old man, as well as any other occasional animate nouns (e.g. "scorpion" in line 22) are marked as obviative.

Obviation, along with switch reference (see below) can be a useful method of clarifying participant reference without using overt pronouns or NPs. Overt NPs and third person pronouns are rare in this story — there are 8 animate third person pronouns (6 proximate, 2 obviative), 8 instances of Mosquito's name, and 10 overt references to the old man (excluding within reports of Mosquito's speech). Most participant reference is instead accomplished through verbal inflections, switch reference marking, and obviation assignment. (By contrast, in the English translation, there are 82 animate third person subject or object pronouns [outside direct speech reports], 15 instances of Mosquito's name, and 19 overt references to the old man.)

Obviation is marked on nouns with the suffix -iw/-`:w. Personal pronouns also distinguish proximate (3sprox woyóok, 3pprox θóó) from obviative (káá). Demonstratives also agree in obviation with the NP they modify (e.g. spa Wíixšííʔasay "(that) Mosquito", line 1; vs spáaw kaʔóow "that (obv) old man (obv)," line 39). Obviatives are marked the same as inanimates in verbal inflection, in opposition to proximate animates.

Number

Nouns are obligatorily marked for singular versus plural number. Singular nouns are unmarked (-Ø) while plural proximate animates suffix -oł/-`:ł and plural inanimates suffix -wos/-šos/-bos. Obviatives are unmarked for number, and the obviative suffix takes the place of the proximate plural suffix. Pronouns and verb inflection also distinguish singular and plural number for most persons (including separate pronouns for 1pl inclusive and 1pl exclusive, though clusivity is not distinguished in verbal inflection). Demonstratives agree in number with the NP they modify (as in span wa-kiθówos "on those rocks", line 32).

A few verbs are lexically specified for the number of their absolutive participant, and expressing the same notion for the opposite number requires use of a different, unrelated verb root. These are primarily verbs involving purposeful motion or handling/manipulating an object. There are 4 examples in the story:

• |háačí| "walk (sg subject)" (lines 2, 18, 46)
  (cf. |šIᴴmIᴴk|, "walk (pl subject)")

• |θaᴴmaᴴk| "run (sg subject)" (lines 8, 54)
  (cf. |ʔaᴴθaᴴ|, "run (pl subject)")

• |xiᴴhIᴴx| "fetch (sg object)" (line 38)
  (cf. |naᴴxáá| "fetch (pl object)")

• |θááwóó| "hold (pl object)" (lines 54, 56)
  (cf. |yaᴴyááxon| "hold (sg object)")