David Leedom Shaul Books

The Esselen language is an isolate within the Hokan phylum that was spoken in Monterey County (California) by five local tribes who formed a regional trade network. Preferred marriage was within each local tribe, except for chiefly families. There were two dialects, but each local tribe must maintained and negociated tribal identity with distrinctive speech. More extensive treatment is given of Esselen phonology and morphosyntax than any previous work on Esselen. New information includes Esselen music, complete treatment of Esselen dialects (Western, Eastern), and the Hokan character of Esselen. Terrence Kaufman's seminal work on comparative Hokan allows for a better understanding of Esselen structure and linguistic prehistory. About 70% of the traceable Esselen morphemes have Hokan etymologies; the rest were borrowed from Uto-Aztecan, Utian, and Chumashan.

Sonoran O'otam: A Description and Prospectus, with a Description of Ati Piman, delineates a Piman variety closely related to the O'odham language of southern Arizona (Akimel and Tohono dialects). Both Sonoran O'otam and O'odham belong to the Tepiman subfamily of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Sonoran O'otam differs from O'odham in several major ways: word order (Sonoran O'otam has less flexible word order); tense-aspect marking (different morphosyntax); development of phonemic tone in some varieties of Sonoran O'otam. The tense-apsect differences show how native Tepiman resources were used to create the auxiliary system used in O'odham for default subject marking. A variety of short texts illustrate Sonoran O'otam in actual use, supported by a detailed vocabulary. An appendix offers information on Sonoran O'otam place names. There is also a definitive account of Ati Piman. While geographically a part of Sonora (west coast, on the Sea of Cortez), Ati Piman is very distinct from both Sonoran O'otam and O'odham, with extremely unusual features that separate it from all other Tepiman languages.

Ausaima Language and Culture: Perspectives on Ancient California David Leedom Shaul School of Anthropology, University of Arizona Ausaima, a previously unknown language of California, is described for the first time using data from a Franciscan document in the language. The sound and meaning patterns of the language are presented, with a complete lexicon. Ausaima (Costanoan/Ohlonean subfamily, Utian language family) presents key evidence that Costanoan/Ohlonean languages were a dialect chain, rather than a clearly branched family tree, confirming the early model of Kroeber. Ausaima data permits a look at the prehistoric sociolinguistics of local tribes (Kroeber's tribelets) in central California from the time of the Windmiller Pattern intrusion into the area during the Middle Holocene (ca. 5,000 to 3,000 BP). The book enlarges the data on contract between Costanoan/Ohlonean (and Utian) and Proto-Uto-Aztecan, which preceded Costanoan/Ohlonean in its historic territory. A definitive ethnographic sketch situates Ausaima and other Costanoan/Ohlonean languages in cultural context. ISBN 9783862888399. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 80. 224pp. 2017.

Focusing on the challenges of language revitalization, this volume critiques the imposition of European national language models on Native American languages. It highlights how such a standardized approach fails to resonate with the linguistic ideologies of Native communities, resulting in ineffective revitalization efforts. Instead, it advocates for a model that embraces language variation and respects community needs, arguing that the current methodology undermines the true purpose of revitalization: promoting meaningful, daily use of heritage languages within their communities.