Yok-Utian is a proposed language family of California . It consists of the Yokuts language and the Utian language family.
11-397: While connections between Yokuts and Utian languages were noticed through attempts to reconstruct their proto-languages in 1986, it was not until 1991 that Yok-Utian was proposed and named by Geoffrey Gamble . Yok-Utian has been further supported by Catherine Callaghan , who has argued for the family's existence on the basis of lexical, morphological, and phonological similarities between
22-440: A reflex is the known derivative of an earlier form, which may be either attested or reconstructed. A reflex that is predictable from the reconstructed history of the language is a 'regular' reflex. Reflexes of the same source are cognates . First, languages that are thought to have arisen from a common proto-language must meet certain criteria in order to be grouped together; this is a process called subgrouping. Since this grouping
33-454: A word), it is likely that this pattern was retained from its mother language. The Most Natural Development Principle states that some alterations in languages, diachronically speaking, are more common than others. There are four key tendencies: The Majority Principle is applied in identifying the most likely pronunciation of the predicted etymon, the original word from which the cognates originated. The Most Natural Development Principle describes
44-481: Is based purely on linguistics, manuscripts and other historical documentation should be analyzed to accomplish this step. However, the assumption that the delineations of linguistics always align with those of culture and ethnicity must not be made. One of the criteria is that the grouped languages usually exemplify shared innovation. This means that the languages must show common changes made throughout history. In addition, most grouped languages have shared retention. This
55-404: Is similar to the first criterion, but instead of changes, they are features that have stayed the same in both languages. Because linguistics, as in other scientific areas, seeks to reflect simplicity, an important principle in the linguistic reconstruction process is to generate the least possible number of phonemes that correspond to available data. This principle is again reflected when choosing
66-411: Is the practice of establishing the features of an unattested ancestor language of one or more given languages. There are two kinds of reconstruction: Texts discussing linguistic reconstruction commonly preface reconstructed forms with an asterisk (*) to distinguish them from attested forms. An attested word from which a root in the proto-language is reconstructed is a reflex . More generally,
77-466: The language distribution could be the result of a single migration of Yok-Utian speakers who later spread out throughout California. One component of the evidence offered for Yok-Utian is that of sound correspondences in the reconstructed proto-languages for Yokuts and the Utian family, such as the sample below. However, while the reconstructed correspondences can be compelling, they are not conclusive. As
88-511: The northern Bay Area between 1000 and 500 BC, and began to spread west and south. Proto-Costanoan emerged in the eastern Bay Area, splitting from the larger Utian group sometime after 1500 BC, if not earlier. The language that remained in the Great Basin turned into Proto-Yokuts before gradually splitting into the various Yokuts dialects and only later began to migrate into California. However, Scott DeLancey and Victor Golla have proposed that
99-560: The reconstructed proto-languages. However, she and others have noted that while it is compelling, the evidence presented is not conclusive. According to the proposal, the Yok-Utian proto-language was spoken by a group originating in the Great Basin at least as early as 4500 BC. There was a division around 2500 BC, as the group which began speaking Proto-Utian migrated from the Great Basin into California. Proto-Miwok began to emerge in
110-501: The sound quality of phonemes, as the one which results in the fewest changes (with respect to the data) is preferred. Comparative Reconstruction makes use of two rather general principles: The Majority Principle and the Most Natural Development Principle. The Majority Principle is the observation that if a cognate set displays a certain pattern (such as a repeating letter in specific positions within
121-487: The speakers of the Yokuts and Utian languages were in contact with one another for hundreds or thousands of years, it is entirely possible that the sound correspondences are the result of borrowing, rather than a common linguistic ancestor. While Yok-Utian can be included in the larger Penutian proposal, the Yok-Utian proposal does not directly support Penutian. Linguistic reconstruction Linguistic reconstruction
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