Editing Timbisha language

{{Short description|Endangered Uto-Aztecan language of California}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Timbisha
|altname=Panamint
|nativename={{lang|par|Nümü nangkawih, Sosoni nangkawih}}
|states=[[United States]]
|region=[[California]], [[Nevada]]
|ethnicity=100 [[Timbisha]] (1998)<ref name=e18/>
|speakers=20
|date=2007
|ref=e18
|familycolor=Uto-Aztecan
|fam1=[[Uto-Aztecan languages|Uto-Aztecan]]
|fam2=[[Numic languages|Numic]]
|fam3=Central Numic
|iso3=par
|glotto=pana1305
|glottorefname=Panamint
|notice=IPA
|map=Lang Status 20-CR.svg
|mapcaption={{center|{{small|Panamint is classified as Critically Endangered by the [[UNESCO]] ''[[Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]]''}}}}}}

'''Timbisha''' (''Tümpisa'') or '''Panamint''' (also called '''Koso''') is the language of the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] people who have inhabited the region in and around [[Death Valley]], California, and the southern [[Owens Valley]] since late prehistoric times. There are a few elderly individuals who can speak the language in [[California]] and [[Nevada]], but none are monolingual, and all use [[English language|English]] regularly in their daily lives. Until the late 20th century, the people called themselves and their language "Shoshone." The tribe then achieved federal recognition under the name [[Timbisha|Death Valley Timbisha Shoshone Band of California]]. This is an Anglicized spelling of the native name of [[Death Valley]], ''tümpisa'', pronounced {{IPA|par|tɨmbiʃa|}}, which means "rock paint" and refers to the rich sources of [[red ochre]] in the valley. Timbisha is also the language of the so-called "Shoshone" groups at [[Paiute-Shoshone Indians of the Bishop Community of the Bishop Colony|Bishop]], [[Big Pine Band of Owens Valley Paiute Shoshone Indians of the Big Pine Reservation|Big Pine]], [[Darwin, California|Darwin]], [[Independence, California|Independence]], and [[Paiute-Shoshone Indians of the Lone Pine Community of the Lone Pine Reservation|Lone Pine]] communities in California and the [[Beatty, Nevada|Beatty]] community in Nevada. It was also the language spoken at the former Indian Ranch reservation in Panamint Valley.

==Classification==
Timbisha is one of the [[Central Numic]] languages of the [[Numic]] branch of [[Uto-Aztecan]]. It is most closely related to [[Shoshoni language|Shoshoni]] and [[Comanche language|Comanche]].

==Geographic distribution==
Timbisha was formerly spoken in the region between the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]] mountains of eastern [[California]] and the region just to the east of [[Death Valley]] in [[Nevada]]. Principal valleys where villages were located were (from west to east) [[Owens Valley]], [[Indian Wells Valley]], [[Saline Valley]], [[Panamint Valley]], and [[Death Valley]]. In addition, there were villages along the southern slopes of the [[Kawich Range]] in Nevada.

===Dialects===
Each valley had its own variety of Timbisha with mostly [[Lexicon|lexical]] differences between them. There was, however, a general loss of ''{{IPA|h}}'' as one moved west across Timbisha territory with ''{{IPA|h}}'' virtually gone in [[Owens Valley]] varieties. McLaughlin's grammar is based on the far eastern variety from [[Beatty, Nevada]],<ref name="panamint">{{cite book |last1=McLaughlin |first1=John E. |title=Panamint Phonology and Morphology |date=1987 |publisher=[[University of Kansas]] PhD dissertation}}</ref> while Dayley's is based on a central variety from [[Death Valley]].<ref name="1989a">{{cite journal |last1=Dayley |first1=Jon P. |title=Tümpisa (Panamint) Shoshone Grammar |journal=University of California Publications in Linguistics |date=1989 |volume=115 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley}}</ref>

==Phonology==
===Vowels===
Timbisha also has a typical [[Numic]] [[vowel]] inventory of five vowels. In addition, there is the common [[diphthong]] ''{{IPA|ai}}'', which varies rather freely with ''{{IPA|e}}'', although certain [[morphemes]] always contain ''{{IPA|ai}}'' and others always contain ''{{IPA|e}}''.  (The official orthography is shown in parentheses.)

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
!
! [[Front vowel|front]]
! [[Central vowel|central]]
! [[Back vowel|back]]
|-
! [[High vowel|High]]
| {{IPAlink|i}} || {{IPAlink|ɨ}} {{grapheme|ü}} || {{IPAlink|u}}
|-
! [[Low-mid|Non-High]]
| || {{IPAlink|a}} || {{IPAlink|o}}
|-
! [[Diphthong]]
| {{IPA|ai}} {{grapheme|ai, e}}|| ||
|}

===Consonants===
Timbisha has a typical [[Numic]]  consonant  inventory.  (The official orthography is shown in parentheses.):
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
! rowspan=2 |
! rowspan=2 | [[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]
! rowspan=2 | [[Coronal consonant|Coronal]]
! rowspan=2 | [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan=2 | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! rowspan=2 | [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! <small>plain</small>
! <small>[[Labialization|labial.]]</small>
|-
! [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPAlink|m}} || {{IPAlink|n}} || || {{IPAlink|ŋ}} {{grapheme|ng}} || {{IPAlink|ŋʷ}} {{grapheme|ngw}} ||
|-
! [[Plosive]]
| {{IPAlink|p}} || {{IPAlink|t}} || || {{IPAlink|k}} || {{IPAlink|kʷ}} || {{IPAlink|ʔ}}
|-
! [[Affricate]]
| || {{IPAlink|ts}} || || || ||
|-
! [[Fricative]]
| || {{IPAlink|s}} || || || || {{IPAlink|h}}
|-
! [[Semivowel]]
| || || {{IPAlink|j}} {{grapheme|y}} || || {{IPAlink|w}} ||
|}

===Phonotactics===
Timbisha stops (including the affricate) and nasals are voiced and lenited between vowels, are voiced in nasal-stop clusters, and are lenited (but not voiced) following ''{{IPA|h}}''.

[[Voiceless vowel]]s are less common in Timbisha than in [[Shoshone language|Shoshoni]] and [[Comanche language|Comanche]].

==Writing system==
Timbisha spelling is based on Dayley<ref name="1989a"/><ref name="1989b"/> and uses the Roman alphabet. ''Ü'' is used for {{IPA|ɨ}} and ''ng'' for {{IPA|ŋ}}.

==Grammar==
Study of Timbisha has been carried on by Jon Dayley and John McLaughlin, both of whom wrote grammatical descriptions.<ref name="1989a"/><ref name="panamint"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=McLaughlin |first1=John E. |title=Timbisha (Panamint) |date=2006 |series=Languages of the world/materials 453|publisher=LINCOM Europa |location=Munich}}</ref> Dayley has published a dictionary.<ref name="1989b">{{cite journal|last1=Dayley|first1=Jon P.|title=Tümpisa (Panamint) Shoshone Dictionary|journal=University of California Publications in Linguistics|date=1989|volume=116|location=Berkeley|publisher=University of California Press}}</ref>

===Word order and case marking===
Timbisha [[word order]] is usually SOV as in:

{{interlinear|indent=2
|taipo kinni'a punittai
|white-man falcon saw
|"The white man saw a falcon"}}

The [[accusative case]] and [[possessive case]] are marked with [[suffixes]]. Adverbial relationships are marked with [[postpositions]] on [[nouns]] as well as with true [[adverbs]]. For example:

{{interlinear|indent=2
|kahni-pa'a
|house-on
|"on the house"}}

Adjectives are usually prefixed to the nouns they modify, unless the relationship is temporary when they are independent words with special suffixes. Compare ''tosa-kapayu'', 'white-horse', "palomino or other pale-colored breed" and ''tosapihtü kapayu'', 'white/pale horse', "white or pale horse" (who happens to be white or pale, but whose siblings may be any color).

===Verbs===
[[Verbs]] are marked for [[grammatical aspect]] with [[suffixes]]. [[valency (linguistics)|Valence]] is marked with both [[Prefix (linguistics)|prefixes]] and [[suffixes]]. Some common [[intransitive verbs]] have [[suppletive]] forms for singular or plural subjects and some common [[transitive verbs]] have [[suppletive]] forms for singular or plural objects. Otherwise, there is no [[Agreement (linguistics)|grammatical agreement]] marked by the verb.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/languages/panamint.php Panamint language] overview at the [[Survey of California and Other Indian Languages]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110722172143/http://llmap.org/languages/par/static_map.html Linguist List map of Panamint]
* [http://www.languagesandnumbers.com/how-to-count-in-timbisha/en/par/ How to count in Timbisha]
* [http://www.language-archives.org/language/par OLAC resources in and about the Panamint language]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timbisha Language}}
[[Category:Timbisha]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]
[[Category:Numic languages]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of California]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of the Southwestern United States]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of the North American Southwest]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of the North American Great Basin]]
[[Category:Subject–object–verb languages]]

{{Uto-Aztecan languages}}
{{Languages of California}}