Purisimeño language

Purisimeño
Native to	California, United States
Region	Lompoc
Extinct	early 1900s
Language family	Chumashan Southern Central Purisimeño
Language codes
ISO 639-3	puy
Glottolog	puri1259
ELP
File:Chumashan Language Map.svg   Purisimeño
File:Lang Status 01-EX.svg Purisimeño is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Purisimeño was one of the Chumashan languages traditionally spoken along the coastal areas of Southern California near Lompoc. It was also spoken at the La Purisima Mission.

A vocabulary of "La Purrissima or Kagimuswas (Purismeno Chumash)" was collected by Henry Wetherbee Henshaw in 1884. John P. Harrington also documented the language, and wrote a sketch of the grammar.

Dr. Timothy Henry of the Western Institute for Endangered Language Documentation (WIELD) created a dictionary of the language.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial		Alveolar		Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
		Unvoiced	Voiced	Unvoiced	Voiced	Unvoiced	Voiced	Unvoiced	Unvoiced	Unvoiced	Unvoiced
Plosive	Plain	p		t				k	q		ʔ
	Aspirated	pʰ		tʰ				kʰ	qʰ
	Ejective	pʼ		tʼ				kʼ	qʼ
Fricative	Plain			s		ʃ			χ	ħ	h
	Aspirated			sʰ		ʃʰ
	Ejective			sʼ		ʃʼ
Affricate	Plain			ts		ʧ
	Aspirated			tsʰ		ʧʰ
	Ejective			tsʼ		ʧʼ
Approximant	Plain		w	ɬ	l		j
	Glottalized		ˀw		ˀl		ˀj
Nasal	Plain		m		n
	Glottalized		ˀm		ˀn

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ǝ	o
Open		a

The exact backness of /a/ is difficult to determine, it was either a central or back vowel.

Grammar

Nouns

Person/number prefixes

	1st	2nd	3rd
singular	k-	p-	s-
dual	k(i)š-	p(i)š-	šiš-
plural	ki(y)-	pi(y)-	si(y)-
unspecified			alam

Articles

Like many Chumashan languages, Purisimeño contains articles which can and possibly must be used in combination with nouns. Their exact function is unclear but some inferences can be gained. The first article, the prefix ’a- seemingly was used a default in citation form and can tentatively be interpreted as a marker of indefiniteness or unidentifiability, while the second article, the prefix ka- can in turn be interpreted as a marker of definiteness and/or identifiability. Though, due to a lack of surviving sources on the language it is difficult to say this with certainty.

Associative case

The associative case in Purisimeño is marked by the prefixes itš-, is-, iš-, or its̓-; and is used with nouns that usually have a strong association with a particular person such as the words for friend (itšantǝk), carrying net (ištiwa’a), pinkie (išwatimitš’i), and thumb (išwatinox̂).

Tense

Purisimeño had three tense markers for future, immediate future, and past tensek with the past tense -waš being attested in nouns which had some relation to the past but where somehow still relevant in the present such as footprint (’e’ewaš).

Orthography

Purisimeño alphabet

’

a

e

ǝ

h

i

k

l ~ ł

l̓

m

m̓

n

n̓

o

p

pʰ

p̓

q

qʰ

q̓

s

sʰ

s̓

š

šʰ

š̓

t

tʰ

t̓

ts

tsʰ

ts̓

tš

tšʰ

tš̓

u

w

w̓

x ~ x̂

x̓

y

y̓

External links

• Wieldoc.org: Purisimeño Project at the Western Institute for Endangered Language Documentation
• Purisimeño language — overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages.
• Language-archives.org: OLAC resources in and about the Purisimeño language