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Tongva language

{{Short description|Extinct and revitalizing Uto-Aztecan language}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Tongva

| altname = Gabrielino, Gabrieleño, Kizh

| states = Southern California, United States

| region = Los Angeles, Santa Catalina Island

| ethnicity = Tongva

| extinct = 1940s

| revived = since 2000s

| familycolor = Uto-Aztecan

| fam1 = Uto-Aztecan

| fam2 = Northern Uto-Aztecan

| fam3 = Takic

| fam4 = Serran

| map = Gabrielino language.png

| mapcaption =

| iso3 = xgf

| linglist = xgf

| glotto = tong1329

| glottorefname = Tongva

| notice = IPA

| nativename = {{lang|xgf|eyooshiraaw}}

}}

The Tongva language (also known as Gabrielino, Gabrieleño, or Kizh) is an extinct and revitalizing{{Cite web |title=Glottolog 5.1 - Tongva |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/tong1329 |access-date=2025-05-18 |website=glottolog.org}} Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Tongva, a Native American people who have lived in and around modern-day Los Angeles for centuries. It has not been a language of everyday conversation since the 1940s. The Gabrielino people now speak English but a few are attempting to revive their language by using it in everyday conversation and ceremonial contexts. Presently, Gabrielino is also being used in language revitalization classes and in some public discussion regarding religious and environmental issues.{{cite report|first=Jana|last=Fortier |title=Native American Consultation And Ethnographic Study, Ventura County, California |url=https://www.academia.edu/418550 |publisher=California Department of Transportation |access-date=17 June 2019 |location=La Jolla, California |pages=13–14|date=December 2008}} Tongva is closely related to Serrano.{{cite book |last1=Golla |first1=Victor |title=California Indian Languages |date=2011 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-26667-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_yqdSE1F8wC&pg=PA179 |language=en}} The names of several cities and neighborhoods in Southern California are of Tongva origin, and include Pacoima, Tujunga, Topanga, Azusa, Cahuenga in Cahuenga Pass and Cucamonga in Rancho Cucamonga.

The last fluent native speakers of Tongva lived in the early 20th century. The language is primarily documented in the unpublished field notes of John Peabody Harrington made during that time. The "J.P. Harrington Project", developed by The Smithsonian through University of California, Davis, approximately 6,000 pages of his notes on the Tongva language, were coded for documentation by a Tongva member, who took three years to accomplish the task. Alleged native speakers of Tongva who have died as late as the 1970s have not been verified as having been fluent speakers.

The dwarf planet 50000 Quaoar was named after the Tongva creator god, also called Chinigchinix.{{cite web|last1=Byrd|first1=Deborah |title=Quaoar, a rocky world orbiting beyond Neptune|url=http://earthsky.org/todays-image/quaoar-a-rocky-world-orbiting-beyond-neptune|publisher=EarthSky|access-date=31 August 2014|date=19 February 2013}}

Language revitalization

The Gabrielino language is a subgroup of Takic, a subfamily of Uto-Aztecan, which is usually divided into three subgoups: Serrano-Kitanemuk, Gabrielino (including the Fernandeño dialect) and Cupan. As of 2012, members of the contemporary Tongva (Gabrieleño) tribal council are attempting to revive the language, by making use of written vocabularies, by comparison to better attested members of the Takic group to which Tongva belonged, and by offering classes.{{cite news |last1=Plesset |first1=R. |title=San Pedro: Science Center Endangered/Tongva Village Site Revitalization : LA IMC |url=http://la.indymedia.org/news/2012/06/253605.php |access-date=26 September 2021 |work=la.indymedia.org |date=2 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120628200740/http://la.indymedia.org/news/2012/06/253605.php |archive-date=28 June 2012}}

In 2004, Pamela Munro, now UCLA emeritus professor of linguistics, was asked to serve as a linguistic mentor to Tongva people who wanted to learn about their language at the Breath of Life Workshop, a biennial event in Berkeley staged by the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival.{{cite news |last1=Munro |first1=Pamela |title=This is how to revive a Native American language spoken before white people came |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/10/28/this-is-how-to-revive-a-native-american-language-spoken-before-white-people-came/ |access-date=26 September 2021 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=28 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029064201/http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/10/28/this-is-how-to-revive-a-native-american-language-spoken-before-white-people-came/ |archive-date=29 October 2014}} Since then, she has taught monthly Tongva language classes in which adults and children practice pronunciation, master the use of grammatical particles, sing songs and play word games. She calls her work "a reclamation effort" for the language.{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-col1-tongva-language-native-american-tribe/|title=Tongva, Los Angeles' first language, opens the door to a forgotten time and place|last=Curwen|first=Thomas|date=May 12, 2019|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en|access-date=2019-05-12}} Munro has compiled a Tongva dictionary of over 1,000 words, and also maintains a Tongva language Facebook page to which she posts Tongva words, phrases and songs.{{cite news |last1=Marquez |first1=Letisia |title=UCLA linguist, Gabrielino-Tongva Indians use social media to revive extinct language |url=https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/ucla-linguist-gabrieleno-tongva-indians-use-social-media-to-revive-extinct-language |access-date=26 September 2021 |work=UCLA Newsroom |date=June 27, 2014}} According to Munro, there are no audio recordings of people speaking the Tongva language, but that there are a few scratched wax cylinder recordings of Tongva songs.{{cite web |last1=Rosemeyer (Rosemyre) |first1=J. V. |title=Tongva wax cylinder recordings{{!}}Hearst Museum of Anthropology |url=https://portal.hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/?page=4&q=tongva&search_field=text |website=hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu |access-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926153129/https://portal.hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/?page=4&q=tongva&search_field=text |archive-date=26 September 2021 |language=en |date=1916}}

Phonology

File:Tongva woman.jpg, she was the source of the widely used endonym Tongva.{{cite book |editor1-first=M. E. |editor1-last=Harkin |editor1-link=Michael E. Harkin |title=Reassessing revitalization movements: Perspectives from North America and the Pacific Island |last1=Lepowsky |first1=M. |chapter=Indian revolts and cargo cults: Ritual violence and revitalization in California and New Guinea |chapter-url=http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780803203884 |year=2004 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln, NE |isbn=9780803224063 |pages=1–61 |access-date=19 August 2013}}]]

=Consonants=

The following is a list of the consonants and vowels of the Tongva language as used by the Tongva Language Committee, based on linguist Pamela Munro's interpretation of the fieldnotes of J. P. Harrington.{{Cite book|last1=Munro|first1=Pamela |last2=The Gabrielino/Tongva Language Committee|title=Hyaare Shiraaw'ax 'Eyooshiraaw'a: Now You're Speaking Our Language (An Introduction to the Gabrielino/Tongva/Fernandeño Language)|url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25610961M/Yaara%27_shiraaw%27ax_%27eyooshiraaw%27a|year=2008|chapter=Lesson One: Pronouncing and Writing the Tongva Language|publisher=P. Munro and the Gabrielino/Tongva Language Committee |ol=25610961M }} In parentheses is the spelling of the specific sound. There are multiple orthographies for the Tongva language.

class=wikitable style=text-align:center

!colspan=2|

!Labial

!Alveolar

!Palatal

!Velar

!Labio
-velar

!Glottal

colspan=2|Nasal

|m {{IPAslink|m}}

|n {{IPAslink|n}}

|

|ng {{IPAslink|ŋ}}

|

|

rowspan=2|Stopvoiced

|(b {{IPAslink|b}})

|(d {{IPAslink|d}})

|

|(g {{IPAslink|ɡ}})

|

|

voiceless

|p {{IPAslink|p}}

|t {{IPAslink|t}}

|ch {{IPAslink|tʃ}}

|k {{IPAslink|k}}

|kw {{IPAslink|kʷ}}

|ʼ {{IPAslink|ʔ}}

colspan=2|Fricative

|(f {{IPAslink|f}})

|s {{IPAslink|s}}

|sh {{IPAslink|ʃ}}

|x {{IPAslink|x}}

|

|h {{IPAslink|h}}

colspan=2|Approximant

|v {{IPAslink|v}}

|l {{IPAslink|l}}

|y {{IPAslink|j}}

|

|w {{IPAslink|w}}

|

colspan=2|Tap

|

|r {{IPAslink|ɾ}}

|

|

|

|

Consonants {{IPA|/b d f ɡ/}} are used in loanwords.

=Vowels=

class=wikitable style=text-align:center

!rowspan=2|

!colspan=2|Front

! colspan="2" |Central

!colspan=2|Back

shortlong

!short

!long

!short

long
Close

|i {{IPAslink|i}}||ii {{IPAslink|iː}}

|

|

|u {{IPAslink|u}}||uu {{IPAslink|uː}}

Mid

|e {{IPAslink|e}}||ee {{IPAslink|eː}}

|

|

|o {{IPAslink|o}}||oo {{IPAslink|oː}}

Open

| ||

|a {{IPAslink|a}}

|aa {{IPAslink|aː}}

|

|

Morphology

Tongva is an agglutinative language, where words use suffixes and multiple morphemes for a variety of purposes.

Vocabulary

=Collected by C. Hart Merriam (1903)=

Source:McCawley, William. The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles. Malki Museum Press, 1996

(Merriam refers to them as the Tongvā)

;Numbers

  1. Po-koo
  2. Wěh-hā
  3. Pah-hā
  4. Wah-chah
  5. Mah-har
  6. Pah-vah-hā
  7. Wah-chah-kav-e-ah
  8. Wa-ha's-wah-chah
  9. Mah-ha'hr-kav-e-ah
  10. Wa-hās-mah-hah'r
  11. Wa-hā's-mah-hah'r-koi-po-koo
  12. Wa-hā's-mah-hah'r-koi-wěh-hā

;grizzly bear

:hoó-nahr

:hoon-nah (subject)

:hoon-rah (object)

;black bear

:pí-yah-hó-naht

=Collected by Dr. Oscar Loew (1875)=

Source:

;Numbers

  1. pu-guʼ
  2. ve-heʼ
  3. paʼ-hi
  4. va-tchaʼ
  5. mahaʼr
  6. pa-vaʼhe
  7. vatchaʼ-kabyaʼ
  8. vehesh-vatchaʼ
  9. mahar-kabyaʼ
  10. vehes-mahar
  11. puku-hurura
  12. vehe-hurura

;bear

:unar

=Collected by Alexander Taylor (1860)=

Source:

;Numbers

  1. po-koo
  2. wa-hay
  3. pa-hey
  4. wat-sa
  5. mahar
  6. pawahe
  7. wat-sa-kabiya
  8. wa-hish-watchsa
  9. mahar-cabearka
  10. wa-hish-mar

Taylor claims "they do not count farther than ten"

=Collected by Charles Wilkes, USN (1838–1842)=

Source:

;Numbers

  1. pukū
  2. wehē
  3. pāhe
  4. watsā

;bear

:hundr

=Other sources=

  • desert fox: erowNative Languages of the Americas{{year needed|date=December 2011}}
  • Pacoima = from the root word Pako enter, meaning the entrance{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}
  • Tujunga = from the root word old woman tux'uu{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} Tujunga means Mountains of Health according to long-time residents.
  • Azusa = from the word -shuuk 'Ashuuksanga = his grandmother{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}

=The Lord's Prayer=

Source:

The Lord's Prayer is called ʼEyoonak in Tongva. The following text was derived from old Mission records.

{{Quote|

ʼEyoonak

ʼEyoonak, ʼeyooken tokuupangaʼe xaa;

hoyuuykoy motwaanyan;

moxariin mokiimen tokuupra;

maay moʼwiishme meyii ʼooxor ʼeyaa tokuupar.

Hamaare, ʼeyooneʼ maxaareʼ ʼwee taamet,

koy ʼoovonreʼ ʼeyoomamaayntar momoohaysh, miyii ʼeyaare

'oovonax 'eyoohiino 'eyooyha';

koy xaareʼ maayn ʼiitam momoohaysh,

koy xaa mohuuʼesh.

ʼWee meneeʼ xaaʼe.

}}

=Toponymy=

The table below gives the names of various missions in the Tongva language.Munro, Pamela, et al. Yaara' Shiraaw'ax 'Eyooshiraaw'a. Now You're Speaking Our Language: Gabrielino/Tongva/Fernandeño. Lulu.com: 2008.

class="wikitable"

!c=eng| English

!c=tng| Tongva

c=eng| Los Angeles

|c=tng| Yaa

c=eng| San Bernardino

|c=tng| Wa'aach

c=eng| San Gabriel

|c=tng| Shevaa

c=eng| San Pedro

|c=tng| Chaaw

c=eng| Santa Ana

|c=tng| Hotuuk

c=eng| Santa Monica

|c=tng| Kecheek

c=eng| Santa Catalina

|c=tng| Pemu

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • [http://www.native-languages.org/gabrielino.htm Native-languages.org: Gabrieliño (Tongva) Language]
  • [http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/languages/gabrielino.php Gabrielino language] — overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages.
  • [http://www.limuproject.org The Limu Project] — active in Native California languages revitalization.
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20170114164933/http://video.cpp.edu/streaming/videosearch.php?keyword=biotrek&page=1&bandwidth=medium&video_is_playing=true&id=5713&sorter=title&sort_direction=ASC 2002 Tongva speech] spoken at Cal Poly Pomona during the opening of a Tongva ethnobotanic garden; speech begins at 35:10.
  • [http://keepersofindigenousways.org/id9.html Keepers of Indigenous Ways: Tongva Language History & classes]

{{Languages of California}}

{{Uto-Aztecan languages}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tongva, Language}}

*Language

Category:Indigenous languages of California

Takic

Category:Takic languages

Category:History of Los Angeles County, California

Category:History of Orange County, California

Category:History of San Bernardino County, California

Category:History of the San Fernando Valley

Category:Native American language revitalization