Takelma language

language
name=Takelma
nativename=Unicode|Taakelmàʔn
states=United States
region=Oregon, Rogue Valley along the middle course of the Rogue River
extinct=19th century
familycolor=Isolate
fam1=Language isolate
iso2=nai|iso3=tkm

Takelma was the language spoken by the Takelma people.

Dialects

*Latgawa dialect, spoken in southwestern Oregon along the upper Rogue River
*Lowland Takelma dialect, spoken in southwestern Oregon in the Rogue Valley There was possibly a Cow Creek dialect spoken in southwestern Oregon along the South Umpqua River, Myrtle Creek, and Cow Creek.

Genealogical relations

Takelma is a language isolate. Takelma has been considered to be in a Takelman (or Takelma-Kalapuyan) language family together with the Kalapuyan languages (Swadesh 1965). However, a recent paper by Tarpent & Kendall (1998) finds this relationship to be unfounded because of the extremely different morphological structures of Takelma and Kalapuyan. However, there is much hopeful speculation that Takelma (along with Kalapuyan and other language groups) may be part of a proposed Penutian super-family, as suggested by Edward Sapir (1921).

Phonology

Consonants

Words

*mì:ʔskaʔ - one
*kà:ʔm - two
*xìpiní - three
*kamkàm - four
*dé:hal - five
*haʔi:mìʔs - six
*haʔi:kà:ʔm - seven
*haʔi:xín - eight
*haʔi:kó - nine
*ìxti:l - ten

References

* Sapir, Edward. 1909. "Takelma Texts". University of Pennsylvania Anthropological Publications 2(1):1-263.
* Sapir, Edward. 1922. "The Takelma Language of Southwestern Oregon". In Handbook of American Indian Languages, part II, pp. 1-296. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 40.