Glossary of terms

This page give brief definitions of terms that may be helpful in understanding descriptions of Kashaya.

Absolutive. An important form of the verb in Kashaya, the one generally used when someone asks "how do you say...?" It serves as the infinitive, and has many other uses. It takes the forms -w, -u, -ʔ. ↗️

Affricate. A sound that is a combination of a stop and fricative, such as English ch which is phonetically the stop t plus the fricative sh. In Kashaya, c cʰ cʼ are affricates. ↗️

Agent. A participant who is seen as being in control of a situation, or acting with intention, as in We stood up, or She kicked me. In Kashaya, this role may be marked by the clitic ʔem. Compare patient. ↗️

Aspirated. Said of a sound pronounced with a puff of air at the release. Example: English p is aspirated [pʰ] in pay, unaspirated [p] in spay. In Kashaya, pʰ tʰ ṭʰ cʰ kʰ qʰ are aspirated. ↗️

Assertive. A special, minimal verb that consists of the consonant /ʔ/; it behaves as a clitic and can be followed by various suffixes. Between consonants, this /ʔ/ is realized as /i/. ↗️

Asterisk (*). The asterisk symbol, or "star", has a special function in the Kashaya database: it indicates a bound stem that cannot occur by itself. This is mainly an issue for verbs. Thus /*bimucid/ is the stem for "eat", but in order to pronounce it as a word, it's necessary to add a suffix such as the Absolutive to make /bimuci·du/ "to eat".
      It also has two more conventional functions in linguistics; in a very general sense, they both mean "not verified". (1) In studying the history of a language, linguists reconstruct ancient forms of words (or individual sounds) based on available information, such as how words are pronounced in descendent languages. Because the reconstructed word is a hypothesis, not an actually attested form, it is preceded by the asterisk to identify it as such. For example, Kashaya /ʔahca/ "house" is thought to come from the Proto-Pomo word */ʔahka/, but this is based on comparison with related words such as Eastern Pomo /ka/. (2) Outside of the discussion of reconstructed forms, the asterisk means that something is ungrammatical, i.e. not consistent with the practice of native speakers. For example, the English word order *dog the is ungrammatical; it should be the dog.

Bound. Describes an element of language, a morpheme, that cannot be used independently as a word. In English, the suffix -er is bound because it can be used only with a stem, as in teach-er. In Kashaya, a root such as /wa/ "go, walk" has to occur with a suffix, as in /wa·du/ or /wa·law/, so that means it's bound: there's no word wa by itself.

Clitic. A short grammatical element that "leans" on an adjacent word. It is similar to a suffix but in some ways more like an independent word.

Diacritic. A distinguishing mark added to a letter modifying it in some way, such as the cedilla in French ç or the tilde in Spanish ñ. In Kashaya spelling, this refers to the added marks in ṭ š pʰ pʼ.

Dialects. Mutually intelligible varieties of a single language. Not used in linguistics with the informal meanings "unwritten language" or "nonstandard language."

Digraph. Two letters used to represent one sound, such as ph for the sound [f]. Kashaya spellings such as c and š are used to avoid the need for digraphs like ch and sh, especially since ch can be confused with cʰ.

Ejective. Said of an obstruent sound pronounced with a strong release caused by raising the larynx. In Kashaya, pʼ tʼ ṭʼ sʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ are ejectives. Can also be called glottalized, but that term can be used with sonorants which are not ejectives. ↗️

Epenthesis, epenthetic. Insertion of a vowel, usually to help with pronunciation. In Kashaya, it occurs when there are too many consonants in a row. ↗️

Feature, featural. Terms referring to the various phonetic qualities which characterize a phoneme, such as voiced, aspirated, vocalic. For example, the sounds [p] and [b] differ only in their voicing feature. ↗️

Geminate. A consonant that is "doubled" in pronunciation; this property is called gemination. It is not common in Kashaya (or in English), but does occur in a few words such as /si·ṭóṭṭo/ "robin". Other speakers have a different pronounciation that avoids the unusual geminate, /si·ṭóhṭo/.

Gloss. A translation of an individual word, especially as part of a word-by-word translation to aid someone in understanding a text in a foreign language.

Glottal stop. A stoppage and sudden release of air through the glottis (vocal cords), found in English uh-oh, or some pronunciations of Hawai‘i. Transcribed [ʔ] or sometimes as [’] or [‘]. This sound is marginal in English but very common in Kashaya. It is easy to hear in words such as hoʔo "tooth" and maʔa "food". It is trickier to hear at the beginning or end of a word, as in ʔoho "fire", meʔ "time", ʔacaʔ "person", or before a consonant as in maʔyul "only" or hoʔtʼo "head". ↗️

Glottalized. A consonant sound that occurs together with an articulation similar to a glottal stop. Glottalized sonorants in Kashaya are /mʔ nʔ lʔ wʔ yʔ/, and glottalized obstruents (called ejectives) are /pʼ tʼ ṭʼ sʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ/. ↗️

IPA. The International Phonetic Alphabet, a standard set of phonetic symbols for transcribing any of the world's languages. In Kashaya and other California languages, symbols such as c š ṭ are not standard in IPA. The glottal stop symbol ʔ and the diacritics of pʰ and pʼ are the same in IPA, however.

Length. A property of a vowel that is pronounced longer, or drawn out, relative to a short vowel. Represented in Kashaya by putting a raised dot · after the vowel. This may be the only difference between two words, such as ʔihya "wind" and ʔihya· "bone, strong", or cadu "look" and ca·du "fly along". ↗️

Mora, moraic. Terms referring to a measure of syllable weight. Light syllables, with a short vowel, measure one mora (CV); heavy syllables, which might contain a long vowel (CVV) or a coda consonant following a short vowel (CVC), measure two moras. In Kashaya, heavy syllables (with two moras) are associated with stress or accent. ↗️

Morpheme, morphemic. Terms referring to the smallest meaningful units of speech. English teachers consists of three morphemes, teach, er, and s. Kashaya libuta·du "whistling" contains the stem /libut-/, durative /-ad/, and absolutive /-u/.

Orthography. A conventional writing system used for a specific language or dialect; for example, English spelling or (more specifically) American English spelling. Kashaya uses an Americanist orthography, common for Native American languages.

Patient. A participant who is seen as undergoing some kind of change, or being affected by another participant, as in We got sick, or She kicked me. In Kashaya, this role may be marked by the clitic ʔel or suffix -l or -to. Compare agent. ↗️

Phoneme, phonemic. Terms used in reference to the smallest units of speech that distinguish one word from another. Examples: the b and p of bat and pat. Can be thought of, very roughly, as the abstract sound category represented by a letter (in most instances), Technically indicated by slashes //, rather than brackets [ ] which are more general in use.

Phonetic. Making reference to sounds in their physical realization, distinct from phonemic Phonetic transcription represents the two [p] sounds in pot and spot differently, since the first is aspirated and the latter is not. Phonemic representation is based on the premise that since the p in pot is predictably aspirated and the p in spot is predictably unaspirated, there is no need to differentiate them, because native speakers will always pronounce them correctly. But in Kashaya, /p/ and /pʰ/ are distinct phonemes.

Phonetics. Having to do with the study of speech sounds as they are articulated or perceived, as opposed to the more abstract patterning of sounds in linguistic systems, which is the domain of phonology.

Phonology, phonological. Having to do with the study of speech sounds as they pattern in linguistic systems, as opposed to the study of sound articulation and perception, which is the domain of phonetics.

Quality. Distinctions – usually among vowels – created by the position of the tongue and lips, such as the difference between /i/ and /e/. ↗️

Quantity. Distinctions – usually among vowels – due to how long the vowel is pronounced, as between /e/ and /e·/. Equivalent in meaning to length. Can also be applied to consonants, in which case it is related to the term gemination. ↗️

Schwa. A brief indistinct sound, very common in English, found in words such as sofa, again, today, system, lemon. Also the symbol [ə] that represents this sound. Schwa does not occur in Kashaya, and should be avoided to ensure correct pronunciation.

Segments, segmental phonemes. Vowels and consonants – that is, phonemes other than such "suprasegmental" information as tones and intonation.

Semantic. Related to meaning.

Sibilant. A fricative or affricate with a "hissing" sound, such as English s z sh ch j. These are the consonants after which the English suffix -s, is written -es and pronounced with a schwa vowel: kiss-es, fizz-es, wish-es, rich-es, judg-es. The Kashaya sibilants are /s sʼ š c cʰ cʼ/.

Syllable. A grouping of a vowel with one or more consonants that may precede or follow the vowel. In Kashaya a syllable always starts with a consonant, has a short or long vowel, and optionally one (rarely two) consonants at the end. ↗️

Transcription. A representation of how a word is pronounced, regardless of how it might be written in the usual orthography for the language. A phonetic alphabet is designed to serve as an efficient means of transcribing any language.

Vocalic. Of or having to do with vowels.

Voiced. Characterized by vibration of the vocal cords. In English and Kashaya, all vowels and some consonants are voiced. Example: voiced [b] in ban contrasts with voiceless [p] in pan. ↗️