Jicaquean languages

Jicaquean, also known as Tolan, is a small language family of Honduras. There are two attested Jicaquean languages, Tol (Eastern Jicaque) and Western Jicaque (Holt 1999), which Campbell (1997) reports were about as distant as English and Swedish. Only Tol survives.

Jicaquean
Tolan
Ethnicity	Tolupan
Geographic distribution	Honduras
Linguistic classification	Hokan ? Jicaquean
Subdivisions	Eastern Jicaque Western Jicaque
Glottolog	jica1245[1]
The Jicaque languages are in Honduras in the center of the map

Classification

Prior to an influential paper by Greenberg and Swadesh in 1953[2] Tol (a.k.a. Eastern Jicaque) was thought to be a language isolate, i.e., there existed no knowledge as to its possible genetic affinities. They argued that Tol should be added to the Hokan stock, a large language stock, phylum or family, which was proposed by R. B. Dixon and Alfred D. Kroeber in 1913.[3] In 1977, David Oltrogge[4] proposed to link Tol to the extinct Subtiaba language of Nicaragua, and also to Chontal of Oaxaca, also known as Tequistlateco. This indirectly amounted to a mere sub-classification, since all of the three languages in question were part of the proposed Hokan stock. A couple of years later, Campbell and Oltrogge[5] published a reconstruction of Jicaquean phonemes, based on the available information on Western and Eastern Jicaque. In that same paper they expressed strong doubt in the Hokan affiliation of Tol and mild enthusiasm regarding the possible link to Chontal of Oaxaca, but stressed that much more information was needed to be able to say anything reasonable. More recently, Kaufman[6] has expressed his continuing support of the Hokan affiliation of Tol.

Granberry & Vescelius (2004) speculate that the extinct Ciguayo language of Hispaniola might have its most likely relatives in the Tolan languages.

Proto-language

Proto-Jicaque
Reconstruction of	Jicaquean languages

Proto-Jicaque reconstructions by Campbell and Oltrogge (1980):[7]

no.	gloss	Proto-Jicaque
2	all	*pʰɨ(t)
3	always	*han-
5	arm, back, shoulder	*pʰel
7	arrow	*¢imea ?
8	ashes	*pʰɨpʰɨh
13	to be	*kʼos
16	bed	*kʰan
17	belly	*-kol
18	big	*pɨneh ?
24	black	*te(kʰ)
27	blood	*kʼas
28	blue	*¢u(h)
30	body	*pʼɨ(y)
32	bone	*kʰele
34	bow (of bow and arrow)	*halek
37	to burn	*tV-pʷe
38	bush (forest)	*hokʼ-la
40	buzzard	*mantɨ
45	cloud	*mol
46	coal(s)	*¢ʰek
51	cougar	*pɨkʼa(-he)
59	daughter	*(ku)kus
62	deer	*pʼɨs
63	to die	*pɨʔ ?
65	dog	*¢ʰiyo(h)
66	to drink	*mɨʔ
67	(to) dry	*pʰa
69	ear	*pʰa¢ʼ
70	earth, land	*(a)ma(h)
71	to eat	*la ?
72	egg	*pehey
75	excrement	*pɨ(y)
78	far	*kampa
79	father	*(pa)pa(y)
84	fire	*kʼawa
85	firewood	*wɨ(t)
86	fish	*kʰul
89	flea	*pel
91	fly	*no¢o¢
93	forehead	*wala
94	to forget	*-pɨʔ
95	four	*(y)ulupʰana
97	fruit	*wolas
99	to give	*-tekʼa
101	good	*wɨ(k)
102	grain (cf. maize)	*hulup
103	grandmother, female	*(mɨ)mɨy
104	to grind	*kʰol ?
106	hair	*¢ʼil
107	hand	*mas ?
108	he, that	*hup
109	head	*ha(y)pʰuk
110	to hear	*pʰak
111	heart	*has-
114	horn	*¢ʰeme
115	house	*wa
117	I	*nap ?
119	intestines	*¢ʼul
123	knee	*tikʼ-
125	to laugh	*wiʔ
126	leg	*tek
128	lip	*lɨp
129	liver	*kom
131	long	*kampa
132	to look for	*pal-
133	louse	*tɨtʼ
135	macaw	*pʼɨsa(h)
137	male, grandfather	*(ko)koy
138	man	*yom
140	meat	*pis
143	moon	*mɨmɨy
144	month	*mɨy-pʰini(h)
148	mouth	*lala
149	much	*pɨlɨk
150	my, mine	*na¢aʔ
152	navel	*lulu
153	nephew	*kelew ?
155	no	*ma-
156	nose	*mik
157	to nurse	*¢oʔ
158	oak	*¢ʼolol
159	one	*pʰani(h)
164	parrot	*kʰuyu(h)
168	red	*he(h)
172	round	*mul- ?
175	salt	*¢olim
177	sandal, shoe	*¢ompit
178	scorpion	*¢ʰew ?
179	to see	*nu(k)
186	skinny	*kʰele
187	sky	*alpa
188	sleep	*han-
190	smoke	*mus
192	to snore	*-hol-
194	to sow, plant	*sin-
195	to speak	*wele
196	spider	*kolok
201	stone	*pe(h)
202	summer	*¢ʰikin
203	sun	*lo¢ʼak
204	tail	*sokʼ
207	there is/are not (Sp.: no hay)	*kuwa
210	thorn	*ham ?
212	to tie	*¢upa-
215	tongue	*pelam
216	tooth	*wis
217	tree	*yo(h)
220	two	*matʼɨ
221	uncle	*kokʰam ?
224	wasp	*petʰel
225	water	*sɨ(tʰ)
226	we	*-kup
228	white	*pʰe(kʰ)
229	wind	*lɨpʰɨ(kʰ)
230	woman	*kep
233	word	*wele
235	worm, caterpillar	*¢ʼihih
237	yellow	*lu(pʰ)
239	you	*hip

References

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Jicaquean". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
2. Greenberg, Joseph Harold, and Morris Swadesh. 1953 Jicaque as a Hokan Language. IJAL 19:3
3. Dixon, R. B., and Alfred L. Kroeber 1913 New Linguistic Families in California. American Anthropologist 15(4): 647–655.
4. Oltrogge, David Frederick 1977 Proto-Jicaque-Subtiaba-Tequistlateco: A Comparative Reconstruction. In Two Studies in Middle American Comparative Linguistics. Irvine Davis and Virgil Poulter, eds. [Dallas, TX]: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
5. Campbell, Lyle, and David Oltrogge 1980 Proto-Tol (Jicaque). International Journal of American Linguistics 46(3): 205–223.
6. Kaufman, Terrence 2006 Hokan Languages. In Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. Elsevier.
7. Campbell, Lyle and David Oltrogge. 1980. Proto-Tol (Jicaque). International Journal of American Linguistics 46: 205-223.

• Campbell, Lyle. (1979). "Middle American languages." In L. Campbell & M. Mithun (Eds.), The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment (pp. 902–1000). Austin: University of Texas Press.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian Languages, The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford UP.
• Campbell, Lyle, and David Oltrogge (1980). "Proto-Tol (Jicaque)." International Journal of American Linguistics, 46:205-223.
• Granberry, Julian, and Gary Vescelius (2004). Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles. Birmingham: University of Alabama Press.
• Greenberg, Joseph H., and Morris Swadesh (1953). "Jicaque as a Hokan Language." International Journal of American Linguistics 19: 216-222.
• Holt, Dennis. (1999). Tol (Jicaque). Languages of the World/Materials 170. Munich: LincomEuropa.

External links

• Jicaquean basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database