SOME ASPECTS OF NOOTKA LANGUAGE AND CULTURE1

THE

BY EDWARD SAPIR

INTRODUCTION

HE two brief sketches that follow are based on linguistic and ethnological material collected during September to December of 1910 among two tribes of the Northern Nootka of Barkley Sound and Alberni Canal, the Tslicya" atH" and Hopátclas ath, now living at the head of Alberni Canal and on the banks of Somass River, in the neighborhood of the present town of Alberni. During the time spent among the Nootka Indians a few points were studied with relative fulness, though at best only a beginning was made even for these, while many other points of great importance were only touched upon. In the present paper two matters of considerable interest in regard to the linguistic and cultural affiliations of the Nootka and Kwakiutl are somewhat hurriedly discussed. The full presentation of the facts involved is reserved for future publications. It should be added that the wolf ritual was witnessed by the writer.

I. THE LINGUISTIC RELATIONSHIP OF KWAKIUTL AND NOOTKA

The Wakashan linguistic stock is divided into two main branches, the Kwakiutl and the Nootka or Aht; the former embraces Kwakiutl proper, Xaisla, and He'ltsa q", the latter Northern Nootka (from about Cape Beale north to Cape Cook on the west coast of Vancouver Island) and Southern Nootka or Nitinat (south of Cape Beale to Cape Flattery). By careful comparison of the two Wakashan branches one can in part reconstruct a Wakashan "Ursprache," but the actual differences between Kwakiutl and Nootka are in fact very great; they differ perhaps as much as Slavic and Latin.

1 Published by permission of the Geological Survey of Canada.

2 Boas' and Swanton's phonetic system is used with some modifications for the vowels. i, e, and o are short and open, thus corresponding to their î, ê, and ô; į, ẹ, and o, are short and close, and correspond to their i, e, and o; î, ê, and ô are long and open, ê being equivalent to Boas' ä. Superior vowels used with H denote vocalic timbre.

As regards phonetics, Kwakiutl and Nootka, while both showing characteristic Northwest Coast features, differ rather considerably. The sonant or intermediate stop series of Kwakiutl is absent in Nootka, Kwakiutl p and b for instance being replaced by Nootka p. Besides the s-series, which Kwakiutl and Nootka possess in common, Nootka has a c-series, which is doubtless derived from the Kwakiutl and Wakashan k'-series, which in turn Nootka lacks; thus Kwakiutl g and k are cognate with Nootka tc, k'! with tc!, and x' with c. There is no l in Nootka, n corresponding to both Kwakiutl / and n. The velars q! and x, while somewhat infrequently found in Nootka, are not the regular Nootka representatives of Kwakiutl q! and x; q! has developed into a peculiarly harsh and choky glottal stop, which I write, x into a strangulated-sounding h which I write H, these two consonants respectively resembling Arabic 'ain and hâ; ordinary and h are also frequently found in Nootka. As regards phonetic processes, Kwakiutl and Nootka agree in allowing no initial consonant clusters in words; initial Kwakiutl and Nootka Em, n, w, y, and Kwakiutl / are undoubtedly related to ordinary Kwakiutl and Nootka m, n, w, y, and Kwakiutl l as are Kwakiutl and Nootka p!, t!, k!, L!, ts!, q!, Kwakiutl k'!, and Nootka tc! to non-fortis Kwakiutl and Nootka p, t, k, L, ts, q, Kwakiutl k', and Nootka tc. In both Kwakiutl and Nootka certain derivative suffixes "harden" the final consonant of the stem; thus p, q, and ł, become Kwakiutl p, q, and 1, Nootka p!, and y The "softening" of Kwakiutl seems to be represented in Nootka by but a few stray phonetic processes. Syllabically final glottal stops and glottally affected consonants-such as - and -p!,-which are common in Kwakiutl, are entirely absent in Nootka. Medial and final consonant clusters are not as freely allowed in Nootka as in Kwakiutl, i often serving in Nootka to lighten them (cf. Nootka -qEmit, "round thing," with Kwakiutl -gEmł "mask"). All final vowels and stopped consonants in Nootka are aspirated. Peculiar to Kwakiutl is the change of k-stops to spirants (x, x", x) before consonants, whereas in Nootka they remain; in this point Nootka seems more archaic than Kwakiutl.

ε

In general morphology Kwakiutl and Nootka are quite similar,

despite numerous differences of detail. In both the stem is, as far as its meaning allows, indifferently verbal or nominal and one or more suffixes are required to give rise to definitely verbal or nominal complexes; in Nootka a suffixed - is often used to substantivize a verb form. Both Kwakiutl and Nootka are absolutely devoid of prefixes, most of the elaborate grammatical mechanism being carried on by means of suffixes, to a lesser exent by means of initial reduplication, and, in Nootka, consonantal changes. The suffixes of Nootka and Kwakiutl express similar ideas and are used in more or less parallel fashion, though the number of suffixes that are etymologically related form but a small percentage of those found in either; so far about ninety Nootka suffixes have been discovered that are entirely or in part cognate to Kwakiutl suffixes. Examples of local suffixes shared by Kwakiutl and Nootka are: Kwakiutl -ōyō "in the middle," Nootka -win'; Kwakiutl -neq" "in the corner," Nootka -nikw-; Kwakiutl -atūs "down river," Nootka -atis; Kwakiutl -ts!ō "in," Nootka -ts!o'; Kwakiutl -k E "top of a box," Nootka -tci' "full"; Kwakiutl -!al "on the rocks," Nootka -la a'; Kwakiutl -ēs "on the beach," Nootka -is; Kwakiutl -it"in the house," Nootka -it; Kwakiutl -xs "in a canoe," Nootka -qs, -!анs. A few examples of body-part suffixes are: Kwakiutl -!ōs "cheek," Nootka -as; Kwakiutl -xō "neck," Nootka -as-Haut "chest"; Kwakiutl -āp! “neck," Nootka -āplat "back." Important temporal elements held in common are: Kwakiutl -z "future," Nootka -Ɛāq-L, -¿L; Kwakiutl -xid "inceptive," Nootka -ci-L. There are some striking agreements in verbifying derivative suffixes, as: Kwakiutl -lexst "to desire," Nootka -!iH" "to try to get," -st!iH" "to have as goal"; Kwakiutl -la "to go in order to," Nootka -las; Kwakiutl -klāla “to make a noise," Nootka -en' (= Wakashan *-q!Ela); Kwakiutl -g at "beginning of a noise," Nootka -aL (= Wakashan *-q!at); Kwakiutl -q/Es "to eat," Nootka -!is; Kwakiutl -nuk" "to have," Nootka -nak. Examples of nominal_suffixes are: Kwakiutl -aanō "rope," Nootka -anut "long"; Kwakiutl -gas "woman," Nootka -aqs; Kwakiutl -asdē "meat," Nootka -act "dried meat"; Kwakiutl -mis "useless," Nootka -mis "mass"; Kwakiutl -plē-q

'I denotes a "strengthening" of the preceding consonant.

AM. ANTH. N. S., 13-2

"stick, tree," Nootka -plit "long board-like object," -q- "tree"; Kwakiutl -(x)Enx "year, season," Nootka -qitch" "year," -litcH" "season." On the whole it seems that Nootka has a rather larger number of derivative suffixes than Kwakiutl, many quite special ideas being expressed by means of suffixes where there seem to be no Kwakiutl equivalents. A few examples are -ał "blanket"; -Emit "son"; -as "daughter"; -litul "to dream of"; -!ōil "to ask for as a gift in a girl's puberty ceremony"; -t!ōla' "to give a potlatch for"; -yaqë” “to sing a song"; -liL "to begin to sing a song"; -lint "to give a feast of"; -Ha' “to buy."

Both Kwakiutl and Nootka make use of two kinds of reduplication, one in which the first consonant, first vowel, and second consonant of the stem are repeated, and one in which only the first consonant and vowel are repeated; the former type is employed in forming iteratives, the second in forming plurals or distributives and with certain suffixes (such as Kwakiutl -la, Nootka -las "to endeavor, to go in order to"; Kwakiutl -yāla “to go to look for"; Nootka -iH" "to try to get"; Nootka -klok" "to look like"). In Nootka the repeated vowel is in all cases the same as that of the stem, in Kwakiutl the second type of reduplication has a definite vocalism (ē in some cases, a in others) in the reduplicating syllable. In Kwakiutl verb stems ending in vowels insert x after the first, k after the second syllable of the iterative, while Nootka iteratives of like form insert L and y; Nootka sā- "to crawl" forms iterative să' Lsātc, -tc being probably identical with Kwakiutl -k·. One other striking resemblance of detail between Kwakiutl and Nootka may be noted: both Kwakiutl diminutives in -Em and Nootka nouns in -kwin' "toy" require reduplication of the stem.

In regard to pronominal development there is considerable difference between Kwakiutl and Nootka. While there is, practically speaking, but one series of personal pronominal suffixes in Kwakiutl, there are three in Nootka (represented, for second person singular, by -eits, -k', and -sok'), of which the second and third are etymologically related; the first Nootka series is used in indicative forms of verbs, the second in subordinate clauses, interrogatives, and possessive forms of nouns, while the third seems to be confined to

certain modal forms. Kwakiutl has distinct forms for first person plural inclusive and exclusive, while Nootka has only one form for both. Pronominal objects are, to at least a considerable extent, incorporated in Kwakiutl, in Nootka, however, only in the case of the first person (second series) of the imperative. A great degree of complexity in pronominal forms is brought about in Kwakiutl by the combination of the pronominal affixes with syntactic (subjective, objective, and instrumental) and demonstrative elements. Nootka has none of this syntactic and demonstrative complexity of the pronoun, but a series of forms is found built up of the second pronominal series and an element -tc implying that the statement is not made on the authority of the speaker.

Almost all Nootka and Kwakiutl words are noun or verb forms, there being almost no particles properly speaking. Such apparent Nootka conjunctive and case particles as ōnōL "because," oyi "when, if," and ōkwil "to" are morphologically verb forms built up of a stem ō- "a certain one, thing" and derivative verbifying suffixes. There is, however, in Nootka a syntactically important conjunctive element ani "that" to which may be appended pronominal affixes of the second series and which may perhaps be considered a particle in the proper sense of the word. The "empty stem," Nootka ō-, is cognate with Kwakiutl ō- "something" which, however, is used primarily in noun forms. Other Wakashan "empty stems" are: Nootka aps-, am-, Kwakiutl āps-, used chiefly in forming nouns of body-parts that occur in pairs, and Nootka hit-, hi- "to be at," Kwakiutl he- "that"; peculiar to Nootka is hin, hit- (before "hardening" suffixes) "to be or do (as indicated by derivative suffix)."

In regard to vocabulary Kwakiutl and Nootka differ greatly. Considering the very striking morphological agreements between them it is somewhat disappointing to find comparatively few stems held in common. It is highly important, however, to note that many of these are rather colorless in content and thus hardly to be suspected of having been borrowed in post-Wakashan times. Such are Kwakiutl nā-, Nootka nās "daylight"; Kwakiutl g'al-, Nootka tcan- "to be first"; Kwakiutl ax- "to do, be," Nootka OH- "to be";