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Problems of Long-Range Comparison in Penutian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Morris Swadesh
Morris Swadesh*
Affiliation:
Denver, Colorado
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Extract

Among Alfred L. Kroeber's many great contributions to the sciences of society, some of the most important are in the field of linguistics. They include both descriptive and comparative research, and embrace theory as well as documentation. He has paid considerable attention to the question of linguistic diffusion, tracing and analyzing specific examples of morphologic and lexical borrowing among California Indian languages and developing the theoretical implications of the process. It was in the course of a major study along these lines that he and his co-worker, Roland B. Dixon, discovered several previously unsuspected groupings of languages, including ‘Ritwan’, ‘Hokan’, and Tenutian', and thereby helped to open to comparative linguistics the new horizon of long-range comparison, which we are still struggling to master.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 32 , Issue 1: January-March , March 1956 , pp. 17 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © 1956 by the Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 A bibliography follows, alphabetized by authors. Items in this list are referred to in the text by author's name and date of publication only.

Herman Aschmann and William L. Wonderly, Affixes and implicit categories in Totonac verb inflection, UAL 18.130–45 (1952).—Pedro Aschmann, Vocabulario de la lengua totonaca (Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, 1949). —Franz Boas, Tsimshian, BAE-B 40.1.283–422 (1911a). —Id., Chinook, ibid. 40.1.559–677 (1911b). — Roland B. Dixon, Maidu, ibid. 40.1.479–734 (1911). — Roland B. Dixon and Alfred L. Kroeber, Indian linguistic families of California, UCPAAE 16.47–118 (1919). — Gordon H. Fairbanks, A note on glottochronology, UAL 21.116–20 (1955). — Leo J. Frachtenberg, Comparative studies in Takelman, Kalapuyan, and Chinookan lexicography 1.175–82 (1917–20). — Id., Coos, BAE-B 40.2.297–430 (1922a). — Id., Siuslawan, ibid. 40.2.431–630 (1922b). — L. S. Freeland, The relationship of Mixe to the Penutian family, IJAL 6.28–33 (1930). — Id., Language of the Sierra Miwok, IJAL Memoir 6 (1951). —W. Roy Harrison and Margarita B. Harrison, Diccionario español-zoque y zoque-español (Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, 1948). — R. F. Heizer, California Indian linguistic records: The Mission Indian vocabularies of Alphonse Pinart, Anthropological records 15:1 (1952). — Id., California Indian linguistic records: The Mission Indian vocabularies of H. W. Henshaw, ibid. 15:2 (1955). — Maturino Gilberti, Diccionario de la lengua tarasca o de michoacán (Mexico, 1901). — Melville Jacobs, A sketch of Northern Sahaptin grammar, Univ. Wash. publ, in anthropology 4.85–293 (1931). — Id., [unpublished manuscripts and field notes on Alsea, Kalapuya, Molale] (University of Washington, Seattle, ca. 1935). — Alfred L. Kroeber, The languages of the coast of California south of San Francisco, UCPAAE 2.29–80 (1904). —Id., The Yokuts language of south central California, ibid. 2.165–377 (1907). —Id., The Chumash and Costanoan languages, ibid. 9.237–71 (1910). — Id., The languages of the coast of California north of San Francisco, ibid. 9.273–435 (1911). — Id., Linguistic time depth results so far and their meaning, IJAL 21.91–104 (1955a). — Id., History of anthropological theory, Yearbook of anthropology 293–312 (1955b). — Alfred L. Kroeber and C. Douglas Chrétien, Quantitative classification of Indo-European languages, Lg. 13.83–103 (1937). — Id., The statistical tecnique and Hittite, Lg. 15.69—71 (1939). —Jorge A. Lira, Diccionario kkechuwa-español (Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Instituto de Historia, Lingüística y Folklore, No. 12, 1944). — J. Alden Mason, The Mutsun dialect of Costanoan, UCPAAE 11.399–472 (1916). —Norman A. McQuown, Indigenous languages of native America, AA 57.501–70 (1955). — J. P. Pérez, Coordinación alfabética de las voces del idioma maya (Mérida, 1898). — J. W. Powell, Linguistic families of North America, BAE annual report 7.1–142 (1885–86). — P. Rivet, Les langues de l'ancien diocése de Trujillo, Journal de la Société des Américanistes 38.1 ff. (1949). — Edward Sapir, Takelma texts, Univ. Penn. anthr. publications 2:1 (1909). — Id., A characteristic Penutian form of stem, IJAL 2.58–67 (1921). — Id., The Takelma language of southwestern Oregon, BAE-B 40.2.1–296 (1922). — Id., Comparative Penutian glosses (Franz Boas collection of the American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia, 1952). — Edward Sapir and Morris Swadesh, Coos-Takelma-Penutian comparisons, IJAL 9.132–7 (1933). — Robert Shafer, Penutian, IJAL 13.205–19 (1947). — Id., Notes on Penutian, ibid. 18.217–22 (1952). — Morris Swadesh, Mosan I: A problem of remote common origin, ibid. 19.26–44 (1953). — Id., Perspectives and problems of Amerindian comparative linguistics, Word 10.306–52 (1954). —Id., Towards greater accuracy in lexicostatistic dating, IJAL 21.121–37 (1955). — Ezequiel Uricoechea, Vocabulario paez-castellano (Collection linguistique américaine, 1877). — Milton Warkentin and Clara Warkentin, Vocabulario Huave (Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, 1952). — William L. Wonderly, Zoque, IJAL 17.1–9, 105–23, 137–66, 235–51, 18.35–48, 189–202 (1951–52).

Diagnostic vocabularies in the Amerindian Non-Cultural Vocabularies Archive were contributed by the following: Domingo Aidana B., Pedro Aschmann, Phil Baer, Alfredo Barrera Vásquez, William Beynon, Jean Caudmont, Marian Cowan, John C. Crawford, Abel Durand, J. M. B. Farfan, Juan A. Hasler, Searle Hoogshagen, Dell Hymes, Kathryn C. Keller, Maxwell D. Lathrop, J. Martin Ordoñez, Teodoro Meneses, José Portugal, M. Mayers, W. S. Miller, Pablo Morales Alonso, Rosalio Saguic, Mary Shaw, Marianna C. Slocum, Guy Stresser-Pean, Julia Supple, Milton Warkentin, William L. Wonderly and W. Roy Harrison.