The Structure of Stems and Roots in Nootka-Nitinat

1. Two striking characteristics of the structure of the Nootkan languages have been known since Sapir's pioneering work on Albeni Nootka beginning in 1910. The first is morphotactic: Every word begins in a stem and there are therefore no prefixes in the language. The second is phonotactic: Every stem begins in one and only one consonant.1 More recently attention has begun to turn to certain other characteristics of Nootkan stems, in particular the fact that they often appear in two or three forms, with and without an extra consonant or two, or with differing final consonants.2 In the present paper these 'stem extenders', as I propose to call them, are discussed in some detail (2). Further* An earlier version of the first part of this paper (2 and 3) was presented at the Fourth International Conference on Salish Languages held at the University of Victoria in August, 1969, and an abbreviated version of the second part (4 and 5) was presented to the Berkeley Linguistic Group in November, 1969. 1 This rule is carried over even to English words. The Nitinat, for example, referred in 1931 to their favorite Victoria merchants as 'Cott'n'Speden, i.e. Scott and Peden. It is also interesting to observe that the initial s is not lost but simply moved to another position in the word. 2 William H. Jacobsen, Jr., Origin of the Nootka Pharyngeals, IJAL 35.125-53 (1969), especially 6.11-6.16; Mary R. Haas, Internal Reconstruction of the Nootka-Nitinat Pronominal Suffixes, IJAL 35.108-24 (1969), especially 6.21. 83 more, it turns out that the removal of the stem extenders lays bare the simple root, generally of CV shape, and enables us to recognize families of stems based on the same root (3). Still another important feature revealed in the present study is that certain roots appear to be paired with certain other roots by means of a statable mutation of the initial consonant (4). In addition to its intrinsic interest this also gives rise to the interesting speculation that certain prefixes may have existed in pre-Nootkan. In addition, the type of mutation discussed in 4 can be distinguished from a somewhat more diffuse type of mutation which is perhaps best treated as consonant symbolism (5). In this article two of the Nootkan languages, Nootka and Nitinat, have been studied together. This is helpful for a number of reasons, the chief of which are (1) the languages sometimes occur with differing stem extenders, partly, no doubt, because of accidental differences in the recording situation, and (2) the differing definitions in the two languages, again frequently dictated by chance, serve to reinforce or supplement our insights into meaning.