RAPID: Proto Utian (Miwok-Costanoan) Grammar and Dictionary: Description, Historical Reconstruction, and Theoretical Implications

Ohio State University Research Foundation -Do Not Use, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

This research project will complete a grammar and dictionary for Proto Utian (Miwok-Costanoan), a family of Central California Indian languages. The Proto Utian Grammar and Dictionary with Notes on Yokuts will be an authoritative compendium of information on this wide-ranging language family. This work represents the culmination of 50 years of scholarship; it will gather and synthesize a wide range of information on the Utian languages that is currently scattered in various dictionaries and journal articles, some of them obscure, or buried in field notes. In the case of Costanoan languages, very little published material is now available. The Proto Utian Grammar and Dictionary with Notes on Yokuts will demonstrate how the languages of the Miwok and Costanoan families are related to one another and how they descended from Proto Utian. This volume will serve as a much-needed reference for: (1) people of Miwok and Costanoan descent who are interested in reviving or revitalizing their languages and cultures; (2) linguists studying Native American languages; (3) anthropologists studying prehistoric cultures, migrations, and intercultural contact; (4) historical linguists interested in language change; and (5) linguistic theoreticians and typologists interested in particular features of Utian languages.