The consonant inventory of Lake Miwok differs substantially from the inventories found in the other Miwok languages. Where the other languages only have one series of plosives, Lake Miwok has four: plain, aspirated, ejective and voiced. Lake Miwok has also added the affricates č, c, čʼ, cʼ, ƛʼ and the liquids r and ł. These sounds appear to have been borrowed through loanwords from other, unrelated languages in the Clear Lake area, after which they spread to some native Lake Miwok words.[2][3]
In her Lake Miwok grammar, Callaghan reports that one speaker distinguishes between 1st person dual inclusiveʔoc and exclusiveʔic. Another speaker also remembers that this distinction used to be made by older speakers.[5]
the Subjective case marks a noun which functions as the subject of a verb. If the subject noun is placed before the verb, the Subjective has the allomorph-n after vowel (or a vowel followed by /h/), and -Ø after consonants. If it is placed after the verb, the Subjective is -n after vowels and -nu after consonants.
kukú
flea
-n
-subjective
ʔin
2sg
tíkki
forehead
-t
-allative
mékuh
sit
kukú -n ʔin tíkki -t mékuh
flea -subjective 2sg forehead -allative sit
"A flea is sitting on your forehead."
the Possessive case is -n after vowels and -Ø after consonants
ʔóle
coyote
-n
-possessive
ṣúluk
skin
ʔóle -n ṣúluk
coyote -possessive skin
"coyote skin"
táj
man
-Ø
-possessive
ṣáapa
hair
táj -Ø ṣáapa
man -possessive hair
"the man's hair"
the Objective case marks a noun which functions as the object of a verb. It has the allomorph -u (after a consonant) or -Ø (after a vowel) when the noun is placed immediately before a verb which contains the 2nd person prefix ʔin- (which then has the allomorph -n attached to the noun preceding the verb; compare the example below) or does not contain any subject prefix at all.
káac
fish
-u
-objective
-n
-2SG
ʔúṭe?
see
káac -u -n ʔúṭe?
fish -objective -2SG see
"Did you see the fish?"
It has the allomorph -Ø before a verb containing any other subject prefix:
kawáj
horse
-Ø
-objective
ka
1SG
ʔúṭe
see
kawáj -Ø ka ʔúṭe
horse -objective 1SG see
"I saw the horse"
If the object noun does not immediately precede the verb, or if the verb is in the imperative, the allomorph of the Objective is -uc:
káac
fish
-uc
-objective
jolúm
eat
-mi
-imperative
káac -uc jolúm -mi
fish -objective eat -imperative
"Eat the fish"
the allative caseis-toor-t depending on the environment. It has a variety of meaning, but often expresses direction towards a goal.
the locative case-m gives a less specific designation of locality than the Allative, and occurs more rarely.
the ablative caseis-muor-m depending on the context, and marks direction out of, or away from, a place.
the instrumental case-ṭu marks instruments, e.g. tumáj-ṭu "(I hit him) with a stick".
the comitative case-ni usually translates as "along with", but can also be used to coordinate nouns, as in kaʔunúu-ni ka ʔáppi-ni "my mother and my father".
the vocative case only occurs with a few kinship terms, e.g. ʔunúu "mother (voc)" from ʔúnu "mother".
the Appositive case is the citation form of nouns.
Lake Miwok uses pronominal clitics to indicate the possessor of a noun. Except for the 3d person singular, they have the same shape as the nominative pronominal clitics, but show no allomorphy.
Singular
Dual
Plural
1st person
ka
ʔic
ma
2nd person
ʔin
moc
mon
3rd person
non-reflexive
ʔiṭi
koc
kon
reflexive
hana
hanakoc
hanakon
indefinite
ʔan
The reflexive hana forms have the same referent as the subject of the same clause, whereas the non-reflexive forms have a different referent, e.g.:
Callaghan, Catherine A. (1964). "Phonemic Borrowing in Lake Miwok". In William Bright (ed.). Studies in Californian Linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 46–53.
Callaghan, Catherine A. (1965). Lake Miwok Dictionary. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages. The Historical Linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Callaghan, Catherine A. "Note of Lake Miwok Numerals." International Journal of American Linguistics, vol. 24, no. 3 (1958): 247.
Keeling, Richard. "Ethnographic Field Recordings at Lowie Museum of Anthropology," 1985. Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. v. 2. North-Central California: Pomo, Wintun, Nomlaki, Patwin, Coast Miwok, and Lake Miwok Indians
Lake Miwok Indians. "Rodriguez-Nieto Guide" Sound Recordings (California Indian Library Collections), LA009. Berkeley: California Indian Library Collections, 1993. "Sound recordings reproduced from the Language Archive sound recordings at the Language Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley." In 2 containers.
