Waikuri language

This article is about the language group of Mexico. Not to be confused with the Guaicuruan languages of South America.

Waikuri (Guaycura, Waicura) is an extinct language of southern Baja California spoken by the Waikuri or Guaycura people. The Jesuit priest Baegert documented words, sentences and texts in the language between 1751 and 1768.

Waicuri
Guaicurian Guaycura
Native to	Mexico
Region	Baja California
Ethnicity	Guaycura
Era	last attested 1768
Language family	unclassified (Guaicurian)
Dialects	Huchití?
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Linguist List	qjg Guaicura (Waikura, Waykuri)
	qea Waicuri (Waicuru)
	qny Cora (Huchití)
Glottolog	guai1237  Guaicurian monq1236  Monqui
The location of Guaycura. Monqui and Pericú are essentially unattested; Cochimí, which is also extinct, is a Yuman language.

Waikuri may be, along with the Yukian and Chumashan languages and other languages of southern Baja such as Pericú, among the oldest languages established in California, before the arrival of speakers of Penutian, Uto-Aztecan, and perhaps even Hokan languages. All are spoken in areas with long-established populations of a distinct physical type.

Name

The ethnonym Waikuri and its variants likely originates from the Pericú word guaxoro 'friend'. Variations of the name include Waicuri, Waicuri, Guaicuri, Waicura, Guaycura, Guaicura, Waicuro, Guaicuro, Guaycuro, Vaicuro, Guaicuru, Guaycuru, Waikur.

Classification

Baegert's data is analyzed by Raoul Zamponi (2004). On existing evidence, Guaycura appears to be unrelated to the Yuman languages to its north. Some linguists have suggested that it belonged to the widely scattered Hokan phylum of California and Mexico (Gursky 1966; Swadesh 1967); however, the evidence for this seems inconclusive (Laylander 1997; Zamponi 2004; Mixco 2006). William C. Massey (1949) suggested a connection with Pericú, but the latter is too meagerly attested to support a meaningful comparison. Other languages of southern Baja are essentially undocumented, though people have speculated from non-linguistic sources that Monqui (Monquí-Didiú), spoken in a small region around Loreto, may have been a 'Guaicurian' language, as perhaps was Huchití (Uchití), though that may have actually been a variety of Guaycura itself (Golla 2007).

The internal classification of Guaicurian (Waikurian) languages is uncertain. Massey (1949), cited in Campbell (1997:169), gives this tentative classification based on similarity judgments given by colonial-era sources, rather than actual linguistic data.

• Guaicurian (Waikurian)
  • Guaicura branch
    • Guaocura (Waikuri)
    • Callejue
  • Huchiti branch
    • Cora
    • Huchiti
    • Aripe
    • Periúe
  • Pericú branch
    • Pericú
    • Isleño

However, Laylander (1997) and Zamponi (2004) conclude that Waikuri and Pericú are unrelated.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants were voiceless stops p t c k and maybe a glottal stop; voiced b d, nasal m n ny, flap r, trill rr, and approximants w y.

Waikuri consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	(ʔ)
	voiced	b	d
Affricate				t͡ʃ
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Rhotic			ɾ, r
Approximant		w		j

Vowels

Waikuri had four vowels, /i, e, a, u/. Whether or not vowel length was phonemic is unknown.

Grammar

The little we know of Guaycura grammar was provided by Francisco Pimentel, who analyzed a few verbs and phrases. Guaicura was a polysyllabic language that involved much compounding. For example, 'sky' is tekerakadatemba, from tekaraka (arched) and datemba (earth).

Beagert and Pimentel agree that the plural is formed with a suffix -ma. However, Pimentel also notes a prefix k- with the 'same' function. For example, kanai 'women', from anai 'woman'. According to Pimentel, the negation in -ra of an adjective resulted in its opposite, so from ataka 'good' is derived atakara 'bad'.

Pronouns were as follows (Golla 2011):

Pronouns

Subject		Object		Inalienable possessive		Alienable possessive
I	be			my	be- ~ m-	bekún
thou	e’i	thee	e’i ?	thy	e-	ekún
s/he	?			his/her	ti- ~ t-
we	katé	us	kepe	our	kepe-	kepekún
you	peté				?
they	?			their		kikún

Text

The Pater Noster is recorded in Guaycura, with a literal gloss by Pimentel (1874: cap. XXV).

Kepe-dare
Padre Nuestro
Kepe-dare	tekerekadatemba	daï,	ei-ri	akatuike	pu-me,	tschakarrake	pu-me	ti	tschie.
Padre nuestro	(que en el) cielo	estás,	te	reconocemos	todos (los que) existimos	(y te) alaban	todos (los que) somos	hombres	y.
Ecun	gracia	ri	atume	cate	tekerekedatemba	tschie.	Ei-ri	jebarrakeme	ti
(Y por) tu	gracia	?	tengamos	nosotros	(el) cielo	(y).	Te	obedeceremos	(los) hombres
pu	jaupe	datemba	pae	ei	jebarrakere	aëna	kea.	Kepekun	bue
todos	aquí	(en la) tierra	como	a ti	obedientes	arriba	siendo.	Nuestra	comida
kepe	ken	jatupe	untairi.	Kate	kuitscharrake	tei	tschie	kepecun	atakamara,
(a) nos	da	este	día.	(Y a) nos	perdona		(y)	nuestro	malo (pecado),
pae	kuitscharrakere	cate	tschie	cavape	atukiara	kepetujake.	Cate	tikakamba	tei
como	perdonamos	nosotros	también	(a) los	(que) mal	(nos) hacen.	(A) nos	ayuda
tschie	cuvume	ra	cate	uë	atukiara.	Kepe	kakunja	pe	atacara
y	(no) querremos	no	nosotros	algo	malo.	(Y a) nos	protege	de	mal
tschie.
y.

Vocabulary

Waikuri vocabulary from Zamponi (2004), which was compiled primarily from 18th-century sources by Johann Jakov Baegert, as well as from Lamberto Hostell and Francisco de Ortega:

Nouns

English gloss	Waikuri	Notes
earth, land	datembà; atembà
sky	tekerekádatembà	lit. ‘arched earth/land’
day	untâiri, untáîri
week	ambúja	‘place where one lives; house; church’
year; pitahaya	ambía
mescal	pui; kenjei, kennei
horse; mule	titschénu-tschà	‘child of a wise mother’
k.o. snake	matanamu	‘light red . . . [snake] with black spots’
k.o. eagle	jatacrie	lit. ‘deer-catcher’
man; person	éte (pl. ti)
woman	ánaï (pl. kánaï)
father	-dáre, -áre (man speaking); -cue (woman speaking)
parent	pera kari
son	-tschánu, -tschénu
shaman	taniti; tantipara
missionary	tià-pa-tù	‘one who has his house in the north'
forehead	-tapà ~ -apà
nose	-inamù
arm; hand	-kére
right arm	-tschuketà
pain	-enembeû
food	búe
place where one lives; house; church	ambúja
ceremonial wand	tiyeicha	lit. ‘he can talk’
dance floor	amaeka
word	-tanía
a song	ambéra didì
a dance	agénari
payment	tenkíe

Pronouns

English gloss	Waikuri	Notes
I	be (subject)
you (sg.)	eï	subject
we	catè	subject
you (pl.)	petè	subject
you (sg.); to you	eï	direct/indirect object
us; to us	kepe	direct/indirect object
mine	becún, beticún	also used adjectivally with alienably possessed nouns
yours (sg.)	ecún, ecùn; eiticún	also used adjectivally with alienably possessed nouns
ours	kepecùn	also used adjectivally with alienably possessed nouns
theirs	kicùn	also used adjectivally with alienably possessed nouns
this one	tâupe
these ones	cávape
that one	tutâu
those ones	tucáva
this same one	tâuvérepe	probably also used as a demonstrative determiner
who?	aipe(e), ci pe
all, everything	pu	also quantifier; cf. 'all'
something	uë
nothing	vâra, buarà

Other parts of speech

English gloss	Waikuri	Notes
great	apánne
good	atacá (pl. atacámma), aata ce; atukià
ugly; bad	entuditù (pl. entuditámma)
washed	kunjukaráü (pl.)
beaten	tschipitschürre (pl. kutipaû)
dead	tibikíu (pl.)
arched	tekereká
alone	íbe
many (?)	pari; cuncari
all	pù
three	akúnju
this	jatúpe, jaûpe
in (a region); from (separation); by means of	pè	preposition
from (source); at the side of; in (time)	me	preposition
of	te	preposition
on, upon	tína	preposition
below	búnju	postposition
on account of	déve; tiptischeû	preposition
acknowledge	akátuikè
be	daï (sg.?); kéa (pl.?)
be ashamed	ié
be born	pedára
beat	tschípake
become	punjére
believe	irimánju
bury	kejenjùta (pl.?)
can	puduéne
chat	jake (pl. kuáke)
come	ku
command	ïebitschéne
confess	kutéve
die	pibikí (?)
do (cause)	tujakè
fight	piabakè (pl. kupiábake)
forgive	kuitscharrakè, kuitscharaké
give	uteürì, utere; kên
go down, descend	keritschéü
go up	tschukíti
hate	kumbáte
have	atú
help	tikakambà
kiss	tschumuge
know	kériri, rthe risi, kereri
lie (down)	tíe
live	tipè, tipé
make, create	uretì
obey	jebarraké
play	amukíri
praise	tschakárrake
protect	kakunjà
remember	umutù (pl. kumutú)
sit	penekà
stretch out	kutikürre (pl. ?)
suffer	híbitsche
talk	tiyeicha	‘can talk’ ?; cf. 'ceremonial wand'
there is	epí
touch	undiri
wish, desire	cuvu
then	enjéme
above	aëna
from there	aipúreve
and	tschie
as	páe, pàe
imperative particle	têi (sg.); tu (pl.)
no	vâra	‘nothing’; cf. 'nothing'
thanks (?)	payro

References

• Golla, Victor. 2007. Atlas of the World's Languages.
• Golla, Victor. 2011. California Indian Languages.
• Gursky, Karl-Heinz. 1966. "On the historical position of Waicuri". International Journal of American Linguistics 32:41–45.[1]
• Laylander, Don. 1997. "The linguistic prehistory of Baja California". In Contributions to the Linguistic Prehistory of Central and Baja California, edited by Gary S. Breschini and Trudy Haversat, pp. 1–94. Coyote Press, Salinas, California.
• Massey, William C. 1949. "Tribes and languages of Baja California". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 5:272–307.
• Mixco, Mauricio J. 2006. "The indigenous languages". In The Prehistory of Baja California: Advances in the Archaeology of the Forgotten Peninsula, edited by Don Laylander and Jerry D. Moore, pp. 24–41. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
• Swadesh, Morris. 1967. "Lexicostatistical Classification". in Linguistics, edited by Norman A. McQuown, pp. 79–115. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 5, Robert Wauchope, general editor. University of Texas Press, Austin.