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The Chumash Languages Compared

The family resemblance		Common prefixes
Related words		Some points of divergence
Vowel harmony

The family resemblance

The Chumash languages are a family. The closest relatives are the Central Chumash languages Ventureño, Barbareño and Inezeño. Below are sets of words in four of the Chumash languages: Ventureño, Barbareño, Inezeño and Obispeño. These four were chosen for the following reasons:
	They represent the maximum north-south range of Chumash territory.
	They are all distinct languages rather than dialectal variants of one another. Barbareño and Inezeño share the greatest similarities, but are still different enough to qualify as separate languages, even though many items in these lists look identical.
	They are the best recorded of the Chumash languages; we know considerably less about Purisimeño and the speech of the islands and the interior.
A blank in the charts below does not mean that the language in question lacks a word for that particular item, but rather that the word in that language was not related to the others in the set. For example, the words for “abalone” in Ventureño and Barbareño — qa and qai — are obviously very similar, while the Inezeño term taya bears no relation to them. In addition, a blank in the chart does not necessarily mean than that there is no such related word; it might be that the related word was simply not recorded or didn’t appear in the sources that these lists are based on.
A glance at this chart shows you that Barbareño and Inezeño are the most closely related to each other.
	Notice that Ventureño shows t where Barbareño and Inezeño have l — a glottalized “T” rather then glottalized “L“
	Obispeño diverges more from the other Chumash languages, in vocabulary as well as structure. The many blanks in the Obispeño column of this chart are partly due to this divergence and partly the result of the much smaller body of Obispeño words that Harrington (and others) recorded. When Obispeño words do appear, they often show systematic differences, such as showing where the other languages have k.

Related words

	Ventureņo	Barbareņo	Inezeņo	Obispeņo
boat, canoe	tomhol	tomol	tomol	?
bow	ax	ax	ax	aqa
eagle	clow	slow	slow	?
fiesta, festival	maxatam	maxalami	maxalam	?
flea	ctep	step	step	?
hello	haku	haku	haku	hau
money	alum	anum	alum
now	kp	kp	kp	ip
people/inhabitant of	atap-	alap-	alap-	?
river, creek	utam	ulam	ulam	limi
sweet	mowhon	mowon	mowon	?
stand up	kuta	kuta	kuta	?
thunder	oxkoho(n)	oxkon	oxkon	?

all	yila	liya	yila	?
one	paket	paka	pakas	?
three	masix	masix	masx	mis
four	ckumu	skumu	skumu	skomo “eight”
eight	malawa	malawa	malawa
other, another	cohoy	coyni	coyini	?
something big	xax	xax	—

Vowel Harmony

The Chumash languages all show a tendency for the vowels within a word to match, especially the vowels a, e and o. This is called “vowel harmony.” Some examples:

		Ventureņo	Barbareņo	Inezeņo	Obispeņo
a	eight	malawa	malawa	malawa
	moon	awhay	away	away	tawa
	skunk	taxama	taxama	taxama	tqema
e	tail	teleq	teleq	teleq	telhe
	tongue	elew	elew	elew	elhew
	sing	expen	expen	expen
o	heel	osos	osos	osos	ososo
	to stand	nowon	nowon	nowon
	armpit	tokolol	toqolo	toqolo	tiqololo

Common Prefixes

All of the central Chumash languages make extensive use of prefixes with verbs. Dozens of different prefixes can modify the basic meaning of a verb root.
A series of several prefixes may accompany the verb, as the examples below show. Sometimes the prefix changes form depending on what sounds come after it. For example, the causative prefix su– becomes s– when it comes before a vowel.
	qil– / xil– “in or involving water”
	Ventureño	cqilmes “island,” literally“it is across the water” cf. mes “to cross, be across”
	Barbareño	qinci “to drown” ci “to be sharp, acute”
	Inezeño	xiliwayan “to float” wayan “to hang”
	tal– “with or by the hand
	Ventureño	talcmmn “to hold shut” cmmn “to purse”
	Barbareño	tansix “to squeeze, hold tightly” six “to do firmly/tightly”
	Inezeño	tosmon “to grasp/hold together” smon “to gather, be together”
	su– or s– in the central languages, si- in Obispeņo, is a causative prefix; it indicates that something is causing the action of the verb to happen:
	Ventureño	succ “to sharpen” cc “to be sharp”
	Barbareño	sumutey “to bring s. near” mutey “to be near”
	Inezeño	siyc “to heat something” yc “to be hot”
	Obispeño	siqsa “to kill” qsa “to die”

Some points of divergence

You’ve probably noticed how closely the Central Chumash languages agree with one another, but they also differ in some striking ways.
	Ventureņo	Barbareņo	Inezeņo	Obispeņo
negative with verbs	hu–	sa–	ini– / –ni–	mi–
article with nouns	si– / i–	l–	ma / ha	ya–
who	asku	ayi	kune
and	ki	hika / ke	na