Karkin Revisited

Fray Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta, a Spanish missionary interested in Calif Indian langs, recorded 44 words & phrases of Karkin, a Costanoan lang once spoken around the Carquinez Strait. M. S. Beeler published Arroyo's 1821 Karkin vocabulary in 1961. Aside from proper names, no other information on this lang is available. Since 1961, John F. Harrington's field notes on three other Costanoan langs have become available. Reanalysis of Arroyo's vocabulary yields 51 identifiable morphemes - several that are archaic. Comparison of the Karkin items with other Costanoan langs casts doubt on Beeler's contention that Karkin borrowed the words for 'man' & 'woman' from Esselen, suggesting an Esselen substrate. However, the comparison substantiates Beeler's hypothesis that Karkin is sufficiently differentiated from Northern & Southern Costanoan to constitute a separate branch of the Costanoan family. 1 Table, 27 References. AA