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PROTO-UTO-AZTECAN AS A MESOAMERICAN LANGUAGE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2012

Jane H. Hill
Jane H. Hill*
Affiliation:
School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, PO Box 210030, Tucson, AZ 85721-0030
*
E-mail correspondence to: jhill@email.arizona.edu
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Abstract

New evidence is presented in support of the hypothesis that Proto-Uto-Aztecan (PUA) was spoken by a community of cultivators in the northwest quadrant of Mesoamerica. New cognates are presented in support of reconstructions of meanings of PUA words within the maize-cultivation domain. It is argued that some of this vocabulary was borrowed from an Otomanguean language, perhaps Proto-Oto-Chinantecan. In addition, it is argued that PUA included a vocabulary in the domain of pottery. New reconstructions of a pottery lexicon are proposed, and arguments that this vocabulary was borrowed from an Otomanguean language are presented. If PUA speakers were familiar with pottery, then PUA was spoken as late as 4400–4100 b.p. and did not begin to break up into its daughter languages until after knowledge of pottery reached its speakers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , Spring 2012 , pp. 57 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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