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Cahto Consultants

Martina (Ray) Bell ("Martinez") (b.1878?)

Name given as "Martine" in 1880 census, "Martinez" in 1900 census, "Martina" and "Matina" in 1920's rolls

Daughter of Bill Ray sister of Gill Ray, wife of Robert Bell.

Apparently grew up near Laytonville. Listed as both parents being "Kyopomo" (= Kaipomo/Cahto) in 1900 census. Listed in various census & roll records a b.1874 or b.1876, but listed as 2 years old in 1880 census.

Consultant for Essene (all Cahto materials), Harrington 1942, Loeb 1932, and Merriam (all Cahto materials).

Same dialect/subdialect as her brother, showing:

• weakening of gh to y, w, or yh (velar approximant, "long-leg-turned-m" in IPA) or even to null after a consonant
• de-lateralization of the ejective lateral in syllable-initial position (i.e. tl' becomes t')
• possibly a slightly more fronted pronunciation of s (Harrington represents it as interdental, "theta" in IPA, but everyone else gives "s").
• no final vowel in diminutive suffix -tc
• schwa before word-final glottal stop pronounced as i

Alex Frazier, Beet'ai-Ch'iwidits

Grew up near Laytonville, much of life in Round Valley, mother Cahto.

Consultant for Driver 1939.

There are very few words to establish dialect affiliation, but it appears to conform to the same dialect as Gil and Martina, probably reflecting a Laytonville area dialect as they all grew up there.

William Ray ("Bill"), Daatcaahaal-kwaatc'ileeh (b.1851? 1852?)

(at Notes on Kato from the E.S. Curtis collection) Cahto name: Daatcaahaal-kwaatc'ileeh (lit. He Dives for Hookbill Salmon), Toonai-kwaatc'ileeh (lit. He Dives for Fish)

Cahto name (Toonai-kwaatc'ileeh) represented as "Tonyquadlates" in 1900 census. Listed as both parents being "Kyopomo" (= Kaipomo/Cahto) in 1900 census. Listed in various census & roll records a b.1851 or b.1852, but listed as 30 years old in 1880 census.

Husband of Lucy (Cook) Ray.

Father of Martina (Ray) Bell and Gill Ray.

Born in 1873 on South Fork Eel River?, Grew up in Little Valley and Long Valley?, Lived in Laytonville area as adult.

Consultant for Curtis 1907-30, Goddard (all Cahto materials), Kroeber (all Cahto materials), and Sapir (all Cahto materials).

Dialect/subdialect is conservative:

• preserves gh in all circumstances except environment of rounded vowel, where it becomes w
• preserves tl' vs. t' distinction; tl' sometimes weakened to lh' in syllable-initial position
• preserves final shtc clusters
• no vowel in diminutive suffix -tc
• schwa before word-final glottal stop pronounced as ee

Gill Ray ("Gil") (b.1876)

Son of Bill Ray, brother of Martina (Ray) Bell.

Apparently grew up near Laytonville. Listed as both parents being "Kyopomo" (= Kaipomo/Cahto) in 1900 census. Listed in various census & roll records a b.1872 or b.1876, but listed as 4 years old in 1880 census.

Consultant for Essene (all Cahto materials), Harrington 1942, Loeb 1932, and Merriam (all Cahto materials).

Same dialect/subdialect as his sister, showing:

• weakening of gh to y, w, or yh (velar approximant, "long-leg-turned-m" in IPA) or even to null after a consonant
• de-lateralization of the ejective lateral in syllable-initial position (i.e. tl' becomes t')
• possibly a slightly more fronted pronunciation of s (Harrington represents it as interdental, "theta" in IPA, but everyone else gives "s").
• no final vowel in diminutive suffix -tc
• schwa before word-final glottal stop pronounced as i

Lucy (Cook) Ray ("Beans") (b.1855?)

Wife of Bill Ray, daughter of "Cook, " (1880 census).

Name given as "Beans in 1880 & 1900 census, "Benas" (error for "Beans") in 1920 rolls, "Alice" (erroniously?) in 1921 rolls, "Lucy" in 1922 & 1923 rolls. Listed as both parents being "Kyopomo" (= Kaipomo/Cahto) in 1900 census. Listed in various census & roll records a b.1857 or b.1855, but listed as 25 years old in 1880 census.

Consultant for Loeb 1932.

Dialect features are currently uncertain, as Loeb rarely stated which informant (Lucy or Martina) provided a given form. It will probably be possible to figure out a bit about her speech after some more detailed work with Martina Bell's specific forms in Harrington.

• appears to generally preserve gh, like Bill Ray's and Rose Ray's speech
• de-lateralization of the ejective lateral in syllable-initial position (i.e. tl' becomes t'), except tl' becomes ch' initially immediately preceding gh (e.g. tl'ghish (rattlesnake) is pronounced as ch'ghish), as in Rose Ray's speech
• no final vowel in diminutive suffix -tc
• schwa before word-final glottal stop pronounced as i

Rose (Stevenson) Ray ("Rosie") (b.1881?)

Wife of Gil Ray, daughter of George W. Stevenson and Ellen Stevenson (earlier Ellen Chadbourne, later Helen Whipple)

Born in Westport, and raised on South Fork Eel River?, Lived in Laytonville area as adult. Name given as "Rosa" in the 1900 census. Listed as both parents being "Kyopomo" (= Kaipomo/Cahto) in 1900 census, but also listed as 1/2 white; George W. Stevenson listed in census records as a white English immigrant from Canada. Rose listed in various census & roll records a b.1877 or b.1881, but not listed in the 1880 census in which her mother is still listed as Ellen Chadbourne, a widow, so presumably the 1877 birthdate is incorrect. Ellen was "of the Laytonville Tribe" and spoke both Laytonville/Cahto and Sherwood Pomo languages. (JPH, reel 3, im.576A)

Consultant for some of Goddard's field notes at the APS.

Dialect/subdialect

• generally preserves gh in all circumstances except environment of rounded vowel, where it becomes w
• preserves tl' vs. t' distinction, except tl' becomes ch' initially immediately preceding gh (e.g. tl'ghish (rattlesnake) is pronounced as ch'ghish
• shtc contracts to sh, with diphthongization of the preceding vowel (e.g. yaashtc (small-DIM) pronounced as yaish, sh-tcghe' (my-ear) pronounced as shghe')
• vowel e or i added after diminutive suffix if it is not contracted with a preceding s or sh.
• schwa before word-final glottal stop pronounced as i or e