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Cahto Consultants

Martina (Ray) Bell ("Martinez")

Daughter of Bill Ray sister of Gil Ray.

Apparently grew up near Laytonville.

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

Bill Ray, Daatcaahaal-kwaatc'ileeh

(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)

Father of Martina (Ray) Bell and Gil 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

Gil Ray

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

Apparently grew up near Laytonville.

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

Rose Ray ("Rosie")

Wife of Gil Ray

Born and raised on South Fork Eel River?, Lived in Laytonville area as adult.

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