Abstract
Merrill et al. (1) find “untenable” the hypothesis that speakers of Proto-Uto-Aztecan (PUA) were maize cultivators in or near Mesoamerica. Linguistic evidence supporting this hypothesis was first assembled in ref. 2 and additional evidence is cited here. Of central importance to the proposal is that a word for maize, **sunu, reconstructs for PUA. Although reflexes of the latter word were not reported in ref. 2 for Uto-Aztecan languages of California, one has now been identified. This is Gabrielino soŋ-axe-y “tortilla” (literally, maize-put.in.mouth-nominalizing.suffix’). Two other maize-complex terms found in UA California languages are traced to PUA words: Luiseno sa:xi-s “grain, wheat” from PUA **saki “parched corn,” and Tubatulabal paca:hil “hulled pine nuts” from PUA **pa7ca “maize kernel.”
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