Sanan: Traces of a Previously Unknown Aboriginal Language in Colonial Coahuila and Texas

Abstract

A specific batch of more than a hundred personal aboriginal names, as well as several group appellations, represent a previously unrecognized language of eastern Coahuila and Texas. These names were recorded principally during the eighteenth century in Spanish missions near San Fernando de Bexar (now San Antonio, Texas) and a few other places. The basic sounds of this Sanan tongue, which is named here, are transcribed in quasiphonemic fonn and a number of tentative morphological entities are defined. Although phonetic and (minor) morphological comparisons with known regional languages argue that Sanan is separate and distinct, the data are insufficient to deal with the question of historical ties between Sanan and other languages of the western Gulf lowlands. Yet Sanan is different from the intrusive Tonkawa language of Texas, although historians such as H.E. Bolton suggested years ago that certain Sanan groups were originally Tonkawan in language and ethnicity. The study argues that some Sanan group names may have been derived from personal names of prominent people, some of whom may have been women. Other Sanan social customs are proposed as a result of the name study.