n tq1 Ergativity and Ianguage Contact on the Oregon Coast: Alsea, Siuslaw and Coos

Work over the past three decades has identified several diachronic sources from which accusative and ergative patterns develop. Ianguage-internal processes that can lead to ergative categories are described in Anderson 1977, 1988 ' Chung D77, 1978, Payne D79, Trask 979, Ganett 1990, Gildea D98, and elsewhere. kss is known about the spread of ergative patterns through language contact, though Nichols D93 notes that ergativity is disproportionately frequent in certain areas of the world, particularly in Australia and Eurasia. Heath 1978 discusses the spread of ergative morphology in Amhem Land, and Fortescue 1997 proposes that the Chukotkan ergative construction is the result of contact with the neighboring Siberian Yupik. Beyond these studies however, examples are relatively rare oi the contact-induced development of ergativity. r An intriguing przzle is provided by tbree small language families of the Oregon Coast: Alsea, Siuslaw, and Coosan. All disappeared during the twentieth century. The northernmost, Alsea, consists of a single language represented by two dialects: Yaquina, last spoken around 1900, and Alsea proper, whose last speaker died around 1951. The most important published documentation of the language is in texts in Frachtenberg l9l7 and 1920. Frachtenberg also completed a gralnmar in D18 which remains rmpublished. Analyses of the Alsea material are in Pierce 1966 and especially Buckley 1988a, b, and 1989a, b, c. Siuslaw also consists of a single language with two dialects: Siuslaw proper, whose last speaker died around 1960, and Lower Umpqua, whose last speaker died in D57. The major published Siuslaw material is a volume of Lower Umpqua texts in Frachtenberg 1914 and a grammatical sketch in Frachtenberg D22. The Coosan family consists of two languages: Hanis, whose last known speaker died in 1972, and Miluk, whose last speaker died in 1961. Published Hanis materials comprise texts in Frachtenberg l9l3 and Jacobs 1939, 1940, and a grarnmar in Frachtenberg 1922. Publications on Miluk consist of notes in Frachtenberg l9l4 and texts in Jacobs D39 and D4O. Guides to all extant material on the languages, largel