Esselen language
Encyclopedia
Esselen is a language isolate
that was spoken by the Esselen
Native Americans on the Central Coast of California
, south of Monterey
.
Esselen may have been the first California language to become extinct
after being documented during the Hispanic period
. Very little information on this language has survived. There are a few word lists that were collected during the Mission era and later in the nineteenth centuries. No native speakers survived into the twentieth century, but additional data on Esselen were collected from Ohlone
speakers, notably by John Peabody Harrington
in the 1930s (Mithun 1999:411–413).
In 1913, it was proposed that Esselen was an isolate within the hypothetical Hokan
stock.
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
that was spoken by the Esselen
Esselen
The Esselen were a Native American linguistic group in the hypothetical Hokan language family, who resided on the Central California coast and the coastal mountains, including what is now known as the Big Sur region in Monterey County, California...
Native Americans on the Central Coast of California
Central Coast of California
The Central Coast is an area of California, United States, roughly spanning the area between the Monterey Bay and Point Conception. It extends through Santa Cruz County, San Benito County, Monterey County, San Luis Obispo County, and Santa Barbara County...
, south of Monterey
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
.
Esselen may have been the first California language to become extinct
Extinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...
after being documented during the Hispanic period
Hispanic America
Hispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were...
. Very little information on this language has survived. There are a few word lists that were collected during the Mission era and later in the nineteenth centuries. No native speakers survived into the twentieth century, but additional data on Esselen were collected from Ohlone
Ohlone
The Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...
speakers, notably by John Peabody Harrington
John Peabody Harrington
John Peabody Harrington was an American linguist and ethnologist and a specialist in the native peoples of California. Harrington is noted for the massive volume of his documentary output, most of which has remained unpublished: the shelf space in the Library of Congress dedicated to his work...
in the 1930s (Mithun 1999:411–413).
In 1913, it was proposed that Esselen was an isolate within the hypothetical Hokan
Hokan languages
The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families spoken in California, Arizona and Mexico. In nearly a century since Edward Sapir first proposed the "Hokan" hypothesis, little additional evidence has been found that these families were related to each other...
stock.
External links
- Esselen language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian LanguagesSurvey of California and Other Indian LanguagesThe Survey of California and Other Indian Languages at the University of California at Berkeley documents, catalogs, and archives the indigenous languages of the Americas...