Penutian languages
Encyclopedia
Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families
that includes many Native American
languages of western North America
, predominantly spoken at one time in Washington, Oregon
, and California
. The existence of a Penutian stock or phylum has been the subject of debate among specialists. Even the unity of some of its component families has been disputed. Some of the problems in the comparative study of languages within the phylum are the result of their early extinction and minimal documentation.
Consensus was reached at a 1994 workshop on Comparative Penutian at the University of Oregon
that the families within the proposed phylum's California, Oregon, Plateau, and Chinookan clusters would eventually be shown to be genetically related. Subsequently, Marie-Lucie Tarpent
reassessed Tsimshianic, a geographically isolated family in northern British Columbia, and concluded that its affiliation within Penutian is also probable.
Some of the more recently proposed subgroupings of Penutian have been convincingly demonstrated. The Miwokan and the Costanoan languages have been grouped into an Utian
language family by Catherine Callaghan. Callaghan has more recently provided evidence supporting a grouping of Utian and Yokutsan
into a Yok-Utian
family. There also seems to be convincing evidence for the Plateau Penutian
grouping (originally named Shahapwailutan by J. N. B. Hewitt and John Wesley Powell
in 1894) which would consist of Klamath–Modoc, Molala
, and the Sahaptian languages
(Nez Percé
and Sahaptin
).
, Maiduan
, and Yokutsan languages
(which is pronounced something like [pen]) and the Utian languages
(which is pronounced something like [uti]).
Although perhaps originally intended to be pronounced pɛn.ˈuːtiən, which is indicated in some dictionaries, the term is pronounced pəˈnuːʃən by most if not all linguists.
, focused upon the close relationships among five California language families listed below.
That original proposal has since been called alternately Core Penutian, California Penutian, or the Penutian Kernel. In 1919 the same two authors published their linguistic evidence for the proposal. The grouping, like many of Dixon & Kroeber's other phylum proposals, was based mostly on shared typological characteristics and not the standard methods used to determine genetic relationships. Starting from this early date, the Penutian hypothesis was controversial.
Prior to the 1913 Penutian proposal of Dixon and Kroeber, Albert S. Gatschet had grouped Miwokan and Costanoan into a Mutsun group (1877). That grouping, now termed Utian
, was later conclusively demonstrated by Catherine Callaghan. In 1903 Dixon & Kroeber noted a "positive relationship" among Costanoan, Maidu, Wintun, and Yokuts within a "Central or Maidu Type, from which they excluded Miwokan (their Moquelumnan). In 1910 Kroeber finally recognized the close relationship between the Miwok
an and Costanoan languages.
expanded Dixon and Kroeber's California Penutian family with a sister stock, Oregon Penutian
, which included the Coosan languages and also the isolates
Siuslaw and Takelma:
Later Sapir and Leo Frachtenberg added the Kalapuyan
and the Chinookan languages
and then later the Alsean
and Tsimshianic
families, culminating in Sapir's 1921 four-branch classification:
By the time Sapir's 1929 Encyclopædia Britannica article was published, he had added two more branches:
resulting in a six-branch family:
(Sapir's full 1929 classification scheme including the Penutian proposal can be seen here: Classification schemes for indigenous languages of the Americas#Sapir (1929): Encyclopædia Britannica.)
Or have produced hypotheses of relationships between Penutian and other large-scale families:
Note: Some linguists link the Penutian hypothesis to the Zuni language
. This link, earlier proposed by Stanley Newman, has now been shown to be the result of a hoax (Jane Hill 2002).
states the following regarding this borrowing:
Despite the concern of Haas and others, the Consensus Classification produced at a 1964 conference in Bloomington, Indiana
, retained all of Sapir's groups for North America north of Mexico within the Penutian Phylum. The opposite approach was taken following a 1976 conference at Oswego, New York
, when Campbell and Mithun dismissed the Penutian phylum as undemonstrated in their resulting classification of North American language families.
suggests the following relationships within and among language families typically assigned to the Penutian phylum:
The Wintuan languages
, Takelma
and Kalapuya, absent from this list, continue to be considered Penutian languages by most scholars familiar with the subject, often in an Oregonian branch, though Takelma and Kalapuya are no longer considered to define a branch of Penutian.
*/ʈ/ */ʈʼ/ correspond to Klamath (Plateau Penutian) /t͡ʃ t͡ʃʼ/, whereas the Proto-Yokuts dental */t̪/ */t̪ʰ/ */t̪ʼ/ correspond to Klamath alveolar /d t tʼ/. Kalapuya, Takelma, and Wintu do not show such obvious connections, and DeLancey has not investigated Mexican Penutian or other geographic outliers.
Based on archeological calculations, the Yok-Utian family may be as old as Indo-European
, and the Klamath appear to have lived in their current location for 7000 years. Thus the time depth of the proposed Inland Penutian branch alone approaches the limits of what many think traditional historical reconstruction can determine; this is sometimes used as an argument against the Penutian hypothesis.
Based on linguistic analysis, archaeological data, other historic evidence, and field trips, Otto J. von Sadovszky
. late professor of Anthropology, California State University, Fullerton
, made the correlation for the migration of fishers from the Ob River
(Siberia). Their folklore suggests they ultimately followed salmon
along the North American coast and entered San Francisco Bay
. He dubbed them Cal-Ugrians, and the Asian group Ob-Ugrians. His reconstruction of such migrations has not been well received. In his studies, he suggests a link between certain Asian language families that include Hungarian
(his native tongue) and languages of the Ob River and the Penutian languages of California. See his book for a detailed analysis of the languages and the ethnohistorial reconstruction.
Below are some Penutian sound correspondences given by Lyle Campbell
.
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
that includes many Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
languages of western North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, predominantly spoken at one time in Washington, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, and California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. The existence of a Penutian stock or phylum has been the subject of debate among specialists. Even the unity of some of its component families has been disputed. Some of the problems in the comparative study of languages within the phylum are the result of their early extinction and minimal documentation.
Consensus was reached at a 1994 workshop on Comparative Penutian at the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
that the families within the proposed phylum's California, Oregon, Plateau, and Chinookan clusters would eventually be shown to be genetically related. Subsequently, Marie-Lucie Tarpent
Marie-Lucie Tarpent
Marie-Lucie Tarpent is a Canadian linguist, Associate Professor of Linguistics and French at Mount Saint Vincent University [MSVU], Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada....
reassessed Tsimshianic, a geographically isolated family in northern British Columbia, and concluded that its affiliation within Penutian is also probable.
Some of the more recently proposed subgroupings of Penutian have been convincingly demonstrated. The Miwokan and the Costanoan languages have been grouped into an Utian
Utian languages
Utian is a family of indigenous languages spoken in the central and north portion of California, United States. The Miwok and Ohlone peoples both spoke languages in the Utian linguistic group...
language family by Catherine Callaghan. Callaghan has more recently provided evidence supporting a grouping of Utian and Yokutsan
Yokutsan languages
Yokutsan is an endangered language family spoken in the interior of Northern and Central California in and around the San Joaquin Valley by the Yokut people. The speakers of Yokutsan languages were severely affected by disease, missionaries, and the Gold Rush...
into a Yok-Utian
Yok-Utian languages
Yok-Utian is a hypothetical language family of California. It consists of the Yokutsan and Utian families.The name Yok-Utian was coined by Geoffrey Gamble. Catherine Callaghan is one of the major investigators of this hypothesis. Callaghan and Gamble's research on this family started in 1991...
family. There also seems to be convincing evidence for the Plateau Penutian
Plateau Penutian languages
-History:Plateau Penutian as originally proposed was one branch of the hypothetical Penutian phylum as proposed by Edward Sapir. The original proposal also included Cayuse ; however, this language has little documentation and that which is documented is inadequately recorded...
grouping (originally named Shahapwailutan by J. N. B. Hewitt and John Wesley Powell
John Wesley Powell
John Wesley Powell was a U.S. soldier, geologist, explorer of the American West, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions...
in 1894) which would consist of Klamath–Modoc, Molala
Molala language
Molala is the extinct and poorly attested Plateau Penutian language of the Molala people. It is first attested along the Deschutes River, and later moved to the Molalla and Santiam rivers, and to the headwaters of the Umpqua and Rogue rivers. It was once thought to be close to Cayuse...
, and the Sahaptian languages
Sahaptian languages
Sahaptian is a sub-grouping of two languages of the Plateau Penutian family spoken by Native American peoples in the Columbia Plateau region of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in the northwestern United States.-Family division:Sahaptian includes 2 languages*Kittitas *Klickitat*Nez Percé**Nez Percé...
(Nez Percé
Nez Perce language
Nez Perce , also spelled Nez Percé, is a Sahaptian language related to the several dialects of Sahaptin . The Sahaptian sub-family is one of the branches of the Plateau Penutian family...
and Sahaptin
Sahaptin language
Sahaptin , Sħáptənəxw, is a Plateau Penutian language of the Sahaptian branch spoken in a section of the northwestern plateau along the Columbia River and its tributaries in southern Washington, northern Oregon, and southwestern Idaho....
).
Etymology and Pronunciation
The name Penutian is based on the words meaning "two" in the WintuanWintuan languages
Wintuan is a family of languages spoken in the Sacramento Valley of central Northern California.All Wintuan languages are severely endangered.-Family division:...
, Maiduan
Maiduan languages
Maiduan is a small endangered language family of northeastern California.-Family division:The Maiduan consists of 4 languages:# Maidu # Chico † # Konkow # Nisenan...
, and Yokutsan languages
Yokutsan languages
Yokutsan is an endangered language family spoken in the interior of Northern and Central California in and around the San Joaquin Valley by the Yokut people. The speakers of Yokutsan languages were severely affected by disease, missionaries, and the Gold Rush...
(which is pronounced something like [pen]) and the Utian languages
Utian languages
Utian is a family of indigenous languages spoken in the central and north portion of California, United States. The Miwok and Ohlone peoples both spoke languages in the Utian linguistic group...
(which is pronounced something like [uti]).
Although perhaps originally intended to be pronounced pɛn.ˈuːtiən, which is indicated in some dictionaries, the term is pronounced pəˈnuːʃən by most if not all linguists.
Initial concept of five core families
The original Penutian hypothesis, offered in 1913 by Roland B. Dixon and Alfred L. KroeberAlfred L. Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber was an American anthropologist. He was the first professor appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and played an integral role in the early days of its Museum of Anthropology, where he served as director from 1909 through...
, focused upon the close relationships among five California language families listed below.
- Maiduan languagesMaiduan languagesMaiduan is a small endangered language family of northeastern California.-Family division:The Maiduan consists of 4 languages:# Maidu # Chico † # Konkow # Nisenan...
- MiwokUtian languagesUtian is a family of indigenous languages spoken in the central and north portion of California, United States. The Miwok and Ohlone peoples both spoke languages in the Utian linguistic group...
- Costanoan languages
- Wintuan languagesWintuan languagesWintuan is a family of languages spoken in the Sacramento Valley of central Northern California.All Wintuan languages are severely endangered.-Family division:...
- Yokutsan languagesYokutsan languagesYokutsan is an endangered language family spoken in the interior of Northern and Central California in and around the San Joaquin Valley by the Yokut people. The speakers of Yokutsan languages were severely affected by disease, missionaries, and the Gold Rush...
That original proposal has since been called alternately Core Penutian, California Penutian, or the Penutian Kernel. In 1919 the same two authors published their linguistic evidence for the proposal. The grouping, like many of Dixon & Kroeber's other phylum proposals, was based mostly on shared typological characteristics and not the standard methods used to determine genetic relationships. Starting from this early date, the Penutian hypothesis was controversial.
Prior to the 1913 Penutian proposal of Dixon and Kroeber, Albert S. Gatschet had grouped Miwokan and Costanoan into a Mutsun group (1877). That grouping, now termed Utian
Utian languages
Utian is a family of indigenous languages spoken in the central and north portion of California, United States. The Miwok and Ohlone peoples both spoke languages in the Utian linguistic group...
, was later conclusively demonstrated by Catherine Callaghan. In 1903 Dixon & Kroeber noted a "positive relationship" among Costanoan, Maidu, Wintun, and Yokuts within a "Central or Maidu Type, from which they excluded Miwokan (their Moquelumnan). In 1910 Kroeber finally recognized the close relationship between the Miwok
Miwok
Miwok can refer to any one of four linguistically related groups of Native Americans, native to Northern California, who spoke one of the Miwokan languages in the Utian family...
an and Costanoan languages.
Sapir's expansion
In 1916 Edward SapirEdward Sapir
Edward Sapir was an American anthropologist-linguist, widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics....
expanded Dixon and Kroeber's California Penutian family with a sister stock, Oregon Penutian
Oregon Penutian languages
Oregon Penutian is a hypothetical language family in the Penutian language phylum comprising languages spoken at one time by several groups of Native Americans in present-day western Oregon and western Washington in the United States...
, which included the Coosan languages and also the isolates
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...
Siuslaw and Takelma:
- Oregon Penutian
- Coosan languagesCoosan languagesThe Coosan language family consists of two languages spoken along the southern Oregon coast. Both languages are now extinct.-Classification:* Hanis* Miluk...
- SiuslawSiuslaw (tribe)Siuslaw is one of the three Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians located on the southwest Oregon Pacific coast in the United States. The Siuslaw language is extinct.-External links:***...
- TakelmaTakelma languageTakelma was the language spoken by the Takelma people. It was first extensively described by Edward Sapir in his graduate thesis, The Takelma Language of Southwestern Oregon...
- Coosan languages
Later Sapir and Leo Frachtenberg added the Kalapuyan
Kalapuyan languages
Kalapuyan is a small extinct language family that was spoken in the Willamette Valley of Western Oregon, United States. It consists of three languages.-Family division:Kalapuyan consists of...
and the Chinookan languages
Chinookan languages
Chinookan is a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples.-Family division:Chinookan languages consists of three languages with multiple varieties. There is some dispute over classification, and there are two ISO 639-3 codes assigned: and...
and then later the Alsean
Alsean languages
Alsea or Alsean was two closely related speech varieties spoken along the central Oregon coast. They are sometimes taken to be different languages, but it is difficult to be sure given the poor state of attestation; Mithun believes they were probably dialects of a single language.-Varieties:#...
and Tsimshianic
Tsimshianic languages
The Tsimshianic languages are a family of languages spoken in northwestern British Columbia and in southern Alaska on Annette Island and Ketchikan. About 2,170 people of the ethnic Tsimshian population in Canada still speak the Tsimshian languages; about 50 of the 1,300 Tsimshian people living in...
families, culminating in Sapir's 1921 four-branch classification:
- I. California Penutian grouping
-
- Maiduan (Maidu)
- Utian (Miwok–Costanoan)
- Wintuan (Wintu)
- Yokutsan (Yokuts)
-
- II. Oregon Penutian grouping
-
- Coosan (Coos)
- Siuslaw
- Takelma
- KalapuyanKalapuyan languagesKalapuyan is a small extinct language family that was spoken in the Willamette Valley of Western Oregon, United States. It consists of three languages.-Family division:Kalapuyan consists of...
(Kalapuya) - AlseanAlsean languagesAlsea or Alsean was two closely related speech varieties spoken along the central Oregon coast. They are sometimes taken to be different languages, but it is difficult to be sure given the poor state of attestation; Mithun believes they were probably dialects of a single language.-Varieties:#...
(Yakonan)
-
- III. ChinookanChinookan languagesChinookan is a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples.-Family division:Chinookan languages consists of three languages with multiple varieties. There is some dispute over classification, and there are two ISO 639-3 codes assigned: and...
family (Chinook)
- IV. TsimshianicTsimshianic languagesThe Tsimshianic languages are a family of languages spoken in northwestern British Columbia and in southern Alaska on Annette Island and Ketchikan. About 2,170 people of the ethnic Tsimshian population in Canada still speak the Tsimshian languages; about 50 of the 1,300 Tsimshian people living in...
family (Tsimshian)
By the time Sapir's 1929 Encyclopædia Britannica article was published, he had added two more branches:
- Plateau PenutianPlateau Penutian languages-History:Plateau Penutian as originally proposed was one branch of the hypothetical Penutian phylum as proposed by Edward Sapir. The original proposal also included Cayuse ; however, this language has little documentation and that which is documented is inadequately recorded...
family- Klamath–Modoc (Lutuami)
- Waiilatpuan
- CayuseCayuseThe Cayuse are a Native American tribe in the state of Oregon in the United States. The Cayuse tribe shares a reservation in northeastern Oregon with the Umatilla and the Walla Walla tribes as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation...
- MolalaMolalaThe Molala were a people of the Plateau culture area in central Oregon, United States. Some consider them extinct, though they are one of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, with 141 of the 882 members in the 1950s claiming Molala descent.-Language:The Molalla language...
- Cayuse
- SahaptianSahaptian languagesSahaptian is a sub-grouping of two languages of the Plateau Penutian family spoken by Native American peoples in the Columbia Plateau region of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in the northwestern United States.-Family division:Sahaptian includes 2 languages*Kittitas *Klickitat*Nez Percé**Nez Percé...
(Sahaptin)
- Mexican Penutian grouping
- Mixe–Zoque
- HuaveHuave languageHuave is a language isolate spoken by the indigenous Huave people on the Pacific coast of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The language is spoken in four villages on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the southeast of the state, by around 18,000 people...
resulting in a six-branch family:
- California Penutian
- Oregon Penutian
- Chinookan
- Tsimshianic
- Plateau Penutian
- Mexican Penutian
(Sapir's full 1929 classification scheme including the Penutian proposal can be seen here: Classification schemes for indigenous languages of the Americas#Sapir (1929): Encyclopædia Britannica.)
Further expansions
Other linguists have suggested other languages be included within the Penutian grouping:- Macro-Penutian hypothesis (Benjamin WhorfBenjamin WhorfIn studying the cause of a fire which had started under the conditions just described, Whorf concluded that it was thinking of the "empty" gasoline drums as "empty" in the meaning described in the first definition above, that is as "inert," which led to a fire he investigated...
)
Or have produced hypotheses of relationships between Penutian and other large-scale families:
- AmerindAmerind languagesAmerind is a higher-level language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in 1960. Greenberg proposed that all of the indigenous languages of the Americas belong to one of three language families, the previously established Eskimo–Aleut and Na–Dene, and with everything else—almost universally believed...
hypothesis (Joseph GreenbergJoseph GreenbergJoseph Harold Greenberg was a prominent and controversial American linguist, principally known for his work in two areas, linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.- Early life and career :...
)
Note: Some linguists link the Penutian hypothesis to the Zuni language
Zuni language
Zuni is a language of the Zuni people, indigenous to western New Mexico and eastern Arizona in the United States. It is spoken by around 9,500 people worldwide, especially in the vicinity of Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, and much smaller numbers in parts of Arizona.Unlike most indigenous languages in...
. This link, earlier proposed by Stanley Newman, has now been shown to be the result of a hoax (Jane Hill 2002).
Mid-twentieth century doubts
Scholars in the mid-twentieth century became concerned that similarities among the proposed Penutian language families may be the result of borrowing that occurred among neighboring peoples, not of a shared proto-language in the distant past. Mary HaasMary Haas
Mary Rosamund Haas was an American linguist who specialized in North American Indian languages, Thai, and historical linguistics.-Early work in linguistics:...
states the following regarding this borrowing:
Even where genetic relationship is clearly indicated ... the evidence of diffusion of traits from neighboring tribes, related or not, is seen on every hand. This makes the task of determining the validity of the various alleged Hokan languagesHokan languagesThe 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...
and the various alleged Penutian languages all the more difficult […] [and] point[s] up once again that diffusional studies are just as important for prehistory as genetic studies and what is even more in need of emphasis, it points up the desirability of pursuing diffusional studies along with genetic studies. This is nowhere more necessary than in the case of the Hokan and Penutian languages wherever they may be found, but particularly in California where they may very well have existed side by side for many millennia.(Haas 1976:359)
Despite the concern of Haas and others, the Consensus Classification produced at a 1964 conference in Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
, retained all of Sapir's groups for North America north of Mexico within the Penutian Phylum. The opposite approach was taken following a 1976 conference at Oswego, New York
Oswego, New York
Oswego is a city in Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 18,142 at the 2010 census. Oswego is located on Lake Ontario in north-central New York and promotes itself as "The Port City of Central New York"...
, when Campbell and Mithun dismissed the Penutian phylum as undemonstrated in their resulting classification of North American language families.
Recent hypotheses
California Penutian and Takelma–Kalapuyan are no longer accepted as valid nodes by many Penutian researchers. However, Plateau Penutian, Oregon Coast Penutian, and Yok-Utian are increasingly supported. Scott DeLanceyScott DeLancey
Scott DeLancey is an American linguist . His work focuses on typology and historical linguistics of Tibeto-Burman languages as well as Plateau Penutian, especially the Klamath language....
suggests the following relationships within and among language families typically assigned to the Penutian phylum:
- Maritime Penutian
- TsimshianTsimshianic languagesThe Tsimshianic languages are a family of languages spoken in northwestern British Columbia and in southern Alaska on Annette Island and Ketchikan. About 2,170 people of the ethnic Tsimshian population in Canada still speak the Tsimshian languages; about 50 of the 1,300 Tsimshian people living in...
- ChinookChinookan languagesChinookan is a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples.-Family division:Chinookan languages consists of three languages with multiple varieties. There is some dispute over classification, and there are two ISO 639-3 codes assigned: and...
- Oregon Coast PenutianOregon Coast Penutian languagesThe Oregon Coast Penutian languages are a family of three small languages or language clusters on the Oregon Coast that has moderate support. Although much of their similarity is demonstrably due to language contact, linguists such as Scott DeLancey believe they may be genealogically related at a...
- AlseaAlsean languagesAlsea or Alsean was two closely related speech varieties spoken along the central Oregon coast. They are sometimes taken to be different languages, but it is difficult to be sure given the poor state of attestation; Mithun believes they were probably dialects of a single language.-Varieties:#...
- SiuslawSiuslaw (tribe)Siuslaw is one of the three Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians located on the southwest Oregon Pacific coast in the United States. The Siuslaw language is extinct.-External links:***...
- CoosCoosan languagesThe Coosan language family consists of two languages spoken along the southern Oregon coast. Both languages are now extinct.-Classification:* Hanis* Miluk...
- Alsea
- Tsimshian
- Inland Penutian
- Yok-UtianYok-Utian languagesYok-Utian is a hypothetical language family of California. It consists of the Yokutsan and Utian families.The name Yok-Utian was coined by Geoffrey Gamble. Catherine Callaghan is one of the major investigators of this hypothesis. Callaghan and Gamble's research on this family started in 1991...
(from the Great BasinGreat BasinThe Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...
)- UtianUtian languagesUtian is a family of indigenous languages spoken in the central and north portion of California, United States. The Miwok and Ohlone peoples both spoke languages in the Utian linguistic group...
- YokutsYokutsan languagesYokutsan is an endangered language family spoken in the interior of Northern and Central California in and around the San Joaquin Valley by the Yokut people. The speakers of Yokutsan languages were severely affected by disease, missionaries, and the Gold Rush...
- Utian
- MaiduMaiduan languagesMaiduan is a small endangered language family of northeastern California.-Family division:The Maiduan consists of 4 languages:# Maidu # Chico † # Konkow # Nisenan...
(from the Great Basin or Oregon) - Plateau PenutianPlateau Penutian languages-History:Plateau Penutian as originally proposed was one branch of the hypothetical Penutian phylum as proposed by Edward Sapir. The original proposal also included Cayuse ; however, this language has little documentation and that which is documented is inadequately recorded...
- SahaptianSahaptian languagesSahaptian is a sub-grouping of two languages of the Plateau Penutian family spoken by Native American peoples in the Columbia Plateau region of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in the northwestern United States.-Family division:Sahaptian includes 2 languages*Kittitas *Klickitat*Nez Percé**Nez Percé...
- MolalaMolalaThe Molala were a people of the Plateau culture area in central Oregon, United States. Some consider them extinct, though they are one of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, with 141 of the 882 members in the 1950s claiming Molala descent.-Language:The Molalla language...
- KlamathKlamath]The Klamath are a Native American tribe of the Plateau culture area in Southern Oregon.-Pre-contact:Prior to the arrival of European explorers, the Klamath people lived in the area around the Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath, Williamson, and Sprague rivers...
- Sahaptian
- Yok-Utian
The Wintuan languages
Wintuan languages
Wintuan is a family of languages spoken in the Sacramento Valley of central Northern California.All Wintuan languages are severely endangered.-Family division:...
, Takelma
Takelma language
Takelma was the language spoken by the Takelma people. It was first extensively described by Edward Sapir in his graduate thesis, The Takelma Language of Southwestern Oregon...
and Kalapuya, absent from this list, continue to be considered Penutian languages by most scholars familiar with the subject, often in an Oregonian branch, though Takelma and Kalapuya are no longer considered to define a branch of Penutian.
Evidence for the Penutian hypothesis
Perhaps because many Penutian languages have ablaut, vowels are difficult to reconstruct. However, consonant correspondences are common. For example, the proto-Yokuts (Inland Penutian) retroflexesRetroflex consonant
A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...
*/ʈ/ */ʈʼ/ correspond to Klamath (Plateau Penutian) /t͡ʃ t͡ʃʼ/, whereas the Proto-Yokuts dental */t̪/ */t̪ʰ/ */t̪ʼ/ correspond to Klamath alveolar /d t tʼ/. Kalapuya, Takelma, and Wintu do not show such obvious connections, and DeLancey has not investigated Mexican Penutian or other geographic outliers.
Based on archeological calculations, the Yok-Utian family may be as old as Indo-European
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
, and the Klamath appear to have lived in their current location for 7000 years. Thus the time depth of the proposed Inland Penutian branch alone approaches the limits of what many think traditional historical reconstruction can determine; this is sometimes used as an argument against the Penutian hypothesis.
Based on linguistic analysis, archaeological data, other historic evidence, and field trips, Otto J. von Sadovszky
Otto von Sadovszky
Otto J. von Sadovszky, Hungarian-American anthropologist and linguist. .Otto von Sadovszky was a professor in anthropology at California State University, Fullerton. He claims to have proven that almost 80 percent of the languages spoken by 19 Indian tribes in California and two nations in Siberia...
. late professor of Anthropology, California State University, Fullerton
California State University, Fullerton
California State University, Fullerton is a public university located in Fullerton, California. It is the largest institution in the CSU System by enrollment, it offers long-distance education and adult-degree programs...
, made the correlation for the migration of fishers from the Ob River
Ob River
The Ob River , also Obi, is a major river in western Siberia, Russia and is the world's seventh longest river. It is the westernmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean .The Gulf of Ob is the world's longest estuary.-Names:The Ob is known to the Khanty people as the...
(Siberia). Their folklore suggests they ultimately followed salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
along the North American coast and entered San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
. He dubbed them Cal-Ugrians, and the Asian group Ob-Ugrians. His reconstruction of such migrations has not been well received. In his studies, he suggests a link between certain Asian language families that include Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
(his native tongue) and languages of the Ob River and the Penutian languages of California. See his book for a detailed analysis of the languages and the ethnohistorial reconstruction.
Below are some Penutian sound correspondences given by Lyle Campbell
Lyle Campbell
Lyle Richard Campbell is a linguist and leading expert on indigenous American languages—especially those of Mesoamerica—and on historical linguistics in general. He also has expertise in Uralic languages. He is presently Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.-Life and...
.
-
- California Penutian and Klamath Sound Correspondences
Proposed
Proto-PenutianKlamath Maidu Wintu Patwin Yokuts Miwok Costanoan
(Ohlone)**p, **ph p, ph p p, ph p, ph p, ph p p **k k k k k k k k **q, **qh q, qh k q k x (-k) k k **m m m m m m m m **n n n n n n n n (ʔ) w- w- w- w- w- w- w- (ʔ) -l- -l- -l-, -l -l-, -l -l- -l- -l-. -r #**r s[C,L[V h tl, s tl ṭh n l, r **-r- d, l d (r?) r ṭh (n?) r **-r ʔ ʔ r r ṭh n r **s s- s- s- s-
- California Penutian and Klamath Sound Correspondences
External links
- Penutian (Scott DeLancey's site) (has online papers)
- Tribal Language Groups of Northern and Central California
- Ethnologue: Penutian
- List of proposed Penutian languages in Oregon
- Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770 (map after Kroeber)
- Mitochondrial DNA and Prehistoric Settlements: Native Migrations on the Western Edge of North America
