Coosan languages
The Coosan (also Coos or Kusan) language family consists of two languages spoken along the southern Oregon coast. Both languages are now extinct.
Classification
* Hanis ''†''
* Miluk ''†'' ( Lower Coquille)
Melville Jacobs (1939) says tha ...
of Oregon, and the better documented. It was spoken north of the Miluk around the
Coos River
The Coos River flows for about into Coos Bay along the Pacific coast of southwest Oregon in the United States. Formed by the confluence of its major tributaries, the South Fork Coos River and the Millicoma River, it drains an important timber-pro ...
and
Coos Bay
Coos Bay is an estuary where the Coos River enters the Pacific Ocean, the estuary is approximately 12 miles long and up to two miles wide. It is the largest estuary completely within Oregon state lines. The Coos Bay watershed covers an area of abou ...
. The ''há·nis'' was the Hanis name for themselves. The last speaker of Hanis was Martha Harney Johnson, who died in 1972. Another speaker was
Annie Miner Peterson Annie Miner Peterson (1860–1939) was a Coos Indian from the U.S. state of Oregon who was a cultural and linguistic consultant to Melville Jacobs, an anthropologist at the University of Washington.
Personal life
Annie was born in 1860 of a Co ...
, who worked with linguist
Melville Jacobs
Melville Jacobs (July 3, 1902 – July 31, 1971) was an American anthropologist known for his extensive fieldwork on cultures of the Pacific Northwest. He was born in New York City. After studying with Franz Boas he became a member of the faculty ...
to document the language.
As of 2007, classes in Hanis were offered by the
Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians
The Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of Oregon are a federally recognized Native American tribe of Hanis Coos, Miluk Coos, Lower Umpqua (or Kuitsh), and Siuslaw people in Oregon. A book and CD, ''Hanis for Beginners'', were published in 2011, and a companion website is available for tribal members a hanis.org
Phonology
Vowels may be long or short; there is also a short .
The series are optionally voiced. may be syllabic. Stress is phonemic.
References
* Frachtenberg, Leo J. (1913). ''Coos texts''. California University contributions to anthropology (Vol. 1). New York: Columbia University Press. (Reprinted 1969 New York: AMS Press).
* Frachtenberg, Leo J. (1922). Coos: An illustrative sketch. In ''Handbook of American Indian languages'' (Vol. 2, pp. 297–299, 305). Bulletin, 40, pt. 2. Washington:Government Print Office (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology).
*Grant, Anthony. (1996). John Milhau's 1856 Hanis vocabularies: Coos dialectology and philology. In V. Golla (Ed.), ''Proceedings of the Hokan–Penutian workshop: University of Oregon, Eugene, July 1994 and University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, July 1995''. Survey of California and other Indian languages (No. 9). Berkeley, CA: Survey of California and Other Languages.
*Pierce, Joe E. 1971. Hanis (Coos) phonemics. Linguistics 75. 31-42.