The Miwok or Miwokan languages (; Miwok: ), also known as ''Moquelumnan'' or ''Miwuk'', are a group of

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

s spoken in central California by the

Miwok The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok languages in the Utian family. The word ' ...

peoples, ranging from the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

to the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

. There are seven Miwok languages, four of which have distinct regional dialects. There are a few dozen speakers of the three Sierra Miwok languages, and in 1994 there were two speakers of Lake Miwok. The best attested language is Southern Sierra Miwok, from which the name ''

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

'' originates. The name Miwok comes from the Northern Sierra Miwok word ''miw·yk'' meaning 'people' or 'Indians.'

Languages

Map of the Plains and Sierra Miwok territories (colored)

Language family by Mithun (1999): *Eastern Miwok **

Plains Miwok The Plains and Sierra Miwok were once the largest group of California Indian Miwok people, indigenous to California. Their homeland included regions of the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, and the Sierra Nevada. Geography The Plains an ...

† **

Bay Miwok The Bay Miwok are a cultural and linguistic group of Miwok, a Native American people in Northern California who live in Contra Costa County. They joined the Franciscan mission system during the early nineteenth century, suffered a devastating p ...

( Saclan) † **

Sierra Miwok The Plains and Sierra Miwok were once the largest group of California Indian Miwok people, indigenous to California. Their homeland included regions of the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, and the Sierra Nevada. Geography The Plains and ...

***

Northern Sierra Miwok Northern Sierra Miwok is a Miwok language spoken in California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most ...

(†) ( Camanche, Fiddletown, Ione, and

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

dialects) ***

Central Sierra Miwok Central Sierra Miwok is a Miwok language spoken in California, in the upper Stanislaus and Tuolumne valleys. Today it is spoken by the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California The Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of Ca ...

(nearly extinct) (East Central and West Central dialects) *** Southern Sierra Miwok (nearly extinct) (

, Mariposa, and Southern dialects) *Western Miwok **

Coast Miwok Coast Miwok are an indigenous people that was the second-largest group of Miwok people. Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of modern Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Point ...

† ( Bodega and

Marin Marin (French) or Marín (Spanish "sailor") may refer to: People * Marin (name), including a list of persons with the given name or surname * MaRin, in-game name of professional South Korean ''League of Legends'' player Jang Gyeong-hwan (born 19 ...

dialects) **

Lake Miwok The Lake Miwok are a branch of the Miwok, a Native American people of Northern California. The Lake Miwok lived in the Clear Lake basin of what is now called Lake County. Culture The Lake Miwok spoke their own Lake language in the Utian li ...

†

Proto-language

Reconstructions of Proto-Miwok plant and animal names by Callaghan (2014):Callaghan, Catherine. (2014).
Proto-Utian Grammar and Dictionary: with notes on Yokuts
'. Trends in Linguistics Documentation 31. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. : :

* Freeland, Lucy S. 1947. "Western Miwok Texts with Linguistic Sketch". ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 13:31-46. * Freeland, Lucy Shepherd. 1951. ''Language of the Sierra Miwok.'' Waverly Press. * Freeland, Lucy Shepherd and Broadbent, Sylvia M. 1960. ''Central Sierra Miwok Dictionary with Texts.'' University of California Press. https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/central_sierra_miwok_dictionary/. * Broadbent, Sylvia M., and Callaghan, Catherine A. 1960. "Comparative Miwok: A Preliminary Survey." ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', vol. 26, no. 4: 301–316. * Broadbent, Sylvia M., and Pitkin, Harvey. 1964. "A Comparison of Miwok and Wintun." In ''Studies in Californian Linguistics'', ed. W. Bright, 19–45. University of California Publications in Linguistics, vol. 34. Berkeley: University of California Press. * Broadbent, Sylvia M. 1964. ''The Southern Sierra Miwok Language.'' University of California Press, publications in linguistics (Vol. 38). Berkeley: University of California Press. https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/southern_sierra_miwok_language/title.html. * Callaghan, Catherine A. 1965. ''Lake Miwok Dictionary''. University of California Press. * Callaghan, Catherine A. 1970. ''Bodega Miwok Dictionary''. Publications in Linguistics 60. University of California Press. * Berman, Howard. 1982. ''Freeland's Central Sierra Miwok Myths.'' Survey of California and Other Indian Languages. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1gx6543n. * Callaghan, Catherine A. 1984. ''Plains Miwok Dictionary''. Publications in Linguistics 105. University of California Press. * Keeling, Richard. 1985. "Ethnographic Field Recordings at Lowie Museum of Anthropology." Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. v. 2. North-Central California: Pomo, Wintun, Nomlaki, Patwin, Coast Miwok, and Lake Miwok Indians. * Callaghan, Catherine A. 1987. ''Northern Sierra Miwok Dictionary''. Publications in Linguistics 110. University of California Press. * Sloan, Kelly Dawn. 1991. ''Syllables and Templates: Evidence from Southern Sierra Miwok.'' Ph.D. thesis, MIT.

References

External links

Miwok language keyboards, Languagegeek
{{Miwok Miwok Utian languages

Languages

Proto-language

Further reading

References

External links