Utian (also Miwok–Costanoan, previously Mutsun) is a
family of indigenous languages spoken in
Northern California
Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. 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 ...
and
Ohlone peoples both spoke languages of the Utian language family. It has recently been argued that the Utian languages and
Yokuts languages are sub-families of the
Yok-Utian
Yok-Utian is a proposed language family of California. It consists of the Yokuts language and the Utian language family.
While connections between Yokuts and Utian languages were noticed through attempts to reconstruct their proto-languages in ...
language family (
Callaghan 1997, 2001; Golla 2007:76-77). Utian and Yokutsan have traditionally been considered part of the
Penutian
Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The existence of a Penutian s ...
language phylum (Goddard 1996:313-319; Mithun 1999; Shipley 1978:82-85).
All Utian languages are severely
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...
.
See also
*
Penutian languages
Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The existence of a Penutian s ...
*
Miwok languages
The Miwok or Miwokan languages (; Miwok: ), also known as ''Moquelumnan'' or ''Miwuk'', are a group of endangered languages spoken in central California by the Miwok peoples, ranging from the Bay Area to the Sierra Nevada. There are seven Miwok ...
*
Ohlone languages
The Ohlone languages, also known as Costanoan, are a small family of indigenous languages spoken by the Ohlone people. The pre-contact distribution of these languages ranged from the southern San Francisco Bay Area to northern Monterey County. ...
References
* Callaghan, Catherine. (1997). Evidence for Yok-Utian. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''63'', pages 18–64.
* Callaghan, Catherine. (2001). More evidence for Yok-Utian: A reanalysis of the Dixon and Kroeber sets ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''67'' (3), pages 313-346.
* Callaghan, Catherine. (2014).
Proto-Utian Grammar and Dictionary: with notes on Yokuts'. Trends in Linguistics Documentation 31. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
* Goddard, Ives. (1996). "The Classification of the Native Languages of North America." In ''Languages'', Ives Goddard, ed., pp. 290–324. Handbook of North American Indians Vol. 17, W. C. Sturtevant, general ed. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. .
* Golla, Victor. (2007). "Linguistic Prehistory" in ''California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity'', pp. 71–82. Terry L. Jones and Kathryn A. Klar, editors. New York: Altamira Press. .
* Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); .
* Shipley, William F. (1978). ''Native Languages of California'', in ''Handbook of North American Indians'', Vol. 8 (California). William C. Sturtevant, and Robert F. Heizer, eds. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. / 0160045754, pages 80–90.
External links
(map after Kroeber)
Central Sierra Miwok Dictionary Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians
Southern Sierra Miwok Dictionary*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Utian Languages
Language families
Indigenous languages of California
Yok-Utian languages
fr:Langues miwok