Wukchumni or Wikchamni is a dialect of

Tule-Kaweah Yokuts Tule-Kaweah is a Yokuts dialect of California. Wukchumni, the last surviving dialect, had only one native or fluent speaker, Marie Wilcox (both native and fluent), who compiled a dictionary of the language.

that was historically spoken by the

Wukchumni The Wukchumni () are a Yokuts tribe of California with about 200 members, residing on the Tule River Reservation. 3000 years ago, they broke off from the main Yokuts group and settled in the region of the east fork of the Kaweah River. History Appr ...

people of the east fork of the

Kaweah River The Kaweah River is a river draining the southern Sierra Nevada in Tulare County, California in the United States. Fed primarily by high elevation snowmelt along the Great Western Divide, the Kaweah begins as four forks in Sequoia National Park, ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

As of 2014,

Marie Wilcox Marie Desma Wilcox (November 24, 1933 – September 25, 2021) Als, October 9, 2021. was a Native American who was the last native speaker of Wukchumni, a dialect of Tule-Kaweah, which is a Yokutsan indigenous language spoken by the Tule-Kaw ...

(1933–2021) was the last remaining native speaker of the language. There are efforts at revitalization, and Wilcox completed a comprehensive Wukchumni dictionary; at her death there were at least three fluent speakers.

Phonology

The following tables are based on Gamble (1978).

Consonants

Allophones of include .

Vowels

A long vowel can be lowered to when occurring before an . The central vowels /ɨ/ and /ə/ are partially rounded. All phonetic short vowel allophones include .

Status

Wukchumni is categorized as 8a or "moribund" on the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale.

Revitalization efforts

In the early 2000s, Marie Wilcox, aided by her daughter Jennifer Malone, began compiling a Wukchumni dictionary. The work was copyrighted in 2019, but has not been published. Wilcox and Malone held classes teaching beginner and intermediate Wukchumni to interested tribal members; Malone continues this teaching at Owens Valley Career Development Center. Efforts to revive Wukchumni have additionally been organized through the Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program.

Possibility of more native speakers

Due to Wilcox's efforts, at least three people are fluent in the language. Destiny Treglown, Marie Wilcox's great-granddaughter, is raising her child, Oliver, as a Wukchumni speaker. If he reaches fluency, he will become the first native speaker of the language in four generations.

References

{{Reflist

External links

English/Wukchumni dictionary
Yokutsan languages 2021 disestablishments in California Indigenous languages of California Extinct languages of North America