Yana Language
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The Yana language (also Yanan) was formerly spoken by the
Yana people The Yana were a group of Native Americans indigenous to Northern California in the central Sierra Nevada, on the western side of the range. Their lands, prior to encroachment by white settlers, bordered the Pit and Feather rivers. They were ...
, who lived in north-central
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 ...
between the
Feather Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and a premier ...
and Pit rivers in what is now the Shasta and Tehama counties. The last speaker of the southernmost dialect, which is called Yahi, was
Ishi Ishi ( – March 25, 1916) was the last known member of the Native American Yahi people from the present-day state of California in the United States. The rest of the Yahi (as well as many members of their parent tribe, the Yana) were kill ...
, who died in 1916. When the last fluent speaker(s) of the other dialects died is not recorded. Yana is fairly well documented, mostly by
Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States. Sap ...
. The names ''Yana'' and ''Yahi'' are derived from ''ya'' "people" plus an obligatory suffix, ''-na'' in the northern two dialects and ''-hi'' or ''-xi'' in the southern two dialects.


Regional variation

There are four known
dialects The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
: * Northern Yana * Central Yana * Southern Yana * Yahi Northern Yana, Central Yana, and Yahi were well recorded by Edward Sapir through work with Betty Brown, Sam Batwi, and Ishi respectively. Only a small collection of words and phrases of Southern Yana (more properly, Northern Yahi) were recorded by Sapir in his work with Sam Batwi, who spoke the dialect only in his childhood. Because Southern Yana is poorly attested, it is unclear how many additional subdialects there may have been. Northern and Central Yana are close, differing mainly in phonology (mostly by innovations in Northern Yana), and Southern Yana and Yahi are similarly close. The two pairs differ from each other in phonological, lexical, and grammatical elements, and can only be understood by the other side with difficulty.


Classification

Yana is often classified in the
Hokan The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families that were spoken mainly in California, Arizona and Baja California. Etymology The name ''Hokan'' is loosely based on the word for "two" in the various Hokan ...
superstock. Sapir suggested a grouping of Yana within a ''Northern Hokan'' sub-family with
Karuk The Karuk people are an indigenous people of California, and the Karuk Tribe is one of the largest tribes in California. Karuks are also enrolled in two other federally recognized tribes, the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad ...
, Chimariko, Shastan,
Palaihnihan Palaihnihan (also Palaihnih) is a language family of northeastern California. It consists of two closely related languages, both now extinct: # Atsugewi ''(†)'' # Achumawi ''(†)'' (ís siwa wó disi, also known as Achomawi, Pit River Indian ...
, and Pomoan. Contemporary linguists generally consider Yana to be a
language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...
. The use of bipartite verb stem formation in Yana is not a Hokan characteristic, but is used in other non-Hokan languages in the area, suggesting that Yana has stayed geographically stable.


Characteristics

Yana employs 22 consonants and 5 vowels. It is
polysynthetic In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able t ...
and
agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative langu ...
, with a subject-verb-object word order. Verbs contain much meaning through affixation. Like some other California languages, direction is very important: All verbs of motion must contain a different directional affix. Unlike other languages of the region, Yana has different word forms used by male and female speakers. The body of linguistic work on Yana is fortunate to include a number of texts and stories. Linguist Jean Perry writes that : "Stylistically, the emphasis on direction and location, plus the frequent use of repetition, are traditional and integral to the style and structure of the text and are a necessary part of it ... . There are also many references to things and people that may seem vague. The level of presumed knowledge in a Yahi story is much higher than in English narration, because these people lived in a small, face-to-face society, and stories were told over and over. A native audience would be familiar with the characters and plot, and therefore much of the emphasis is on detail and technique rather than plot."


Phonology


Consonants


Vowels

Yana has five vowels, /i, ɛ, a, ɔ, u/; Sapir's (1910) comparanda with vowels of English, French and German clearly indicate that the mid vowels are lower mid. Each vowel occurs with phonemic vowel length.


Bibliography

* Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. . * Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996). ''Languages''. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. . * Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); . * Sapir, Edward. (1922). ''The Fundamental Elements of Northern Yana''. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 13. 215-234. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press. * Sapir, Edward. 1910. ''Yana Texts''. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 1, no. 9. Berkeley: University Press.
Online version
at the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
). * Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978–present). ''Handbook of North American Indians'' (Vol. 1–20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. (Vols. 1–3, 16, 18–20 not yet published).


References


External links


Yana language
overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages * *
Yana basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
{{North American languages Yana Indigenous languages of California Language isolates of North America Extinct languages of North America Hokan languages Languages extinct in the 1910s 1916 disestablishments in California Subject–verb–object languages Polysynthetic languages