Northern Pomo is a critically endangered Pomoan language, spoken by the indigenous

Pomo The Pomo are an Indigenous people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small ...

people in what is now called

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 populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The speakers of Northern Pomo were traditionally those who lived in the northern and largest area of the Pomoan territory. Other communities near to the Pomo were the Coast Yuki, the Huchnom, and the

Athabascan Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific ...

.Barrett, Samuel A. (1908).
The Ethno-Geography of the pomo and neighboring indians
'. University of California Publications: American Archaeology and Ethnology. Vol. 6. Berkerley: The University Press. Berkeley, California.Powers, Stephen, Powell, John Wesley, and Heizer, Robert F. ed.. Letter. N.d. (orig.1875-1882). (pub.1975). ''Part II: letters of stephen powers to john wesley powell concerning tribes of california.'' Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility. Web. 4 Mar. 2017.

Ukiah High School Ukiah High School (also referred to as UHS or "Ukiahi") is the oldest public high school in Ukiah, California, the seat of Mendocino County. Established in 1893, it is the largest school by enrollment and only four-year comprehensive high schoo ...

first began offering Northern Pomo in the Fall 2020.

Classification

Northern Pomo falls under the Western branch of the Pomoan language family, and it is the only language categorized in this branch that is not part of the Southern group.

History

The earliest noted documentation of Native Americans in this area was by General Drake in 1579, but it cannot be certain that the people he encountered were what is now considered to be the Pomo. A census was delivered of the people in this area by Colonel Redick M'Kee during an expedition in 1851 putting the Pomo at roughly 1000-1200 people. The language was not documented during either encounters. Later expeditions by

John Wesley Powell John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. H ...

Powell, John Wesley. (1891). ''Indian Linguistic Families Of America, North Of Mexico. Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology'' 7:1-142. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. in 1891 and Samuel Barrett in 1908 would record accounts of the language family and its branches.

Geographic Distribution

Northern Pomo was spoken in the

United States of America 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 territo ...

in the northern coastal area of

. The Pomo inhabited a massive amount of territory north of the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water f ...

and surrounding Clear Lake 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 ...

, USA. According to the 2010 United States Census, there are 10,308 Pomo people in the United States. Of these, 8,578 reside in California. Kunkel, P. H. (1974). The Pomo Kin Group and the Political Unit in Aboriginal California. ''The journal of california anthropology'': 7-18. Retrieved from
Kunkel

Branches and Subgroups

There are seven different Pomoan languages: * Northern Pomo * Northeastern Pomo *

Eastern Pomo Eastern Pomo, also known as Clear Lake Pomo, is a nearly extinct Pomoan language spoken around Clear Lake in Lake County, California by one of the Pomo peoples. It is not mutually intelligible with the other Pomoan languages. Before contact wi ...

* Central Pomo *

Southern Pomo Southern Pomo is one of seven mutually unintelligible Pomoan languages which were formerly spoken and is currently spoken by the Pomo people in Northern California along the Russian River and Clear Lake. The Pomo languages have been grouped ...

* Southeastern Pomo * Kashaya (Southwestern) Pomo

Grammar

Relational Terminology

Northern Pomo normally avoids the use of birth names in conversation, instead using relational terminology such as father, mother, sister, etc. This is especially present in the case of a deceased family member.O'Connor, Mary. (Jul., 1990) Third-Person Reference in Northern Pomo Conversation: The Indexing of Discourse Genre and Social Relations. ''International journal of american linguistics''. Vol. 56, No. 3 , pp. 377-409. University of Chicago Press. Chicago, Illinois. The avoidance of names is why third person referencing is prevalent in Pomoan speech. If the deceased family member was close to the speaker, they will not speak their name even if a living relative shares that name. Any speaking partner is expected to avoid these names so that the speaker does not hear it. It is seen as a disrespect to their relationship with the deceased. More casual speakers may mention the names of the deceased in conversation that they are not related to.

Possessive Terminology

Northern Pomo switches between regular possession and possessor raising depending upon the term the speaker wants to focus upon. In a regular possession situation, the subject of the sentence remains the focus, whereas with possessor raising the object or person being possessed becomes the focus of the sentence.O’Connor, M. (1994)
The Marking of Possession in Northern Pomo: Privative Opposition and Pragmatic Inference
''Annual meeting of the berkeley linguistics society''. (387-401). Berkeley Linguistics Society. Berkeley, California Depending on which construction is used in Northern Pomo the implications of a given sentence would change. Sentences with possessor raising constructions imply consequences in Northern Pomo, such as the consequences of a possessor affecting a body part or having a certain physical trait.

Phonology

Allophones of /kʰ, t͡sʼ/ include , sʼ

References

External links

Field recordings of Northern Pomo
conducted by Eero Vihman with Edna Guerrero
Northern Pomo language
overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Northern Pomo basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

OLAC resources in and about the Northern Pomo language

Northern Pomo Language Tools
{{Hokan languages Pomoan languages Indigenous languages of California Extinct languages of North America Pomo tribe Languages extinct in the 2000s