Pacific Coast Athabaskan is a geographical and possibly genealogical grouping of the Athabaskan language family.

California Athabaskan

: 1.

Hupa Hupa (Yurok language term: Huep'oola' / Huep'oolaa = "Hupa people") are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in northwestern California. Their endonym is Natinixwe, also spelled Natinook-wa, meaning "Peopl ...

(dining'-xine:wh, a.k.a. Hoopa-Chilula) :: dialects: ::* Hupa ::*

Tsnungwe The Tsnungwe (current Hupa-language orthography, own name: - "Tse:ning-din (Ironside Mountain) People") or ''Tsanunghwa'' are a Native American people indigenous to the modern areas of the lower South Fork Trinity River (), Willow Creek (), ...

::: - tse:ning-xwe ::: - tł'oh-mitah-xwe ::* Chilula-Whilkut ::: - Chilula ::: - Whilkut : 2. Mattole–Bear River - extinct :: dialects: ::* Mattole ::* Bear River : 3.

Wailaki The Eel River Athabaskans include the Wailaki, Lassik, Nongatl, and Sinkyone (Sinkine) groups of Native Americans that traditionally live in present-day Mendocino, Trinity, and Humboldt counties on or near the Eel River and Van Duzen River o ...

("Eel River", spoken by the

Eel River Athapaskan peoples The Eel River Athabaskans include the Wailaki, Lassik, Nongatl, and Sinkyone (Sinkine) groups of Native Americans that traditionally live in present-day Mendocino, Trinity, and Humboldt counties on or near the Eel River and Van Duzen River o ...

) - extinct :: dialects: ::* Sinkyone ::* Wailaki ::* Nongatl ::* Lassik : 4.

Cahto The Cahto (also spelled Kato, especially in anthropological and linguistic contexts) are an indigenous Californian group of Native Americans. Today most descendants are enrolled as the federally recognized tribe, the Cahto Indian Tribe of the ...

(a.k.a. Kato) (sometimes included in Eel River) - extinct Often the Mattole and Wailaki-speaking groups together are called Southern Athapaskans. Their languages were similar to each other, but differed from the northern California tribes whose languages were also part of the Athapaskan family. They are not to be confused with the Apachean peoples (the

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

and

Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

) - also known as Southern Athabascans - of the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

and

Northern Mexico Northern Mexico ( es, el Norte de México ), commonly referred as , is an informal term for the northern cultural and geographical area in Mexico. Depending on the source, it contains some or all of the states of Baja California, Baja California ...

, who speak the

Southern Athabaskan languages Southern Athabaskan (also Apachean) is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the Southwestern United States (including Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah) with two outliers in Oklahoma and Texas. The language is spoken to a ...

Oregon Athabaskan

: 5. Upper Umpqua (a.k.a. Etnemitane) : 6. Lower Rogue River (a.k.a. Tututni, Coquille) :: dialects: ::* Upper Coquille ::: - Coquille (a.k.a. Mishikwutinetunne) ::: - Flores Creek (a.k.a. Kosotshe, Kusu'me, Lukkarso) ::* Tututni ::: - Tututunne ::: - Naltunnetunne ::: - Mikwunutunne (a.k.a. Mikonotunne) ::: - Joshua (a.k.a. Chemetunne) ::: - Sixes (a.k.a. Kwatami) ::: - Pistol River (a.k.a. Chetleshin) ::: - Wishtenatin (a.k.a. Khwaishtunnetunnne) ::* Euchre Creek (a.k.a. Yukichetunne) ::* Chasta Costa (a.k.a. Illinois River, Chastacosta, Chasta Kosta) : 7. Upper Rogue River (a.k.a. Galice–Applegate) :: dialects: ::* Galice (a.k.a. Taltushtuntede) ::* Applegate (a.k.a. Nabiltse, Dakubetede) : 8. Chetco-Tolowa :: dialects: ::* Chetco ::* Smith River (a.k.a. Tolowa) ::* Siletz Dee-ni (modern Chetco-Tolowa variant with word from Chasta Costa, Applegate, Galice, Rogue River, and other members of the

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in the United States is a federally recognized confederation of more than 27 Native American tribes and bands who once inhabited an extensive homeland of more than 20 million acres from northern Califo ...

) Linguists differ on the classification of the Lower Rogue River, Upper Rogue River, and Chetco-Tolowa branches as being either separate languages, or dialects of one macrolanguage, comprising a dialect continuum centered on the Lower Rogue River dialect group with the Chetco-Tolowa and Upper Rogue River groups being peripheral. The latter view is common among tribal elders and language revitalizationists, who note a high degree of mutual intelligibility and shared cultural identity. In the absence of a single, unambiguous English name for the dialect group, some learner-speakers refer to it in English as Nuu-wee-ya', an

endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

common to all three varieties meaning "our language".

References

Bibliography

* See: Athabaskan languages#Bibliography * {{Athabaskan languages