Yahi was a dialect of the

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

Yana language The Yana language (also Yanan) is an extinct language that was formerly spoken by the Yana people, who lived in north-central California between the Feather and Pit rivers in what is now the Shasta and Tehama counties. The last speaker of the ...

that was spoken in the upper

Sacramento Valley The Sacramento Valley is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies north of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the Sacramento River. It encompasses all or parts of ten Northern California ...

area, roughly in the area between Mill Creek and Deer Creek. It is one of the southern dialects of Yana, which is a

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

, though with possible connections to Hokan. Yana is known as having been the language of Ishi, the last surviving Yana Indian, who worked with anthropologists to make a record of the language and culture.

History

The last documented speaker of Yahi was a man called Ishi who caused a scientific stir when he made contact with the outside world in 1911, long after the Yahi had been assumed to be extinct. Together with the language, he died in 1916.

Vocabulary

Yahi distinguishes male and female forms with male forms, frequently marked with the suffix ''-na'', generally longer than female forms. Some examples are:

Examples

Some language samples from Kroeber, TKroeber, T. ''Ishi in two worlds'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984

Pronouns

auna - fire

Numerals

Some numerals from Sapir et al.,Sapir, E., Swadesh. M., Haas, M. ''Yana Dictionary'' University of California Press, 1960

Example Phrases

References

External links

Ethnologue entry on the Yahi language
{{Languages of California Language isolates of North America Extinct languages of North America Indigenous languages of California Native American history of California Hokan languages