Maiduan languages

Maiduan
Maidun, Pujunan
Ethnicity Maidu, Nisenan
Geographic
distribution		 California
Linguistic classification Penutian ?
  • Maiduan
Glottolog maid1262[1]
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Pre-contact distribution of Maiduan languages
Pre-contact distribution of Maiduan languages (California detail map)

Maiduan (also Maidun, Pujunan) is a small endangered language family of northeastern California.

Family division

The Maiduan consists of 4 languages:

  1. Maidu † (also known as Maidu proper, Northeastern Maidu, Mountain Maidu)
  2. Chico † (also known as Valley Maidu)
  3. Konkow (also known as Northwestern Maidu)
  4. Nisenan † (also known as Southern Maidu)

The languages have similar phonologies (i.e. sound systems) but differ significantly in terms of grammar. They are not mutually intelligible, even though many works often refer to all of the speakers of these languages as Maidu. The Chico dialects are little known due to scanty documentation, so their precise genetic relationship to the other languages probably cannot be determined (Mithun 1999).

Three of the languages went extinct by approximately the year 2000. Konkow was reported to have 3 elderly speakers in 2007.[2]

Genetic relations

Maiduan is often considered in various Penutian phylum proposals. It was one of the original members of California Penutian (the Penutian "core").

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Maiduan". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. ↑ Renaissance, Maidu (21 August 2007). "Konkow We'wejbo'sis Project 2007- 2011: Concow Language, Annette De Brotherton". Retrieved 3 June 2018.

Bibliography

  • Callaghan, Catherine A. (1997). "Evidence for Yok-Utian", International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 63, No. 1 (Jan., 1997), pp. 18–64.
  • Heizer, Robert F. (1966). Languages, territories, and names of California Indian tribes.
  • Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
  • Shipley, William. (1961). "Maidu and Nisenan: A Binary Survey", International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Jan., 1961), pp. 46–51.
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