Esselen language

The name Esselen was derived from a village name. The Esselen people referred to their own language as Huelel. The name was recorded by Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta on May 18, 1832 at Soledad Mission from his informant Eusebio (native name Sutasis) (cf. villel 'tongue' as recorded by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano) (Shaul 1995).

French explorer Jean La Perouse, who visited Monterey in 1786, reported:[2]

The country of the Ecclemachs [Esselen] extends above 20 leagues to the [south]eastward of Monterey. Their language is totally different from all those of their neighbors, and has even more resemblance to the languages of Europe than to those of the Americas. This grammatical phenomenon, the most curious in this respect ever observed on the continent, will, perhaps, be interesting to those of the learned, who seek, in the analogy of languages, the history and genealogy of transplanted nations.

Esselen may have been the first Californian language to become extinct. Although it was spoken by many of the early converts at Mission Carmel, its use rapidly declined during the Hispanic period. Very little information on the vocabulary and grammar of Esselen was preserved. about 350 words and phrases and a few complete sentences have been preserved in literature.[2] A short bilingual catechism (for a summary see Mithun 1999:411–413 and Golla 2011:114). By the beginning of the 20th century the only data on Esselen that investigators such as Kroeber and Harrington could collect were a few words remembered by speakers of other Indian languages in the area.

H. W. Henshaw thought that the Esselen people's language represented a monotypic linguistic family. Others have assigned the language to the Hokan family. While it is likely that much of Dixon & Kroeber's Hokan-Penutian model will stand the test of time, the subject matter is both complex and poorly understood, and is thus subject to revision.

Subject pronouns in Esselen (Shaul 1995):

	sg	pl
1	eni	leṭ
2	neme	nomeṭ
3		laṭ, lawis

Word order is primarily SVO, although SOV and VSO also occur (Shaul 1995).

Shaul (1995) reconstitutes Esselen vocabulary, synthesized from various historical sources, as follows.[3] Forms from Alfred L. Kroeber are marked by (Kr).

gloss	Esselen
adult	-nVč
all	komVnam
arrow	lóto-s
bear	koltála
bow	paxu-nax
child/son	pana
cry	siawa
dance	mepV, mef-
dark	tumas (Kr)
day	asátsa
die	moho
dog	šošo
drink	etse, eše
ear	tus-usp (Kr)
earth	maṭa, matsa
eight	kxulef-walanai
eyes	-ikxpa
father	haya
female	ta-
five	pemakxa-la
foot	kxéle
four	kxamakxu-s
friend	-efe
girl	soléta
give	toxésa
good/well	sale-
grandfather	meči
ground squirrel	mexe
hair	haka
head	kxáta-sVx
large	putú-ki; yakí-s-ki
man	exe-
mother	atsia
mountain	polomo
mountain lion	xeke-s
mouth	iši
nails	uluxV
night	tomani-s
nose	xoši
one	pek
person	efexe
pinole	amúxe
plain	yala-x
quail	kumul (Kr)
rabbit (cottontail)	čiši, čis-
salmon	kilí-
seal	opopa-pas
seven	kxula-walanai
six	pek-walanai
sky	imi-
small	ukxu-s-ki
speak	al-pa
sun	aši
teeth	awur
ten	tomóila
three	kxulep
two	kxulax
water	asa-nax
where	kéya-
who	kíni
wildcat	toloma
wood	i'i
yes	íke

• Golla, Victor. 2011. California Indian Languages. University of California Press.
• Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge University Press.
• Shaul, David L. 1995. "The Huelel (Esselen) Language." International Journal of American Linguistics 61:191-239.

• Esselen language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• Spanish-Rumsen-Esselen Glossary, 1802
• Salinan-Esselen vocabulary, p. 73
• Esselen at the California Language Archive
• OLAC resources in and about the Esselen language
• Esselen, The World Atlas of Language Structures