Kitanemuk language

language
name=Kitanemuk
familycolor=American
states=United States
region=Southern California
fam1=Uto-Aztecan
fam2=Takic
fam3=Serran
extinct=Last spoken in the 1940s by Marcelino Rivera, Isabella Gonzales, and Refugia Duran
iso2=nai|iso3=none

Kitanemuk was a Northern Uto-Aztecan language of the Takic branch. It was very closely related to Serrano, and may have been a dialect of Serrano. The last speakers lived some time in the 1940s, though the last fieldwork was carried out in 1937. J. P. Harrington took copious notes in the 1916 and 1917, however, which has allowed for a fairly detailed knowledge of the language.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant phonemes of Kitanemuk, as reconstructed by Anderton (1988) based on Harrington's field notes, were (with some standard Americanist phonetic notation in :

Word-finally, IPA|/h/ becomes IPA| [r] , and all voiced consonants become voiceless before other voiceless consonants or word-finally.

Vowels

Grammar

References

*Anderton, Alice J. (1988). "The Language of the Kitanemuks of California". PhD. diss., University of California, Los Angeles.
*Mithun, Marianne (1999). "The Languages of Native North America". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

External links

* [http://www.fourdir.com/kitanemuk.htm Four Directions Institute: Kitanemuk]
* [http://www.native-languages.org/kitanemuk.htm Native Languages: Kitanemuk]