- Wiyot language
Wiyot (also Wishosk) is an extinct Algic language, spoken by the
Wiyot people of Humboldt Bay,California . The language's last native speaker, Della Prince, died in1962 . Some Wiyots are attempting a revival of the language.Concerning the etymology of Wiyot (a.k.a. "Wishosk"), the following is from Campbell (1997):
"Wiyot" is from "wíyat", the native name for the Eel River delta, which also referred to one of the three principal groups of Wiyots (Elsasser 1978:162).
"The connection of Wiyot and Yurok in northern
California (which together were formerly called "'Ritwan", after Dixon and Kroeber's [1913] grouping of the two as one of their more remote Californian stocks) withAlgonquian was first proposed bySapir (1913) and was quite controversial at that time (see Michelson 1914, 1915; Sapir 1915a, 1915b; see also Chapter 2), but the relationship has subsequently been demonstrated to the satisfaction of all (see Haas 1958; Teeter 1964a; Goddard 1975, 1979, 1990). Before1850 the Yurok lived on the lowerKlamath River . The Wiyot (earlier called Wishosk) lived in the Humboldt Bay area, in the redwood belt; the last fully fluent speaker died in1962 (Teeter 1964b). Many scholars have commented that although Wiyot and Yurok are neighbors in northern California, they seem not to have a closer relationship with each other than either has with Algonquian...." (Campbell 1997:152).Phonology
The consonants of Wiyot given in the Conathan Practical Orthography:
External links
* [http://www.languagegeek.com/california/wiyot.html Language Geek: Wiyot]
Bibliography
* Campbell, Lyle. (1997). "American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America". New York: Oxford University Press.
* Dixon, Roland; & Kroeber, Alfred L. (1913). New linguistic families in California. "American Anthropologist", "5", 1-26.
* Elsasser, Albert B. (1978). Wiyot. In R. F. Heizer (Ed.), "California" (pp. 153-163). Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 8) (W. C. Sturtevant (Ed.)). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Goddard, Ives. (1975). Algonquian, Wiyot, and Yurok: Proving a distantgenetic relationship . In M. D. Kinkade, K. L. Hale, & O. Werner (Eds.), "Linguistics and anthropology in honor of C. F. Voegelin" (pp. 249-262). Lisse: Peter de Ridder Press.
* Goddard, Ives. (1979). Comparative Algonquian. In L. Campbell & M. Mithun (Eds.), "The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment" (pp. 70-132). Austin: University of Texas Press.
* Goddard, Ives. (1990). Algonquian linguistic change and reconstruction. In P. Baldi (Ed.), "Linguistic change and reconstruction methodology" (pp. 99-114). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
* Haas, Mary R. (1958). Algonkian-Ritwan: The end of a controversy. "International Journal of American Linguistics", "24", 159-173.
* Michelson, Truman. 1914. Two alleged Algonquian languages of California. "American Anthropologist", "16", 361-367.
* Michelson, Truman. 1915. Rejoinder (to Edward Sapir). "American Anthropologist", "17", 4-8.
* Mithun, Marianne. (1999). "The languages of Native North America". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
* Sapir, Edward. 1913. Wiyot and Yurok, Algonkin languages of California. "American Anthropologist", "15", 617-646.
* Sapir, Edward. (1915)a. Algonkin languages of California: A reply. "American Anthropologist", "17", 188-194.
* Sapir, Edward. (1915)b. Epilogue. "American Anthropologist", "17", 198.
* Teeter, Karl V. (1964)a. Algonquian languages and genetic relationship. In "Proceedings of the ninth international congress of linguists" (pp. 1026-1033). The Hague: Mouton.
* Teeter, Karl V. (1964)b. "The Wiyot language". University of California publications in linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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