Yokuts (), formerly known as Mariposa, is an endangered language spoken in the interior of Northern and Central California in and around the San Joaquin Valley by the Yokuts people. The speakers of Yokuts were severely affected by disease, missionaries, and the Gold Rush. While descendants of Yokuts speakers currently number in the thousands, all constituent dialects apart from Valley Yokuts are now extinct.

thumb|Map of Yokuts with dialects indicated

The Yawelmani dialect of Valley Yokuts has been a focus of much linguistic research.

Dialects

The Yokuts language consists of half a dozen primary dialects. An estimated forty linguistically distinct groups existed before Euro-American contact.

thumb|Yokutsan family tree

  • Yokuts
  • Poso Creek
  • Palewyami Yokuts ( Poso Creek, Altinin)
  • General Yokuts (all others)
  • Buena Vista
  • Tulamni
  • Hometwali
  • Nim
  • Tule–Kaweah
  • Wukchumni
  • Yawdanchi ( Nutaa)
  • Bokninuwad
  • Northern Yokuts
  • Gashowu
  • Kings River
  • Chukaymina (also spelled Chukaimina)
  • Michahay
  • Ayitcha ( Aiticha, Kocheyali)
  • Choynimni (also spelled Choinimni)
  • Valley Yokuts (sole living dialect)

Glottolog concludes that these dialects fall into four distinct languages: Palewyami Yokuts, Buena Vista Yokuts, Northern Yokuts, Tule–Kaweah Yokuts. and to "provide support for scholarships, programs, and efforts to assemble native texts and create a curriculum for teaching the language so it can be brought back into social and ritual use."

Genetic relations

Yokuts is a key member in the proposed Penutian language stock. Some linguists consider most relationships within Penutian to be undemonstrated (cf. Campbell 1997). Others consider a genetic relationship between Yokuts, Utian, Maiduan, Wintuan, and a number of Oregon languages to be definite (cf. DeLancey and Golla 1997). Regardless of higher-order disagreement, Callaghan (1997) provides strong evidence uniting Yokuts and the Utian languages as branches of a Yok-Utian language family.

The term "Delta Yokuts" has recently been introduced in lieu of the longer "Far Northern Valley Yokuts" for the dialect spoken by the people in the present Stockton and Modesto vicinities of San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, California, prior to their removal to Mission San Jose between 1810 and 1827. Of interest, Delta Yokuts contains a large number of words with no cognates in any of the other dialects, or for that matter in the adjacent Utian languages, although its syntax is typically Northern Valley Yokuts. This anomaly has led Whistler (cited by Golla 2007) to suggest, "The vocabulary distinctive of some of the Delta Yokuts dialects may reflect substratal influence from pre-proto-Yokuts or from an extinct Yok-Utian language." Golla suggests that a "pre-proto-Yokuts" homeland was in the Great Basin, citing a rich plant and animal vocabulary for a dry environment and a close connection between Yokuts basketry styles and those of prehistoric central Nevada.

==Proto-language==<!---Proto-Yokuts redirects here--->

Proto-Yokuts reconstructions from Whistler and Golla (1986):

:{| class="wikitable sortable"

! gloss !! Proto-Yokuts

|-

| acorn || *pʰutʰuʂ

|-

| beaver || *t’ɨːpɨkʰ ~ *ʈ’ɨːpɨkʰ

|-

| blood || *hɨːpa-ʔ

|-

| bone || *c’iy

|-

| child || *witʰip

|-

| child (diminutive) || *wicʰip

|-

| coyote || *kʰay’iw

|-

| eight || *mun’us

|-

| eye || *sasa-ʔ

|-

| fingernail || *xiːsix

|-

| fire || *ʔoʂitʰ

|-

| fish || *lopʰiʈʰ

|-

| flea || *p’aːk’il

|-

| friend || *noːcʰi

|-

| head louse || *tʰihiʈʰ

|-

| heart || *ʔuʂik’

|-

| horn || *ɨʂɨl’

|-

| mountain || *lomitʰ

|-

| mouth || *sama-ʔ

|-

| north || *xosim

|-

| nose || *ʈʰɨŋɨk’

|-

| shaman || *ʔaŋʈʰiw

|-

| skunk || *cʰox

|-

| sky || *ʈʰipʰin

|-

| star || *c’ayatas

|-

| string || *c’ikiy

|-

| tears || *maŋal

|-

| three || *ʂoːpʰin

|-

| two || *poŋiy

|-

| water || *ʔilik’

|}

See also

  • Yokuts people

Further reading

References

  • Yokuts languages fonts, Languagegeek.com
  • Yokuts (Northern Foothill): Lord's prayer
  • Chawchila metathesis
  • Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770 (map after Kroeber)
  • Yokuts languages language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages