Konomihu language facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Konomihu |
|
|---|---|
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Salmon River, northern California |
| Ethnicity | Shasta |
| Extinct | (date missing) |
| Language family |
Hokan ?
|
Konomihu was a language once spoken by people in northern California, a state in the United States. It belonged to a group of languages called Shastan. Sadly, Konomihu is now an extinct language, which means no one speaks it anymore.
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What Was Konomihu?
Konomihu was a language used by a group of people in northern California. These people lived near the Salmon River. By the early 1900s, the few remaining speakers of Konomihu began to identify themselves as part of the larger Shasta group.
Why Did Konomihu Disappear?
Even before outsiders arrived in California, it seems there were only a small number of Konomihu speakers. Over time, as fewer people learned and used the language, it slowly faded away. This is a common reason why many languages become extinct.
What Do We Know About Konomihu?
Konomihu was part of the Shastan language family. However, some experts believe it might have been quite different from the other Shastan languages. It's hard to know for sure because very little information about Konomihu was ever written down.
Early Studies of the Language
A famous expert named Kroeber once wondered if Konomihu was a very unusual form of Shasta. He also thought it might be an ancient, separate language related to others like Karok and Chimariko.
In 1928, a person named Angulo collected a list of Konomihu words. This list was never officially published. Later, in 1980, another expert named Shirley Silver studied some of these words. She compared them to words from the main Shasta language in her work called Shasta and Konomihu. These studies help us understand a little bit about this lost language.
