Nisenan language facts for kids

Nisenan, also known by names like Neeshenam or Nishinam, is a language from the Maiduan family. It was spoken by the Nisenan people who lived in central California. Their homes were in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, especially around the American, Bear, and Yuba rivers.

Sadly, Nisenan is a language that is almost gone. Experts believe there might be only a few speakers left today. Most of these speakers also know other dialects of the language.

The Nisenan Language Today

Efforts to Bring the Language Back

Even though very few people speak Nisenan now, there have been some efforts to help bring it back. One important step was the creation of the "Nisenan Workbook." This workbook has three parts and was put together by Alan Wallace.

You can find these workbooks at places like the California State Indian Museum in Sacramento. They are also available at the Maidu Interpretive Center in Roseville. These books help people learn and understand the language.

Different Ways of Speaking

The Nisenan people were not one big group, but many independent tribes. They are mostly grouped together because their languages were similar. Because of this, there were many different ways of speaking Nisenan, like different accents or dialects.

These differences mean that sometimes, the information about the language's sounds can vary. Linguists, who are language scientists, study these small differences to understand the language better.

Sounds of Nisenan

Every language has its own special sounds, like the consonants and vowels we use. The Nisenan language has sounds that are similar to other Maiduan languages, like Konkow and Maidu.

Nisenan Consonants

Nisenan has many consonant sounds, just like English. Some of these sounds are made by stopping the air completely, like the 'p' in "pat" or the 't' in "top." Other sounds are made by letting air flow, like the 's' in "sit" or the 'h' in "hat."

Some Nisenan words might have two of the same consonant sounds next to each other. For example, the word for 'one' is wyttee, and 'coyote' is dappe. Linguists are still studying if this is like how some languages, like Japanese, have "double" sounds.

Nisenan Vowels

Vowels are the open sounds we make, like 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'. In Nisenan, all vowels can be either short or long. A long vowel is usually shown by writing the vowel twice, like aa for a long 'a' sound.

Here are some of the vowel sounds in Nisenan:

• i (like the 'i' in "ski")
• u (like the 'oo' in "moon")
• e (like the 'e' in "bed")
• o (like the 'o' in "go")
• a (like the 'a' in "father")

The language also has some vowel sounds that are a bit different from common English vowels. For example, one vowel sound is made in the middle of your mouth, and another is made further back.

Nisenan Numbers

Just like different ways of speaking, the words for numbers can also change a little between different Nisenan tribes. The numbers listed here come from the Nisenan Workbooks, which are used to teach the language.

• 1 = wyttee
• 2 = peen
• 3 = sap'yj
• 4 = cyyj
• 5 = maawyk
• 6 = tymbo
• 7 = top'yj
• 8 = peencyyj
• 9 = peli'o
• 10 = maacam

To say numbers higher than ten, Nisenan often combines words.

• 11 = maacam na wyttee (This means "10 and 1," where 'na' means "and" or "plus")
• 12 = maacam na peen (This means "10 and 2," and so on for other numbers)

For numbers like 20 or 30, they combine the number with the word for ten.

• 20 = peenmaacam (This means "2 times 10")
• 30 = sap'yjmaacam (This means "3 times 10," and so on)

• 100 = maawykhaapa

See also

• Nisenan
• Maidu
• Maiduan languages