Wintuan languages facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Wintun |
|
|---|---|
| Copeh | |
| Ethnicity: | Wintun people |
| Geographic distribution: |
California |
| Linguistic classification: | Penutian ?
|
| Subdivisions: |
Northern
Southern
|
 Pre-contact distribution of Wintuan languages
|
|
The Wintuan languages (also called Wintun, Wintoon, Copeh, or Copehan) are a group of languages once spoken by Native American people in the Sacramento Valley area of central Northern California.
Sadly, most Wintuan languages are now either extinct (meaning no one speaks them anymore) or severely endangered (meaning only a few people still speak them).
Contents
What are the Wintuan Languages?
The Wintuan language family is divided into two main branches: Northern Wintuan and Southern Wintuan. Experts like Shipley (1978) and Mithun (1999) have helped us understand how these languages are related.
Northern Wintuan Languages
- Wintu (also known as Wintu proper or Northern Wintu)
- Nomlaki (also called Noamlakee or Central Wintu)
The Wintu language became extinct in 2003 when its last fluent speaker passed away. For Nomlaki, there was at least one person who could still speak parts of it in 2010.
Southern Wintuan Languages
- Patwin (also known as Patween)
- Southern Patwin
In 2003, only one speaker of the Patwin language (specifically the Hill Patwin dialect) remained. Southern Patwin was spoken by the Suisun tribe near San Francisco Bay. It became extinct in the early 1900s, so we don't know as much about it. The Wintu language is the one we have the most information about.
How Close Are These Languages?
Imagine how similar Spanish and French are because they both came from Latin. That's a bit like how close the Wintuan languages are to each other! An expert named Pitkin (1984) thought they might have all come from one common language only about 2,000 years ago. Another researcher, Shepherd (2006), studied how the sounds and words of the original Proto-Wintun language might have been.
Wintuan Languages and Other Language Families
Many language experts believe that Wintuan languages might be part of a much larger group called the Penutian family. This idea was first suggested by Roland B. Dixon and Alfred L. Kroeber in the early 1900s.
However, some newer studies suggest that the Wintuan people might have moved into California about 1,500 years ago from a place in Oregon. This idea comes from looking at how Wintuan languages are similar to other languages. For example, the way Wintuan languages use pronouns (words like "I," "you," "he") is very similar to the Klamath language. Also, some words in Northern Wintuan languages seem to have been borrowed from the Alsea language.
See also
In Spanish: Lenguas wintuanas para niños
