Ohlone languages
| Ohlone | |
|---|---|
| Costanoan | |
| Pronunciation | /oʊˈloʊniː/ |
| Region | California |
| Ethnicity | Ohlone people |
| Revival | revitalization in progress for Chochenyo, Mutsun, and Rumsen |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously: cst – Northern Ohlone css – Southern Ohlone krb – Karkin |
| Glottolog | cost1250 |
Ohlone languages. Boundaries are approximate.
|
|
| Selected Costanoan Words by Merriam | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| English Word | Schedule #56 | Schedule #57 | Word # |
| Salmon | Oo'-rahk | Hoo"-rah-ka | 247 |
| Abalone | Oo==ch | Hah-shan | 254 |
| Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) | – | Ho-o-pe | 280 |
| Valley Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia or Quercus lobata) |
Yū'Ks | You-kish | 296 |
| Big Round Tule | Rōks | Ró-kus | 409 |
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Legend:
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The Ohlone languages, also known as Costanoan, are a small family of languages of the San Francisco Bay Area spoken by the Ohlone people. Along with the Miwok languages, they are members of the Utian language family. The most recent work suggests that Ohlone, Miwok, and Yokuts are branches of a Yok-Utian language family.
Costanoan comprises eight attested varieties: Awaswas, Chalon, Chochenyo (a.k.a. Chocheño), Karkin, Mutsun, Ramaytush, Rumsen, and Tamyen. Overall, divergence among these languages seems to have been roughly equivalent to that among the languages of the Romance sub-family of Indo-European languages. Neighboring groups seem to have been able to understand and speak to each other.
The number and geographic distribution of Ohlone language divisions partially mirrors the distribution of Franciscan missions in their original lands. While the known languages are, in most cases, quite distinct, intermediate dialects may have been lost as local groups gathered at the missions. A newly discovered text from Mission Santa Clara provides evidence that Chochenyo of the East Bay area and Tamyen of the Santa Clara Valley were closely related dialects of a single San Francisco Bay Costanoan language.
The Costanoan languages were all extinct by the 1950s. However, today Mutsun, Chochenyo and Rumsen are being "revitalized" (relearned from saved records).
The classification below is based primarily on Callaghan (2001). Other classifications list Northern Costanoan, Southern Costanoan, and Karkin as single languages, with the following subgroups of each considered as dialects:
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