Atsugewi language

Last updated
Atsugewi
Atsugé
Native to United States
Region California
Ethnicity Atsugewi people
Extinct 1988, with the death of Medie Webster
Hokan  ?
Language codes
ISO 639-3 atw
Glottolog atsu1245
ELP Atsugewi
Lang Status 01-EX.svg
Atsugewi is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
[1]

Atsugewi is a recently extinct Palaihnihan language of northeastern California spoken by the Atsugewi people of Hat Creek and Dixie Valley. In 1962, there were four fluent speakers out of an ethnic group of 200, all elderly, and the last of them died in 1988. The last fluent native speaker was Medie Webster; as of 1988, other tribal members knew some expressions in the language. [2] For a summary of the documentation of Atsugewi see Golla (2011: 98–99).

Contents

Atsugewi is related to Achumawi. They have long been considered as part of the hypothetical Hokan stock, and it has been supposed that within that stock they comprise the Palaihnihan family.

The name properly is Atsugé, to which the -wi of the Achumawi or Pit River language was erroneously suffixed.

History

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber estimated the combined 1770 population of the Achumawi and Atsugewi as 3,000. [3] A more detailed analysis by Fred B. Kniffen arrived at the same figure. [4] T. R. Garth (1978:237) estimated the Atsugewi population at a maximum of 850. [5]

Kroeber estimated the combined population of the Achumawi and Atsugewi in 1910 as 1,100. The population was given as about 500 in 1936. [3]

Sounds

Consonants

Atsugewi has 32 consonants. Most of these form pairs of plain and glottalized. Plosives and affricates also have a third, aspirated member of the series (except for the single glottal stop).

  Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal plainmn    
glott.     
Stop plainptkqʔ
ejective tʃʼ
aspir. tʃʰ
Fricative plain s   ʜ   h [6]
ejective      
Rhotic plain r    
glott.      
Approximant plain ljw  
glott.    

Vowels

Atsugewi language has basically only three vowels: /a/, /u/, and /i/; [e] is the allophone of /i/ while [o] is the allophone of /u/. However, it has been supported by Leonard Talmy (1972) that there are instances such as the word ce "the eye(s)" where e can be analyzed as a proper phoneme.

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References

  1. Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (Report) (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. p. 11.
  2. Hillinger, Charles (1988-08-23). "Indian Woman Is Last Word on Language of the Atsugewi". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-10-28.
  3. 1 2 Kroeber, Alfred L (1925). Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin. Vol. 78. Washington, D.C. p. 883.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. Kniffen (1928)
  5. Garth, T. R. Atsugewi. In Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 8, California, edited by Robert F. Heizer, pp. 236–243. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1978. p. 237
  6. /ʜ/ lowers high vowels, while /h/ does not. Based on Achumawi, the former is assumed to be epiglottal.

Bibliography