Konomihu language

Last updated
Konomihu
Native to United States
Region Salmon River, northern California
EthnicityKonomihu Shasta
Extinct 1940s
Hokan  ?
  • Shasta–Palaihnihan
Language codes
ISO 639-3 None (mis)
Glottolog kono1241
Shastan languages-01.svg
  Konomihu

Konomihu is an extinct Shastan language formerly spoken in northern California. There may have been only a few speakers even before contact, and they self-identified as Shasta by the turn of the 20th century. [1]

Contents

Konomihu may have been the most divergent of the Shastan family, although it is difficult to tell, as there is little material on the language. [2] Kroeber noted that "it is still questionable whether their speech is more properly a highly specialized aberration of Shasta or of an ancient and independent but moribund branch of Hokan from which Karok and Chimariko are descended together with Shasta." A wordlist was collected by Angulo in 1928, but not published; [3] some words are documented and compared by Shasta proper by Shirley Silver in Shasta and Konomihu in 1980.

References

  1. ↑ Kroeber (1925)
  2. ↑ Mithun (1999)
  3. ↑ Handbook of North American Indians: California

Sources