| Okwanuchu | |
|---|---|
| Native to | United States |
| Region | northern California |
| Ethnicity | Okwanuchu |
| Era | last attested 1930s |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | okwa1235 |
 Okwanuchu | |
Okwanuchu is an extinct Shastan language formerly spoken in northern California. It is unusual in that much of its vocabulary is not derived from a Shastan language, but from some unknown substrate.
Kroeber described the language as "peculiar. Many words are practically pure Shasta; others are distorted to the very verge of recognizability, or utterly different." Golla [1] speculates at length that the language may have mixed in another, non-Shasta language. Du Bois, [2] interviewing a survivor of a group that the Wintu called Waymaq ("north people"), who she believed were probably identical to the Okwanuchu, recorded some words, including atsa ("water"). [1] Golla writes that eighteen more words are found, under the name "Wailaki [also meaning 'North People'] on McCloud", in an 1884 work by Jeremiah Curtin; he too recorded atsa ("water"), and five words not found elsewhere in Shastan. [1]
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