Shastan languages

Last updated
Shastan
Sastean
Geographic
distribution
Northern California
Extinct by end of 20th century
Linguistic classification Hokan  ?
Subdivisions
Glottolog shas1238
Shastan languages-01.svg
Pre-contact distribution of Shastan languages

The Shastan (or Sastean) languages are an extinct language family which consists of four languages, spoken in present-day northern California and southern Oregon:

Konomihu appears to have been the most divergent Shastan language. Okwanuchu may have been a dialect of Shasta proper, which is known to have had a number of dialects.

The entire Shastan family is now extinct. Shasta was the last language that was spoken. Three elderly speakers were reported in the 1980s.

Shastan has often been considered to be in the hypothetical Hokan stock.

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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.

References