| Solano | |
|---|---|
| Olelato | |
| Native to | Northeast Mexico |
| Region | near Mission San Francisco Solano |
| Ethnicity | Solano people |
| Extinct | 18th century |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xso |
xso | |
| Glottolog | sanf1266 |
 Pre-contact distribution of Solano language | |
Solano is an unclassified extinct language formerly spoken in northeast Mexico and perhaps also in the neighboring U.S. state of Texas. It is a possible language isolate.[ citation needed ]
Solano is known only from a 21-word vocabulary list that appears at the end of a 1703–1708 baptism book from the San Francisco Solano Mission, [1] which hosted at least four different peoples, including the Xarame, Payuguan, Papanac, and Siaguan. [2] Supposedly the language is of the Indians of this mission – perhaps the Terocodame band cluster. The Solano peoples are associated with the 18th-century missions near Eagle Pass, Texas.
The 21 known Solano words, as reproduced in Swanton (1940), are: [3]
| Solano | English |
|---|---|
| aapag | yes |
| apam | water |
| genin, genint | three |
| hikomeya, hycomeya | is she your sister? |
| hipayō, hypayô | to wish; Spanish: quiere (?) |
| kainika, cainica | tortilla |
| krisen, crisen; krigen, crigen | bad |
| nabaog | I am hungry |
| naha | mother |
| namō | eat it |
| nikaog, nicaog | meat |
| no | fur |
| paam | there is none |
| papam | father |
| saath | four |
| sieh | give me |
| sihik, sihic | tobacco |
| sopaam | sister |
| soyā | brother |
| tciene, chiene | salt |
| taapam | there are |
Below is a comparison of selected words from Zamponi (2024). There are no obvious cognates with other neighboring languages. [2]
| language | father | four | meat | mother | three | water |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solano | papam | saath | nikaog | naha | genin | apam |
| Lipan Apache [4] | -ʔaaší | dínínɁí | -cinin | -Ɂ-nándí | káíɁí | kó |
| Coahuilteco [5] | -xana·y | puwa·nc̉an | aha·wh | -ta·y | axtikpil | wan |
| Comecrudo [6] | mawiʹs | nawuiʹ | eweʹ, kai | maʹt, te | ̉yiʹy | aʹx̣ |
| Tonkawa [7] | ʔewas, ta·taʔ | sikit | ʔawas | xʔay, ʔesaʔ | metis | ʔa·x |
| Proto-Uto-Aztecan [8] | *na, *ta(ta), *ʔok | *mako’ | *tuhku, *waʔi | *ye, *nan | *pahi | *pa |
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term family is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics analogous to a family tree, or to phylogenetic trees of taxa used in evolutionary taxonomy. Linguists thus describe the daughter languages within a language family as being genetically related. The divergence of a proto-language into daughter languages typically occurs through geographical separation, with different regional dialects of the proto-language undergoing different language changes and thus becoming distinct languages over time.
A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, Tiwi in Australia and Burushaski in Pakistan are all examples of language isolates. The exact number of language isolates is yet unknown due to insufficient data on several languages.
The Indigenous languages of the Americas are a diverse group of languages that originated in the Americas prior to colonization, many of which continue to be spoken. Over a thousand of these languages are still used today, while many more are now extinct. The Indigenous languages of the Americas are not all related to each other; instead, they are classified into a hundred or so language families, as well as a number of extinct languages that are unclassified due to the lack of information on them.
The Wintun are members of several related Native American peoples of Northern California, including the Wintu (northern), Nomlaki (central), and Patwin (southern). Their range is from approximately present-day Lake Shasta to San Francisco Bay, along the western side of the Sacramento River to the Coast Range. Each of these tribes speak one of the Wintuan languages. Linguistic and archaeological evidence suggests that the Wintun people probably entered the California area around 500 AD from what is now southern Oregon, introducing bow and arrow technology to the region. There has been carbon dating of several artifacts by UC Berkeley that dates back to around 10,000 years, and several of these artifacts have now been repatriated. Despite being a major influence on the region's history, there is still very little history on the Wintu due to centuries of genocide and displacement that still occur today along with continued destruction of sacred ceremonial and religious sites, often due to companies that ignore legal or ethical considerations.
Tanoan, also Kiowa–Tanoan or Tanoan–Kiowa, is a family of languages spoken by indigenous peoples in present-day New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Zuni is a language of the Zuni people, indigenous to western New Mexico and eastern Arizona in the United States. It is spoken by around 9,500 people, especially in the vicinity of Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, and much smaller numbers in parts of Arizona.
Coahuiltecan was a proposed language family in John Wesley Powell's 1891 classification of Native American languages. Most linguists now reject the view that the Coahuiltecan peoples of southern Texas and adjacent Mexico spoke a single or related languages. Coahuiltecan continues to be a convenient collective term for the languages and people of this region.
Comecrudan refers to a group of possibly related languages spoken in the southernmost part of Texas and in northern Mexico along the Rio Grande of which Comecrudo is the best known. These were spoken by the Comecrudo people. Very little is known about these languages or the people who spoke them. Knowledge of them primarily consists of word lists collected by European missionaries and explorers. All Comecrudan languages are extinct.
Coahuilteco was one of the Pakawan languages that was spoken in southern Texas and northeastern Coahuila (Mexico). It is now extinct.
Utian is a family of Indigenous languages spoken in Northern California, United States. The Miwok and Ohlone peoples both spoke languages of the Utian language family. It has recently been argued that the Utian languages and Yokuts languages are sub-families of the Yok-Utian language family. Utian and Yokutsan have traditionally been considered part of the Penutian language phylum.
Lipan is an Eastern Southern Athabaskan language spoken by the Lipan Apache in the states of Coahuila and Chihuahua in northern Mexico, some reservations of New Mexico and parts of southern Texas. Lipan belongs to the Na-Dene languages family and it is closely related to the Jicarilla language, which is also part of the Eastern Southern Athabaskan languages.
The Pomoan, or Pomo, languages are a small family of seven languages indigenous to northern California spoken by the Pomo people, whose ancestors lived in the valley of the Russian River and the Clear Lake basin. Four languages are extinct, and all surviving languages except Kashaya have fewer than ten speakers.
The Akokisa were an Indigenous tribe who lived on Galveston Bay and the lower Trinity and Sabine rivers in Texas, primarily in the present-day Greater Houston area. They were a band of the Atakapa Indians, closely related to the Atakapa of Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Timucua is a language isolate formerly spoken in northern and central Florida and southern Georgia by the Timucua peoples. Timucua was the primary language used in the area at the time of Spanish colonization in Florida. Differences among the nine or ten Timucua dialects were slight, and appeared to serve mostly to delineate band or tribal boundaries. Some linguists suggest that the Tawasa of what is now northern Alabama may have spoken Timucua, but this is disputed.
The Yana language is an extinct language that was formerly spoken by the Yana people, who lived in north-central California between the Feather and Pit rivers in what is now the Shasta and Tehama counties. The last speaker of the southernmost dialect, which is called Yahi, was Ishi, who died in 1916. When the last fluent speaker(s) of the other dialects died is not recorded. Yana is fairly well documented, mostly by Edward Sapir.
Truman Michelson was a linguist and anthropologist who worked from 1910 until his death for the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution. He also held a position as ethnologist at George Washington University from 1917 until 1932.
The Bidai, who referred to themselves as the Quasmigdo, were a tribe of American Indians from eastern Texas.
Aranama (Araname), also known as Tamique, is an extinct unclassified language of Texas, USA. It was spoken by the Aranama and Tamique peoples at the Franciscan mission of Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga. It is only known from a two-word phrase from a non-native speaker: himiána tsáyi 'give me water!'. Variations on the name are Taranames, Jaranames ~ Xaranames ~ Charinames, Chaimamé, Hanáma ~ Hanáme.
Bidai is an unclassified extinct language formerly spoken by the Bidai people of eastern Texas. Zamponi (2024) notes that the numerals do not appear to be related to those of any other languages and hence proposes that Bidai may be a language isolate.
The Pakawan languages were a small language family spoken in what is today northern Mexico and southern Texas. All Pakawan languages are today extinct.
