| Choynimni | |
|---|---|
| Region | California |
| Ethnicity | Choinumni |
| Extinct | 2022 with the death of Jennie Irene Oliver |
Yok-Utian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
Choynimni (also spelled Choinumne) is a dialect of Kings River Yokuts historically spoken along the Kings River between Sanger and Mill Creek (near Piedra). The language is the best documented dialect of Kings River Yokuts. [1]
Information on the language was collected by Clinton Hart Merriam and Stanley Newman. [1]
Jennie Irene Oliver, one of the last fully fluent speaker of Choynimni died in 2022 at the age of 83. Living members of the tribe retain knowledge of Choynimni including an estimated half dozen speakers. [2] [3]
Efforts to revitalize the language have been organized through the California State University, Fresno Department of Linguistics. [4]
Yokuts, formerly known as Mariposa, is an endangered language spoken in the interior of Northern and Central California in and around the San Joaquin Valley by the Yokuts people. The speakers of Yokuts were severely affected by disease, missionaries, and the Gold Rush. While descendants of Yokuts speakers currently number in the thousands, all constituent dialects except for Valley Yokuts are now extinct.
The Mono are a Native American people who traditionally live in the central Sierra Nevada, the Eastern Sierra, the Mono Basin, and adjacent areas of the Great Basin. They are often grouped under the historical label "Paiute" together with the Northern Paiute and Southern Paiute – but these three groups, although related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, do not form a single, unique, unified group of Great Basin tribes.
Valley Yokuts is a dialect cluster of the Yokutsan language family of California.
The Kawaiisu are a Native Californian ethnic group in the United States who live in the Tehachapi Valley and to the north across the Tehachapi Pass in the southern Sierra Nevada, toward Lake Isabella and Walker Pass. Historically, the Kawaiisu also traveled eastward on food-gathering trips to areas in the northern Mojave Desert, to the north and northeast of the Antelope Valley, Searles Valley, as far east as the Panamint Valley, the Panamint Mountains, and the western edge of Death Valley. Today, some Kawaiisu people are enrolled in the Tule River Indian Tribe.
Yok-Utian is a proposed language family of California. It consists of the Yokuts language and the Utian language family.
The Tübatulabal are an indigenous people of Kern River Valley in the Sierra Nevada range of California. They may have been the first people to make this area their permanent home. Today many of them are enrolled in the Tule River Indian Tribe. They are descendants of the people of the Uto-Aztecan language group, separating from Shoshone people about 3000 years ago.
Klamath, also Klamath–Modoc and historically Lutuamian, is a Native American language spoken around Klamath Lake in what is now southern Oregon and northern California. It is the traditional language of the Klamath and Modoc peoples, each of whom spoke a dialect of the language. By 1998, only one native speaker remained, and by 2003, this last fluent Klamath speaker who was living in Chiloquin, Oregon, was 92 years old. As of 2006 there were no fluent native speakers of either the Klamath or Modoc dialects; however, as of 2019, revitalization efforts are underway with the goal of creating new speakers.
Tamcan or Tammukan was a local tribe of Delta Yokuts-speaking natives in the U.S. that once lived on the lower reaches of California's San Joaquin River in what is now eastern Contra Costa County and western San Joaquin County, California. The Tamcans were absorbed into the system of the Spanish missions in California in the early nineteenth century; they moved to Mission San José, near the shore of San Francisco Bay, between 1806 and 1811. At the mission, they and their descendants intermarried with speakers of the San Francisco Bay Ohlone, Plains Miwok, and Patwin Indian languages. Mission Indian survivors of these mixed groups gathered at Alisal, near Pleasanton in Contra Costa County, in the late nineteenth century.
Barbareño is one of the Chumashan languages, a group of Native American languages spoken almost exclusively in the area of Santa Barbara, California. The closely-related Ineseño may have been a dialect of the same language. A dialect of the Barbareño language was also "spoken at San Emigdio near Buena Vista Lake" in the southern Central Valley. This dialect, called Emigdiano, "was heavily influenced by Buena Vista Yokuts." Barbareño lost its last known native speaker in 1965 with the death of Mary Yee. Both Barbareño and Ineseño are currently undergoing processes of language revitalization.
Buena Vista was a Yokuts dialect of California.
Palewyami, also known as Altinin and Poso Creek Yokuts, was a Yokuts dialect of California.
Kings River was a Yokutsan language of California.
Southern Valley Yokuts is a dialect network within the Valley Yokuts division of the Yokutsan languages spoken in the Central Valley of California.
Chukchansi (Chuk'chansi) is a dialect of Foothill and Valley Yokuts spoken in and around the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians, in the San Joaquin Valley of California, by the Chukchansi band of Yokuts. As of 2011, there were eight native speakers.
Wukchumni or Wikchamni was a dialect of Tule-Kaweah Yokuts that was historically spoken by the Wukchumni people of the east fork of the Kaweah River of California.
Yawdanchi was a dialect of Tule-Kaweah Yokuts that was historically spoken by the Yawdanchi Yokuts people living along the Tule River in the Tulare Lake Basin of California. The Yawdanchi dialect is closely related to the †Wiikchamni dialect.
Northern Valley Yokuts is a dialect network within the Valley Yokuts division of the Yokutsan languages spoken in the Central Valley of California. Among the languages belonging to the network are Chawchila, Nopṭinṭe, Kechayi, Dumna, Dalinchi, Toltichi, and Chukchansi. Of these, Kechayi, Dumna, Dalinchi, Toltichi, and Chukchansi are frequently grouped under the label Northern Hill dialects.
Yawelmani Yokuts is an endangered dialect of Southern Valley Yokuts historically spoken by the Yokuts living along the Kern River north of Kern Lake in the Central Valley of California. Today, most Yawelmani speakers live on or near the Tule River Reservation.
Delta Yokuts also termed Far Northern Valley Yokuts is an extinct dialect network of Valley Yokuts, an indigenous Yokutsan language of California. Delta Yokuts dialects were spoken from directly northeast of modern Stockton to the confluence of the Merced and San Joaquin rivers near modern Hills Ferry.
Yoimut or Yo'yomat was a Yokuts woman who was the last speaker of the Chunut language of central California. Josie Alonzo has also been recorded as the last "full-blooded" Chunut. She was a noted polyglot, speaking 8 different Yokutsan languages along with English and Spanish. She was among the last indigenous inhabitants of Tulare Lake, before being forcibly removed by Anglo-American settlers. She was an informant to anthropologists Frank F. Latta and A. H. Gayton.