Okwanuchu is an extinct Shastan language formerly spoken in northern California. 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]
Okwanuchu | |
---|---|
Native to | United States |
Region | northern California |
Ethnicity | Okwanuchu |
Era | last attested 1930s |
Hokan ?
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | None (mis ) |
Glottolog | okwa1235 |
References
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edit- Mithun, Marianne (1999), The Languages of Native North America, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
External links
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