The language of the Yurok or Weizpekan ( Yurok , Weitspekan ) is the endangered language of the Algian family . Traditionally distributed in the Yurok tribe in Humboldt County, California . As of 2000, the number of carriers was no more than 100 people, of which only 10 were poorly fluent in English.
| Yurok | |
|---|---|
| Self name | Yurok |
| Countries | USA |
| Regions | northern california |
| Official status | no |
| Regulatory organization | no |
| Total number of speakers | 279 (for 2000), 12 (for 2002) |
| Status | |
| Classification | |
| Category | Languages of North America |
Algian family (more detailed classification is unclear) | |
| Language Codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | - |
| ISO 639-2 | nai |
| ISO 639-3 | yur |
| WALS | |
| Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
| Ethnologue | |
| ELCat | |
| IETF | |
| Glottolog | |
The standard grammar of the Yurok language was composed by Robins (Robins, 1958).
Content
Title
Regarding the origin of the words “Huroc” and “Weizpecan”, Campbell writes the following (Campbell, 1997):
| The name of the Yurok tribe comes from the word yúruk in the Karuk language, which literally means "down the river." The Yurok tribe itself traditionally calls itself Puliklah (Hinton 1994: 157), from pulik "downstream" + -la "people ...", which is similar in meaning to the term by which the Karuk tribe calls them, and by which they became known in English (Victor Golla, personal communication). " (Campbell 1997: 401, notes # 131 & 132) |
| ... Villot (formerly referred to as vishok) lived in the Humboldt Bay area, in the area of mahogany growth; the last native speaker died in 1962 (Teeter 1964b). Many scholars have noted that although the Viyot and Yurok languages are adjacent in California, their kinship with each other is no closer than with other Algonkin languages ... " (Campbell 1997: 152) . |
Phonology
Vowels
| Front row | Middle row | Back row | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top lift | i iː | u uː | |
| Medium rise | e | ɚ ɚː | o oː |
| Lower rise | a aː |
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Postalveolar or palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | |||||||
| Stop or affricate | Plain | p | t | tʃ | k | kʷ | ʔ | |
| Glottalized | pʼ | tʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | kʼʷ | |||
| Fricative | Central | ʂ | ʃ | x | h | |||
| Lateral | ɬ | |||||||
| Nasal | Plain | m | n | |||||
| Glottalized | ʼM | ʼN | ||||||
| Approximant | Plain | l | ɻ | j | ɰ | w | ||
| Glottalized | ʼL | ʼɻ | ʼJ | ʼɰ | ʼW | |||
Glottalized closures / ʼl ʼɻ ʼj ʼɰ ʼw / can be realized as the pronunciation of a previous consonant or guttural bow with a squeaky voice. Often they are pronounced as deaf consonants if they are at the end of a word.
Notes
Literature
- Blevins, Juliette. The phonology of Yurok glottalized sonorants: Segmental fission under syllabification (English) // International Journal of American Linguistics : journal. - 2003 .-- October ( vol. 69 , no. 4 ). - P. 371-396 . - DOI : 10.1086 / 382738 .
- Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America . New York: Oxford University Press.
- Dixon, Roland; & Kroeber, Alfred L. (1913). New linguistic families in California. American Anthropologist , 5 , 1-26.
- Goddard, Ives. (1975). Algonquian, Wiyot, and Yurok: Proving a distant genetic relationship. In MD Kinkade, KL Hale, & O. Werner (Eds.), Linguistics and anthropology in honor of CF Voegelin (pp. 249–262). Lisse: Peter de Ridder Press.
- Goddard, Ives . (1979). Comparative Algonquian. In L. Campbell & M. Mithun (Eds.), The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment (pp. 70–132). Austin: University of Texas Press.
- Goddard, Ives. (1990). Algonquian linguistic change and reconstruction. In P. Baldi (Ed.), Linguistic change and reconstruction methodology (pp. 99–114). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Haas, Mary R. (1958). Algonkian-Ritwan: The end of a controversy. International Journal of American Linguistics , 24 , 159-173.
- Hinton, Leanne (1994). Flutes of fire: Essays on Californian Indian languages . Berkeley: Heyday Books.
- Michelson, Truman. 1914. Two alleged Algonquian languages of California. American Anthropologist , 16 , 361-367.
- Michelson, Truman. 1915. Rejoinder (to Edward Sapir). American Anthropologist , 17 , 4-8.
- Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X .
- Robins, Robert H. 1958. The Yurok Language: Grammar, Texts, Lexicon . University of California Publications in Linguistics 15.
- Sapir, Edward. 1913. Wiyot and Yurok, Algonkin languages of California. American Anthropologist , 15 , 617–646.
- Sapir, Edward. (1915) a. Algonkin languages of California: A reply. American Anthropologist , 17 , 188-194.
- Sapir, Edward. (1915) b. Epilogue American Anthropologist , 17 , 198.
Links
- Yurok Language Project at University of California, Berkeley