The Ohlone languages, also known as Costanoan, form a small Indigenous language family historically spoken in Northern California, both in the southern San Francisco Bay Area and northern Monterey Bay area, by the Ohlone people. Along with the Miwok languages, they are members of the Utian languages. The most recent work suggests that Ohlone, Miwok, and Yokuts languages are branches of a Yok-Utian language family.[Utian and Penutian classification: (citing Kroeber), , . Yok-Utian as a taxonomic category: , ; ]
Languages
Ohlone comprises eight attested varieties:
Awaswas language,
Chalon language, Chochenyo (also spelt as Chocheño),
Karkin language,
Mutsun language, Ramaytush,
Rumsen language, and
Tamyen language. Overall, divergence among these languages seems to have been roughly comparable to that among the languages of the Romance sub-family of Indo-European languages. Neighboring groups seem to have been able to understand and speak to each other.
[Names of dialects or languages: ; ; . For the assertion they are dialects of one language, refer to (an ethnohistorian, not a linguist), who cited missionary-linguist Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta to that effect. (a linguist) asserted they were distinct languages, but he contradicted himself on the same page. Callaghan (1997, 2001), a linguist who steeped herself in the primary documents, offered evidence that the languages were separate, with only Ramaytush, Tamyen, and Chochenyo possibly being dialects of a single language. followed Callaghan, referring to separate languages rather than dialects.]
The number and geographic distribution of Ohlone language divisions partially mirrors the distribution of Franciscan missions in their original lands. While the known languages are, in most cases, quite distinct, intermediate dialects may have been lost as local groups gathered at the missions. A newly discovered text from Mission Santa Clara provides evidence that Chochenyo of the East Bay area and Tamyen of the Santa Clara Valley were closely related dialects of a single San Francisco Bay Ohlone language.[, an ethnohistorian, introduced the term Muwekma for a hypothetical northern division of the Costanoan language family, with an Ohlone subdivision (San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Jose dialects) and a Huchiun–Karkin division. , , and , all linguists, consider the Santa Cruz and Karkin dialects completely distinct from any of the other dialects grouped by Forbes.]
The last native speakers of Ohlone languages died by the 1950s. However, Chochenyo, Mutsun, and Rumsen are now in a state of revival (relearned from saved records).[for extinction classification, ( krb, cst, css); For revitalization claims see external links section, revitalization articles.]
The classification below is based primarily on Callaghan (2001). Other classifications list Northern Costanoan, Southern Costanoan, and Karkin as single languages, with the following subgroups of each considered as dialects:
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Ohlone
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Karkin language (also known as Carquin)]]
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Northern Costanoan
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San Francisco Bay Costanoan
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Tamyen language (also known as Tamien, Santa Clara Costanoan)
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Chochenyo (also known as Chocheño, Chocheno, East Bay Costanoan)
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Ramaytush (also known as San Francisco Costanoan)
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Awaswas language (also known as Santa Cruz Costanoan) – There may have been more than one Costanoan language spoken within the proposed Awaswas area, as the small amount of linguistic material attributed to Mission Santa Cruz Costanoans is highly variable.
-
Chalon language (also known as Cholon, Soledad) – Chalon may be a transitional language between Northern and Southern Costanoan.
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Southern Costanoan
More recently, Callaghan (2014) groups Awaswas language together with Mutsun language as part of a South Central Costanoan subgroup with the Southern Costanoan branch.
Dialect or language debate
Regarding the eight Ohlone branches, sources differ on if they were eight language
, or eight separate
.
[For the names of the languages, see ; ; and . The latter two both cite as their source.] Richard Levy, himself a linguist, contradicted himself on this point: First he said "Costanoans themselves were a set of small who spoke a common language ... distinguished from one another by slight differences in dialect"; however, after saying that, he concluded: "The eight branches of the Costanoan family were separate languages (not dialects) as different from one another as Spanish is from French". Randall Milliken stated in 1995 that there were eight dialects, citing missionary-linguist Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta to the effect that the idioms seemed distinct as one traveled from mission to mission, but actually formed a dialect chain from one neighboring local tribe to another. Catherine Callaghan (1997, 2001), a linguist who steeped herself in the primary documents, offered evidence that the Costanoan languages were distinct, with only Ramaytush, Tamyen, and Chochenyo possibly being dialects of a single language. Milliken (2008), himself an ethnohistorian and not a linguist, shifted his position in 2008 to follow Callaghan, referring to separate Costanoan languages rather than dialects. Golla (2011) states that all Costanoan languages in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay, with the exception of Karkin, were mutually intelligible.
Native placenames
The Ohlone native people belonged to one or more tribes, bands or villages, and to one or more of the eight linguistic group regions (as assigned by
). Native names listed in the mission records were, in some cases, clearly principal village names, in others the name assigned to the region of a "multifamily landholding group" (per Milliken). Although many native names have been written in historical records, the exact spelling and pronunciations were not entirely standardized in modern English. Ethnohistorians have resorted to approximating their indigenous regional boundaries as well. (The word that Kroeber coined to designate California tribes, bands and villages, , has been published in many records but is advisably offensive and incorrect, per the Ohlone people.)
[Milliken 1995:13n and Appendix I; Term "tribelet" not accepted by many Native American scholars and others, per , article by Leventhal et al.]
Many of the known tribal and village names were recorded in the California mission records of baptism, marriage, and death. Some names have come from Spanish and Mexican settlers, some from early Anglo-European travelers, and some from the memories of Native American informants. Speakers were natives still alive who could remember their group's native language and details.[Village Names: , attributes a good village name list to Merriam's assistant. "Informant" interviews were made as early as 1890, and as late as the 1940s. Mainly from Bancroft (earliest), Kroeber and Merriam (published 1970s posthumously via R. F. Heizer and others).]
Some of the former tribe and village names were gleaned from the land maps ("") submitted by grantees in applying for Spanish and Mexican land grants or designs ("") that were drawn up in Alta California prior to the Mexican–American War.[For example of a Diseño de terreno, see Diseño de terreno de la Misión Dolores, 1854, from the Bancroft Library.] In this regard, large amounts of untranslated material is available for research in the records of Clinton H. Merriam housed at the Bancroft Library, and more material continues to be published by local historical societies and associations.
Spelling and pronunciation
Many of the original sounds were first heard and copied down by Spanish missionaries using Spanish as a reference language, subject to human error, later translated into English and Anglicized over time. Spelling errors crept in as different missionaries kept separate records over a long period of time, under various administrators. Ethnohistorians Kroeber, Merriam, and others interviewed Ohlone speakers and were able to define some pronunciations on word lists. Ethnolinguists have used this to some advantage to create phonetic tables giving some semblance of languages, notably the
Selected Costanoan Words by Merriam.
[Discussion of spelling, translation and mission record variances, . Phonetic tables: ]
Native words
A partial table of words comes from
Indian Names for Plants and Animals Among California and other Western North American Tribes by Clinton Merriam. This published list covers 400 Ohlone words from interviews of native speakers. The Ohlone words listed are by "phonetic English" pronunciations.
[Phonetic tables, Merriam, 1979. See also "C. Hart Merriam" biography and endorsement, ]
| + Selected Costanoan Words by Merriam |
|
| 247 |
| 254 |
| 280 |
| 296 |
| 409 |
Legend:
-
Schedule # – record number of one more interviews, with one or more persons.
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Word # – Merriam numbers his words for easy reference.
|
Bibliography
External links
Language:
