View source for Alsea language

{{short description|Extinct Native American language formerly spoken in Oregon}}
{{Expand language|topic=|langcode=fr|otherarticle=Alsea|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Alsea
| altname          = Alsea–Yaquina, Yakonan, Alséya
| pronunciation    = 
| region           = [[Oregon]]
| familycolor      = penutian
| extinct          = 1951, with the death of John Albert
|ref=<ref>{{Citation |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |title=North American Indian Languages North of Mexico |date=2024-06-25 |work=The Indigenous Languages of the Americas |pages=28–145 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/57386/chapter/464713514 |access-date=2025-04-27 |edition=1 |publisher=Oxford University PressNew York |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197673461.003.0002 |isbn=978-0-19-767346-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
| ethnicity        = [[Alsea people]], [[Yaquina people]]
| fam1             = [[Coast Oregon Penutian languages|Coast Oregon Penutian]]?
| iso3             = aes
| linglist         = aes
| glotto           = alse1251
| glottorefname    = Alsea-Yaquina
| dia1             = Alsea
| dia2             = Yaquina
| map              = Alsean languages map.png
| mapcaption       = Pre-contact distribution of Alsean
| notice           = IPA
| states           = [[United States]]
}}

'''Alsea''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|l|s|iː}} or '''Alsean''' (also '''Yakonan''') and '''Yaquina''' were two closely related speech varieties spoken along the central [[Oregon]] coast until the early 1950s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Buckley |first1=Eugene |title=The Structure of the Alsea Verb Root: Papers from the 1989 Hokan-Penutian Workshop. Ed. Scott DeLancey |journal=University of Oregon Papers in Linguistics |date=1989 |volume=2 |issue=17}}</ref> They are sometimes taken to be different languages, but it is difficult to be sure given the poor state of attestation; Mithun believes they were probably dialects of a single language.<ref name="Mithun1999">[[Marianne Mithun|Mithun, Marianne]]. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-23228-7}} (hbk); {{ISBN|0-521-29875-X}}</ref> They are commonly held to be components of a language isolate.<ref>{{Citation |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |title=North American Indian Languages North of Mexico |date=2024-06-25 |work=The Indigenous Languages of the Americas |pages=28–145 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/57386/chapter/464713514 |access-date=2025-04-27 |edition=1 |publisher=Oxford University PressNew York |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197673461.003.0002 |isbn=978-0-19-767346-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Classification==
Alsea is usually considered to belong to the [[Penutian]] phylum, and may form part of a [[Coast Oregon Penutian languages|Coast Oregon Penutian]] subgroup together with [[Siuslaw language|Siuslaw]] and the [[Coosan languages]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Grant |first=Anthony P. |date=1997 |title=Coast Oregon Penutian: Problems and Possibilities |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=144–156 |doi=10.1086/466316 |jstor=1265867|s2cid=143822361 }}</ref> Numerous lexical resemblances between Alsea and the Northern [[Wintuan]] languages, however, are more likely the result of borrowing about 1,500 years ago when the (Northern) Wintuan speech community appears to have been located in Oregon. Alsea is also considered to be a [[language isolate]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Golla |first=Victor |author-link=Victor Golla |date=1997 |title=The Alsea-Wintuan Connection |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=157–170 |doi=10.1086/466317 |jstor=1265868|s2cid=144293507 }}</ref>

== Varieties ==
{{tree list}}
* '''Alsea'''
** '''Alsea''' (Alséya) {{extinct}}
** '''Yaquina''' (Yakwina, Yakona) {{extinct}}
{{tree list/end}}

Both are now [[Extinct language|extinct]].

The name ''Alsea'' derives from the [[Coos language|Coosan]] name for them, ''alsí'' or ''alsí·'', and the Marys River Kalapuyan name for them, ''alsí·ya''. Alsea was last recorded in 1942 from the last speaker, John Albert, by [[J. P. Harrington]]. Albert died in 1951.

The name ''Yaquina'' derives from the Alsean name for the Yaquina Bay and the Yaquina River region, ''yuqú·na''. Yaquina was last recorded in 1884 by [[James Owen Dorsey]].

==Phonology==

===Consonants===

Alsea had 34 [[consonant]]s:<ref name="Mithun1999"/>

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
|-
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" | [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Alveolo-palatal consonant|(Alveolo-)]]<br>[[Palatal consonant|palatal]]
! colspan="2" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! colspan="2" | [[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
! colspan="2" | [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
!<small>plain</small> || [[Lateral consonant|<small>lateral</small>]]
!<small>plain</small> || [[Labialization|<small>labialized</small>]]
!<small>plain</small> || [[Labialization|<small>labialized</small>]]
!<small>plain</small> || [[Labialization|<small>labialized</small>]]
|-	
! rowspan="2" | [[Plosive]]/<br>[[Affricate]]
! <small>plain</small>
| {{IPAlink|p}}
| {{IPAlink|t}}
|
| {{IPAlink|tɕ}}
| {{IPAlink|k}}
| {{IPAlink|kʷ}}
| {{IPAlink|q}}
| {{IPAlink|qʷ}}
| {{IPAlink|ʔ}}
|
|-
! [[Ejective consonant|<small>ejective</small>]]
| {{IPAlink|p’}}
| {{IPAlink|t’}}
| {{IPAlink|tɬ’}}
| {{IPAlink|tɕ’}}
| {{IPAlink|k’}}
| {{IPAlink|kʷ’}}
| {{IPAlink|q’}}
| {{IPAlink|qʷ’}}
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Fricative]]
|
| 
| {{IPAlink|ɬ}}
| {{IPAlink|ɕ}}
| {{IPAlink|x}}
| {{IPAlink|xʷ}}
| {{IPAlink|χ}}
| {{IPAlink|χʷ}}
| {{IPAlink|h}}
| {{IPAlink|hʷ}}{{efn|The status of {{IPA|/hʷ/}} is uncertain.}}
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Sonorant]]
! <small>plain</small>
| {{IPAlink|m}}
| {{IPAlink|n}}
| {{IPAlink|l}}
| {{IPAlink|j}}
|
| {{IPAlink|w}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! [[Glottalic consonant|<small>glottalized</small>]]
| {{IPAlink|m’}}
| {{IPAlink|n’}}
| {{IPAlink|l’}}
| {{IPAlink|j’}}
|
| {{IPAlink|w’}}
|
|
|
|
|}
{{notelist}}

{{IPA|/ɕ/}}, {{IPA|/tɕ/}} and  {{IPA|/tɕ’/}} are spelled as ''s'', ''c'' and ''c̓'' in modern descriptions.<ref name="Mithun1999"/><ref name="Buckley2007"/> Their phonetic value has been described as "palatal",<ref>{{cite book|last1=Frachtenberg|first1=Leo Joachim |title=Alsea texts and myths|url=https://archive.org/details/alseatextsandmy00fracgoog|access-date=13 January 2020|year=1920|location=Washington|publisher=Govt. Printing Office}}</ref> or "between alveolar and palatal".<ref name="Mithun1999"/>

===Vowels===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! 
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[High vowel|High]]
| {{IPAlink|i}}
| {{IPAlink|u}}
|-
! [[Low vowel|Low]]
| colspan="2" | {{IPAlink|a}}
|}

Three vowels are listed as {{IPA|/a, i, u/}}. Long vowel variants of {{IPA|/i, u/}} are {{IPA|[eː, oː]}}. A mid vowel {{IPAslink|ə}} occurs as a [[Epenthesis|phonetically inserted]] vowel sound.<ref name="Buckley2007">{{Cite journal |last=Buckley |first=Eugene |date=2007 |title=Vowel–Sonorant Metathesis in Alsea |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=73 |issue=1 |pages=1–39 |doi=10.1086/518333 |jstor=10.1086/518333|s2cid=143330148 |citeseerx=10.1.1.81.2781 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [http://www.native-languages.org/alsea.htm Alsea Indian Language (Yaquina, Yakona, Alsean, Alse)]
* [[Lyle Campbell|Campbell, Lyle]]. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-509427-1}}.
* [http://www.language-archives.org/language/aes OLAC resources in and about the Alsea language]

{{Penutian languages}}
{{Language families}}
{{Languages of Oregon}}
{{North American languages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alsean Languages}}
[[Category:Language isolates of North America]]
[[Category:Alsean languages| ]]
[[Category:Coast Oregon Penutian languages]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of Oregon]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of North America]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 1940s]]
[[Category:1940s disestablishments in Oregon]]

[[hr:Alsea jezik]]