View source for Yokuts language

{{Short description|Endangered language of California, US}}
{{distinguish|text=the [[Yakut language]]}}

{{Infobox language
| name             = Yokuts
| altname          = Mariposa
| region           = [[San Joaquin Valley]], [[California]]
| ethnicity        = [[Yokuts]]
| speakers         = 50 (including semispeakers)
| date             = 2007
| ref              = e25
| familycolor      = penutian
| fam1             = [[Yok-Utian languages|Yok-Utian]]?
| dia1             = [[Palewyami Yokuts|Palewyami]] {{extinct}}
| dia2             = [[Buena Vista Yokuts|Buena Vista]] {{extinct}}
| dia3             = [[Tule-Kaweah Yokuts|Tule–Kaweah]] {{extinct}}
| dia4             = [[Gashowu Yokuts|Gashowu]] {{extinct}}
| dia5             = [[Kings River Yokuts|Kings River]] {{extinct}}
| dia6             = [[Valley Yokuts|Valley]]
| iso3             = yok
| glotto           = yoku1255
| glottorefname    = Yokutsan
| map              = Yokutsan langs.png
| mapcaption       = Pre-contact distribution of the Yokuts language
| states           = [[United States]]
}}

'''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, [[missionary|missionaries]], and the [[Gold Rush]]. While descendants of Yokuts speakers currently number in the thousands, all constituent dialects apart from Valley Yokuts are now [[Extinct language|extinct]].

[[File:Yokuts detailed map.svg|thumb|Map of Yokuts with dialects indicated]]

The [[Yawelmani dialect]] of [[Valley Yokuts]] has been a focus of much [[Linguistics|linguistic]] research.

==Dialect ==

The Yokuts language consists of half a dozen primary dialects. An estimated forty linguistically distinct groups existed before Euro-American contact.

[[File:Yokutsan lang tree.png|thumb|Yokutsan family tree{{sfn|Whistler|Golla|1986}}]]

{{tree list}}
* '''Yokuts'''{{sfn|Whistler|Golla|1986}}
** {{extinct}} '''Poso Creek'''
*** {{extinct}} [[Palewyami Yokuts]] ({{aka}} Poso Creek, Altinin)
** '''General Yokuts''' (all others)
*** {{extinct}} '''[[Buena Vista Yokuts|Buena Vista]]'''
**** {{extinct}} [[Tulamni]]
**** {{extinct}} [[Hometwoli dialect|Hometwali]]
*** '''Nim'''
**** {{extinct}} [[Tule-Kaweah Yokuts|Tule–Kaweah]]
***** {{extinct}} [[Wukchumni dialect|Wukchumni]]
***** {{extinct}} [[Yawdanchi dialect|Yawdanchi]] ({{aka}} Nutaa)
***** {{extinct}} Bokninuwad
**** Northern Yokuts
***** {{extinct}} [[Gashowu Yokuts|Gashowu]]
***** {{extinct}} [[Kings River Yokuts|Kings River]]
****** {{extinct}} Chukaymina (also spelled Chukaimina)
****** {{extinct}} Michahay
****** {{extinct}} Ayitcha ({{aka}} Aiticha, Kocheyali)
****** {{extinct}} [[Choynimni dialect|Choynimni]] (also spelled Choinimni)
***** [[Valley Yokuts]] (sole living dialect)
{{tree list/end}}

''Glottolog'' concludes that these dialects fall into four distinct languages: [[Palewyami Yokuts]], [[Buena Vista Yokuts]], [[Northern Yokuts]], [[Tule-Kaweah Yokuts]].<ref name=e25/>

== Speakers and language revitalization ==
Almost all Yokuts dialects are extinct, as noted above. Those that are still spoken are endangered.

Until recent years, [[Choinimni]], [[Wikchamni]], [[Chukchansi dialect|Chukchansi]], [[Kechayi]], [[Tachi Yokuts|Tachi]] and [[Yawelmani]] all had a few fluent speakers and a variable number of partial speakers. Choynimni went extinct in 2017. Wikchamni, Chukchansi, Tachi, and Yawelmani were being taught to at least a few children during the first decade of the twenty-first century.

Chukchansi is now a written language, with its own alphabet developed on a federal grant. Chukchansi also has a phrase book and dictionary that are partially completed. In May 2012, the Linguistics Department of [[California State University, Fresno|Fresno State University]] received a $1 million grant to compile a Chukchansi dictionary and grammar texts,<ref>{{Cite episode
| publisher = abc30.com
| title = Chukchansi language to be preserved with grant
| access-date = 2012-09-01
| minutes = 2:14
| url = http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/video?id=8650667
| series = KFSN News
| archive-date = 2014-04-13
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140413131457/http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/video?id=8650667
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> and to "provide support for scholarships, programs, and efforts to assemble native texts and create a curriculum for teaching the language so it can be brought back into social and ritual use."<ref>{{Cite news
| title = Fresno State Receives $1 Million to Preserve, Revitalize Chukchansi Language
| work = Foundation Center Philanthropy News Digest
| access-date = 2012-09-01
| date = 2012-05-13
| url = http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=379200012
}}</ref>

==Genetic relations==

Yokuts is a key member in the proposed [[Penutian]] language stock. Some linguists consider most relationships within Penutian to be undemonstrated (cf. Campbell 1997{{sfn|Campbell|1997}}). Others consider a genetic relationship between Yokuts, Utian, Maiduan, Wintuan, and a number of Oregon languages to be definite (cf. DeLancey and Golla 1997{{sfn|DeLancey|Golla|1997}}). Regardless of higher-order disagreement, Callaghan (1997) provides strong evidence uniting Yokuts and the [[Utian languages]] as branches of a ''[[Yok-Utian]]'' language family.{{sfn|Callaghan|1997}}

The term "Delta Yokuts" has recently been introduced in lieu of the longer "Far Northern Valley Yokuts" for the dialect spoken by the people in the present Stockton and Modesto vicinities of San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, California, prior to their removal to Mission San Jose between 1810 and 1827. Of interest, Delta Yokuts contains a large number of words with no cognates in any of the other dialects, or for that matter in the adjacent Utian languages, although its syntax is typically Northern Valley Yokuts.{{sfn|Kroeber|1959|p=15-17}} This anomaly has led Whistler (cited by Golla 2007{{sfn|Golla|2007|p=76}}) to suggest, "The vocabulary distinctive of some of the Delta Yokuts dialects may reflect substratal influence from pre-proto-Yokuts or from an extinct Yok-Utian language." Golla{{sfn|Golla|2007|p=77}} suggests that a "pre-proto-Yokuts" homeland was in the Great Basin, citing a rich plant and animal vocabulary for a dry environment and a close connection between Yokuts basketry styles and those of prehistoric central Nevada.

==Proto-languages  ==<!---[[Proto-Yokuts]] redirects here--->
{{Infobox proto-language
| name             = Proto-Yokuts
| familycolor      = American
| ancestor         =
| target          = Yokuts languages
}}

Proto-Yokuts reconstructions from Whistler and Golla (1986):{{sfn|Whistler|Golla|1986}}

:{| class="wikitable sortable"
! gloss !! Proto-Yokuts
|-
| acorn || *pʰutʰuʂ
|-
| beaver || *t’ɨːpɨkʰ ~ *ʈ’ɨːpɨkʰ
|-
| blood || *hɨːpa-ʔ
|-
| bone || *c’iy
|-
| child || *witʰip
|-
| child (diminutive) || *wicʰip
|-
| coyote || *kʰay’iw
|-
| eight || *mun’us
|-
| eye || *sasa-ʔ
|-
| fingernail || *xiːsix
|-
| fire || *ʔoʂitʰ
|-
| fish || *lopʰiʈʰ
|-
| flea || *p’aːk’il
|-
| friend || *noːcʰi
|-
| head louse || *tʰihiʈʰ
|-
| heart || *ʔuʂik’
|-
| horn || *ɨʂɨl’
|-
| mountain || *lomitʰ
|-
| mouth || *sama-ʔ
|-
| north || *xosim
|-
| nose || *ʈʰɨŋɨk’
|-
| shaman || *ʔaŋʈʰiw
|-
| skunk || *cʰox
|-
| sky || *ʈʰipʰin
|-
| star || *c’ayatas
|-
| string || *c’ikiy
|-
| tears || *maŋal
|-
| three || *ʂoːpʰin
|-
| two || *poŋiy
|-
| water || *ʔilik’
|}

==See also==
* [[Yokuts people]]

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
*{{Cite JIPA|author=Adisasmito-Smith, Niken and Guekguezian, Peter and Wyatt, Holly|title=Chukchansi Yokuts|pages=1&ndash;30|doi=10.1017/S0025100321000268|onlinedate=2022-01-17|soundfiles=yes}}
{{refend}}

==References==
{{more footnotes|date=May 2022}}
{{reflist|20em}}
{{ref begin}}
* {{Cite journal
 |first = Catherine |last = Callaghan
 |year = 1997
 |title = Evidence for Yok-Utian
 |journal = International Journal of American Linguistics
 |volume = 63
 |pages = 121–133
 |doi = 10.1086/466313
 |s2cid = 144374174
}}
* {{Cite journal
 |first = Catherine |last = Callaghan
 |year = 2001
 |title = More Evidence for Yok-Utian: A Reanalysis of the Dixon and Kroeber Sets
 |journal = International Journal of American Linguistics
 |volume = 67
 |issue = 3
 |pages = 313–345
 |s2cid = 145406834
 |doi = 10.1086/466461
}}
* {{cite book
 |first=Lyle |last=Campbell
 |date=1997
 |title=American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America
 |location=New York
 |publisher=Oxford University Press
}}
* {{Cite journal
 |first1 = Scott |last1 = DeLancey
 |first2 = Victor |last2 = Golla |author2-link=Victor Golla
 |year = 1997
 |title = The Penutian Hypothesis: Retrospect and Prospect
 |journal = International Journal of American Linguistics
 |volume = 63
 |pages = 171–202
 |s2cid = 143844592
 |doi = 10.1086/466318
}}
* {{Cite journal
 |first = Geoffery |last = Gamble
 |year = 1988
 |title = Reconstructed Yokuts Pronouns
 |journal = Diachronica
 |volume = 5
 |issue = 1–2
 |pages = 59–71
 |doi = 10.1075/dia.5.1-2.04gam
}}
* {{cite journal
 |first = Victor |last = Golla |author-link=Victor Golla
 |date=1964
 |title=Comparative Yokuts Phonology
 |journal=Studies in Californian Linguistics
 |editor-first=William |editor-last=Bright
 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley
}}
* {{cite journal
 |first = Victor |last = Golla |author-link=Victor Golla
 |date=2007
 |title=Linguistic Prehistory
 |pages=71–82
 |journal=California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity
 |editor1-first=Terry L. |editor1-last=Jones
 |editor2-first=Kathryn A. |editor2-last=Klar
 |publisher=Altamira Press |location=New York
 |isbn=978-0-7591-0872-1
}}
* {{cite book
 |first = Victor |last = Golla |author-link=Victor Golla
 |date = 2011
 |title = California Indian Languages
 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley
 |isbn = 978-0-520-26667-4
 |jstor=10.1525/j.ctt1ppmrt
}}
* {{Cite journal
 |first = Charles |last = Hockett
 |year = 1973
 |title = Yokuts As a Testing Ground for Linguistic Methods
 |journal = International Journal of American Linguistics
 |volume = 39
 |issue = 2
 |pages = 63–79
 |s2cid = 143585441
 |doi = 10.1086/465244
}}
* {{cite journal
 |first=A. L. |last=Kroeber
 |date=1959
 |title=Northern Yokuts
 |journal=Anthropological Linguistics
 |volume=1 |issue=8 |pages=1-19
 |jstor=30022216
}}
* {{cite journal
 |first=A. L. |last=Kroeber
 |date=1963
 |title=Yokuts Dialect Survey
 |journal=University of California Anthropological Records
 |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=177-251
 |url=https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar011-004.pdf
}}
* {{cite book
 |first=Marianne |last=Mithun |author-link=Marianne Mithun
 |year=1999
 |title=The Languages of Native North America
 |publisher=Cambridge University Press
 |location=Cambridge
 |isbn=0-521-23228-7
}}
* {{cite book
 |first = Stanley S. |last = Newman
 |date = 1944
 |title = Yokuts Language of California
 |lccn = 44004245
 |url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001003150
}}
* {{cite journal
 |first = Stanley S. |last = Newman
 |date = 1946
 |title = The Yawelmani Dialect of Yokuts
 |journal = Linguistic Structures of Native America
 |pages = 222–248
 |editor-first = Cornelius |editor-last = Osgood
 |series = Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology
 |number = 6
 |location = New York
 |url = https://theswissbay.ch/pdf/Books/Linguistics/Mega%20linguistics%20pack/North%20American/Penutian/Yokuts%2C%20The%20Yawelmani%20Dialect%20of%20%28Newman%29.pdf
}}
* {{cite journal
 |first=John Wesley |last=Powell
 |date=1891
 |title=Indian Linguistic Families of America, North of Mexico
 |journal=Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886
 |publisher=Government Printing Office |location=Washington
 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17286/pg17286-images.html
}}
* {{Cite journal
 |first1 = Kenneth |last1 = Whistler
 |first2 = Victor |last2 = Golla |author2-link=Victor Golla
 |year = 1986
 |title = Proto-Yokuts Reconsidered
 |journal = International Journal of American Linguistics
 |volume = 52
 |issue = 4
 |pages = 317–358
 |s2cid = 144822697
 |doi = 10.1086/466028
}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{sister project |project=wiktionary |text=[[Wiktionary]] has a list of reconstructed forms at '''''[[wikt:Appendix:Proto-Yokuts reconstructions|Appendix:Proto-Yokuts reconstructions]]'''''}}
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20020128111838/http://www.fourdir.com/yokuts.htm Yokuts]}}
* [http://www.languagegeek.com/california/yokuts.html Yokuts languages fonts], Languagegeek.com
* [http://www.language-museum.com/encyclopedia/y/yokuts-northern-foothill.php Yokuts (Northern Foothill): Lord's prayer]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051023061842/http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~ehume/metathesis/Chawchila.html Chawchila metathesis]
* [http://www.californiaprehistory.com/tribmap.html Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430112732/http://www.californiaprehistory.com/tribmap.html |date=2011-04-30 }} (map after Kroeber)
* [http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/languages/yokuts.php Yokuts languages language] overview at the [[Survey of California and Other Indian Languages]]
* {{Cite web
| title = OLAC resources in and about the Yokuts language
| access-date = 2012-07-30
| url = http://www.language-archives.org/language/yok
}}
* {{Cite web
| title = General Yokuts – California Language Archive
| access-date = 2012-07-30
| url = http://cla.berkeley.edu/language/717?tab=items&drestriction=none
}}
{{Yokuts navbox}}
{{Penutian languages}}
{{Language families}}
{{Languages of California}}
{{North American languages}}

[[Category:Yokutsan languages| ]]
[[Category:Language families]]
[[Category:Endangered Yokutsan languages]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of California]]
[[Category:Yok-Utian languages]]