Mono language (California)

Mono (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell) is a Native American language of the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, the ancestral language of the Mono people. Mono consists of two dialects, Eastern and Western. The name "Monachi" is commonly used in reference to Western Mono and "Owens Valley Paiute" in reference to Eastern Mono. In 1925, Alfred Kroeber estimated that Mono had 3,000 to 4,000 speakers. Template:As of, only 37 elderly people spoke Mono as their first language.Template:Sfn It is classified as critically endangered by UNESCO. It is spoken in the southern Sierra Nevada, the Mono Basin, and the Owens Valley of central-eastern California. Mono is most closely related to Northern Paiute; these two are classified as the Western group of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.Template:Sfn

Western Mono

File:Mono audio- mnr story (UCLAPhoneticsLab).webm

Story in Mono recorded by the UCLA Phonetics Lab in 1984

The number of Native speakers in 1994 ranged from 37 to 41. The majority of speakers are from the Northfork Rancheria and the community of Auberry. The Big Sandy Rancheria and Dunlap have from 12 to 14 speakers.Template:Sfn The Northfork Mono are developing a dictionary, and both they and the Big Sandy Rancheria provide language classes. While not all are completely fluent, about 100 members of Northfork have "some command of the language."Template:Sfn In the late 1950s, Lamb compiled a dictionary and grammar of Northfork Mono.Template:Sfn The Western Mono language has a number of Spanish loanwords dating to the period of Spanish colonization of the Californias,Template:Sfn as well as loanwords from Yokuts and Miwok.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Owens Valley Paiute

In the mid-1990s, an estimated 50 people spoke the Owens Valley Paiute language, also known as Eastern Mono.Template:Sfn Informal language classes exist and singers keep native language songs alive.Template:Sfn Linguist Sydney Lamb studied this language in the 1950s and proposed the name Paviotso, but that was not widely adopted.Template:Sfn

Phonemes

Vowels

	front	central	back
High	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn	Template:IPAlink
Non-High	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink

• Vowel length is also evenly distributed among the dialects.

Consonants

Below is given the consonant phoneme inventory of Northfork Western Mono and Owens Valley Paiute as presented by Lamb (1958) and Liljeblad & Fowler (1986).

Consonants of Western MonoTemplate:Sfn

	Bilabial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
				plain	lab.	plain	lab.
Nasal	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Plosive	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Affricate		Template:IPAlink
Fricative		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink				Template:IPAlink
Semivowel			Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink

Consonants of Eastern MonoTemplate:Sfn

	Bilabial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
				plain	lab.
Nasal	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Plosive	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Affricate		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Fricative		Template:IPAlink				Template:IPAlink
Semivowel			Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink

• Geminated sounds of plosives, nasals and fricatives are also evenly distributed.

Suprasegmental

Lamb (1958) also described four suprasegmental featuresTemplate:Which that he ascribed phonemic status.

Morphology

Mono is an agglutinative language, in which words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.

See also

• Mono traditional narratives

References

Sources

• Template:Cite thesis

Further reading

• Template:Cite thesis

External links

• Mono language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• OLAC resources in and about the Mono language