Karuk language
| Karuk | |
|---|---|
| Region | Northwestern California, USA |
Native speakers | 10 (1997), 335 (2000) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | nai |
| ISO 639-3 | kyh |
| ELP | Karuk |
Karuk or Karok is a moribund language of northwestern California. It was the traditional language of the Karuk people, most of whom now speak English.
William Bright documented the Karuk language and produced a grammar of it in 1957. Revitalization of the language followed. According to Census 2000, there are 55 people between the ages of 5 and 17 who can speak Karuk, including 10 with limited English proficiency.
Classification
Karuk is a language isolate, sharing few if any similarities with other nearby languages. Historically, the great American linguist Edward Sapir proposed it be classified as part of the Hokan family he hypothesized. However, little evidence supports this proposal.[1] As Bright wrote "The Karok language is not closely or obviously related to any other (in the area), but has been classified as a member of the northern group of Hokan languages, in a subgroup which includes Chimariko and the Shasta languages, spoken in the same general part of California as Karok itself."[2]
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i | iː | u | uː | ||
| Mid | eː | oː | ||||
| Open | a | aː | ||||
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Palatal or postalveolar |
Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Stop | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | ʔ | ||
| Fricative | β | f | θ | s | (ʃ) | x | h |
| Flap | ɾ | ||||||
| Approximant | j |
Grammar
Karuk is a polysynthetic language known for its method of arranging old and new information: "...skilled Karuk speakers use separate words to communicate new, salient detail, or to underscore known detail; and they use affixes for background details so that a listener's attention is not diverted." [3]
References
- Drucker, Philip. Cultures of the North Pacific Coast. San Francisco: Chandler, 1965.
- ^ Campbell, Lyle. 2000. American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics. USA: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Bright, William. The Karok Language. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1957.
- ^ Silver, Shirley & Miller, Wick R., "American Indian Languages: Cultural and Social Contexts" (1997, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pg. 41).
External links
- Karuk Language Resources
- Karok Linguistic Lineage
- Efforts Under Way to Preserve Karuk Language
- Karuk Songs
- Karuk language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
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