Alsea or Alsean (also Yakonan) was two closely related speech varieties spoken along the central

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

coast until the early 1950s. 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. Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk);

Varieties

# Alsea (Alséya) ''(†)'' # Yaquina (Yakwina, Yakona) ''(†)'' Both are now extinct. The name ''Alsea'' derives from the 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 John Peabody Harrington (April 29, 1884 – October 21, 1961) was an American Linguistics, linguist and ethnologist and a specialist in the indigenous peoples of California. Harrington is noted for the massive volume of his documentary output, mo ...

. 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 James Owen Dorsey (October 31, 1848 – February 4, 1895) was an American ethnologist, linguist, and Episcopalian missionary in the Dakota Territory, who contributed to the description of the Ponca, Omaha, and other southern Siouan languages. He ...

Linguistic Affiliation

Alsea is usually considered to belong to the

Penutian Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The existence of a Penutian s ...

phylum, and may form part of a Coast Oregon Penutian subgroup together with Siuslaw and the

Coosan languages The Coosan (also Coos or Kusan) language family consists of two languages spoken along the southern Oregon coast. Both languages are now extinct. Classification * Hanis ''†'' * Miluk ''†'' ( Lower Coquille) Melville Jacobs (1939) says tha ...

. 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.

Sounds

Consonants

Alsea had 34

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...

s: , and are spelled as ''s'', ''c'' and ''c̓'' in modern descriptions. Their phonetic value has been described as "palatal", or "between alveolar and palatal".

Vowels

Three vowels are listed as /a, i, u/. Long vowel variants of /i, u/ are ː, oː A mid vowel /ə/ occurs as a phonetically inserted vowel sound.

Varieties

Linguistic Affiliation

Sounds

Consonants

Vowels

References

Further reading