Kalapuyan (also Kalapuya) is a small
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...
that was spoken in the
Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the eas ...
of
Western Oregon, United States. It consists of three languages.
The Kalapuya language is currently in a state of revival.
Kalapuyan descendants in the southernmost Kalapuya region of
Yoncalla, Oregon published 100 copies of a comprehensive dictionary, with plans to expand.
Family division
Kalapuyan consists of
: 1.
Northern Kalapuya ''†'' (also known as
Tualatin–
Yamhill)
: 2.
Central Kalapuya ''†'' (several dialects, including
Santiam)
: 3.
Yoncalla ''†'' (also known as Southern
Kalapuya)
Genetic relations
Kalapuyan is usually connected with the various
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 ...
proposals, originally as part of an ''Oregon Penutian'' branch along with
Takelma,
Siuslaw,
Alsea and
Coosan
Coosan () is a townland and suburb just north of Athlone, County Westmeath in Ireland. The suburb is surrounded on three sides by Lough Ree and on one side by Athlone.
Coosan attracts tourists over the summer months due to its location on the ...
. A special relationship with Takelma had been proposed, together forming a "
Takelma–Kalapuyan" or "Takelman" family. However, an unpublished paper by Tarpent & Kendall (1998) finds this relationship to be unfounded because of the extremely different morphological structures of Takelma and Kalapuyan.
Proto-language
Below is a list of Proto-Kalapuyan reconstructions by Shipley (1970):
[Shipley, William. 1970. Proto-Kalapuyan. In Swanson, Jr., Earl H. (ed.), ''Languages and Cultures of Western North America'', 97-106. Pocatello: Idaho State University Press.]
:
References
Further reading
* Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York:
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
. .
* Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996). ''Languages''. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.:
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...
. .
*
* Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
Cambridge University Pr ...
. (hbk); .
* Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978–present). ''
Handbook of North American Indians'' (Vol. 1-20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. (Vols. 1-3, 16, 18-20 not yet published).
External links
The Verbal Morphology of Santiam Kalapuya(Northwest Journal of Linguistics)
{{North American languages
Language families
Kalapuya
Penutian languages
Indigenous languages of Oregon
Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Languages of the United States
Extinct languages of North America
Native American history of Oregon
Willamette Valley