Yahi language

The Yana language (also Yanan) was formerly spoken by the Yana people, who lived in north-central California between the Feather and Pit rivers in what is now the Shasta and Tehama counties. The last speaker of the southernmost dialect, which is called Yahi, was Ishi, who died in 1916. When the last fluent speaker(s) of the other dialects died is not recorded. Yana is fairly well documented, mostly by Edward Sapir.

The names ''Yana'' and ''Yahi'' are derived from ''ya'' "people" plus an obligatory suffix, ''-na'' in the northern two dialects and ''-hi'' or ''-xi'' in the southern two dialects.

Regional variation

There are four known dialects:

* Northern Yana
* Central Yana
* Southern Yana
* Yahi

Northern Yana, Central Yana, and Yahi were well recorded by Edward Sapir through work with Betty Brown, Sam Batwi, and Ishi respectively. Only a small collection of words and phrases of Southern Yana (more properly, Northern Yahi) were recorded by Sapir in his work with Sam Batwi, who spoke the dialect only in his childhood. Because Southern Yana is poorly attested, it is unclear how many additional subdialects there may have been.

Northern and Central Yana are close, differing mainly in phonology (mostly by innovations in Northern Yana), and Southern Yana and Yahi are similarly close. The two pairs differ from each other in phonological, lexical, and grammatical elements, and can only be understood by the other side with difficulty.

Classification

Yana is often classified in the Hokan superstock. Sapir suggested a grouping of Yana within a ''Northern Hokan'' sub-family with Karuk, Chimariko, Shastan, Palaihnihan, and Pomoan. Contemporary linguists generally consider Yana to be a language isolate.

The use of bipartite verb stem formation in Yana is not a Hokan characteristic, but is used in other non-Hokan languages in the area, suggesting that Yana has stayed geographically stable.

Characteristics

Yana employs 22 consonants and 5 vowels. It is polysynthetic and agglutinative, with a subject-verb-object word order. Verbs contain much meaning through affixation. Like some other California languages, direction is very important: All verbs of motion must contain a different directional affix.

Unlike other languages of the region, Yana has different word forms used by male and female speakers.

The body of linguistic work on Yana is fortunate to include a number of texts and stories. Linguist Jean Perry writes that
: "Stylistically, the emphasis on direction and location, plus the frequent use of repetition, are traditional and integral to the style and structure of the text and are a necessary part of it ... . There are also many references to things and people that may seem vague. The level of presumed knowledge in a Yahi story is much higher than in English narration, because these people lived in a small, face-to-face society, and stories were told over and over. A native audience would be familiar with the characters and plot, and therefore much of the emphasis is on detail and technique rather than plot."

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Yana has five vowels, /i, ɛ, a, ɔ, u/; Sapir's (1910) comparanda with vowels of English, French and German clearly indicate that the mid vowels are lower mid. Each vowel occurs with phonemic vowel length.

Bibliography

* Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. .
* Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996). ''Languages''. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. .
* Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); .
* Sapir, Edward. (1922). ''The Fundamental Elements of Northern Yana''. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 13. 215-234. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
* Sapir, Edward. 1910. ''Yana Texts''. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 1, no. 9. Berkeley: University Press.
Online version
at the Internet Archive).
* 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).

References

External links

Yana language
overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
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Yana basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

{{North American languages

Yana
Indigenous languages of California
Language isolates of North America
Extinct languages of North America
Hokan languages
Languages extinct in the 1910s
1916 disestablishments in California
Subject–verb–object languages
Polysynthetic languages