Esselen language

Esselen is the now-extinct language of the Esselen (or self-designated ) Nation, which aboriginally occupied the mountainous Central Coast of California, immediately south of Monterey (Shaul 1995). It was probably a language isolate, though has been included as a part of the hypothetical Hokan proposal.

Names

The name ''Esselen'' was derived from a village name. The Esselen people referred to their own language as . The name was recorded by Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta on May 18, 1832, at Soledad Mission from his informant Eusebio (native name ) (cf. 'tongue' as recorded by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano) (Shaul 1995).

Historical background

French explorer Lapérouse, who visited Monterey in 1786, reported:

Esselen may have been the first Californian language to become extinct. Although it was spoken by many of the early converts at Mission Carmel, its use rapidly declined during the Hispanic period. Very little information on the vocabulary and grammar of Esselen was preserved. About 350 words and phrases and a few complete sentences have been preserved in literature, including a short bilingual catechism (for a summary see Mithun 1999:411–413 and Golla 2011:114). By the beginning of the 20th century the only data on Esselen that investigators such as Kroeber and Harrington could collect were a few words remembered by speakers of other Indian languages in the area.

Classification

H. W. Henshaw thought that Esselen represented a monotypic linguistic family. Others, such as Shaul (2019), have assigned the language to the proposed Hokan family.

Shaul (2019) also notes that Esselen has had extensive contact with the Chumashan languages, with Esselen and Chumashan sharing many common lexical items.

Dialects

The Esselen language consisted of the Western and Eastern dialects. Documentation of Western Esselen was based on data collected at Mission Carmel. It was spoken by the Excelen local tribe, and likely also the Ecgeajan local tribes to the south along the Big Sur coast, although the Ecgeajan subdialect is unattested. Eastern Esselen was documented by Arroyo, and was based on data collected at Mission Soledad, which hosted Arroyo Seco local tribes. Eastern Esselen was spoken by the Eslenajan local tribe, and probably also by the Aspasniajan and Imunajan local tribes.

The Esselen language was spoken by five local tribes. Each of the five local tribes spoke a separate subdialect.

*Esselen
**Western
***''Excelen'': upper Carmel Valley
***''Ecgeajan'': along the Big Sur coast
**Eastern
***''Imunajan'': along the Arroyo Seco, just south of Mission Soledad
***''Eslenajan'' (or ''Eslen''): north of Mission Soledad
***''Aspasniajan'': just south of the present day town of Greenfield

The Santa Lucia Mountains formed the heart of the Esselen homeland.

Each Esselen district consisted of a local tribe with their own patrilineal clans. Members of the clans were exogamous, marrying members of other clans but within the local tribe.

Local Esselen tribes and their demographics are surveyed in Milliken (1990: 59).

Breschini and Haversat (1994: 82–88) give the following numbers of villages and population estimates for each of the five Esselen tribes. Population estimates are calculated by multiplying the number of villages by either 30 or 40 (i.e., the presumed number of individuals per village).Breschini, Gary and Trudy Haversat. 1994. ''An Overview of the Esselen Indians of Central Monterey County, California''. Salinas, CA: Coyote Press.

Phonological and lexical differences

Sound correspondences between the Western and Eastern dialects:

Lexical differences between the Western and Eastern dialects:

Phonology

has allophones of and . has an allophone of .

Pronouns

Subject pronouns in Western Esselen (Shaul 2019: 89):

:

Subject pronouns in Eastern Esselen (Shaul 2019: 89):

:

Syntax

Word order is primarily SOV (Shaul 2019).

Lexicon

Shaul (1995) reconstitutes Esselen vocabulary, synthesized from various historical sources, as follows.Shaul, David L. 1995.
The Huelel (Esselen) Language
" ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 61:191-239. Forms from Alfred L. Kroeber are marked by (''Kr'').

Numbers

References

Bibliography

* Golla, Victor. 2011. ''California Indian Languages.'' University of California Press.
* Mithun, Marianne. 1999. ''The Languages of Native North America''. Cambridge University Press.
*

External links

Esselen language
overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages

Spanish-Rumsen-Esselen Glossary
1802

Salinan-Esselen vocabulary
p. 73

Esselen at the California Language Archive


OLAC resources in and about the Esselen language

Esselen, The World Atlas of Language Structures

{{North American languages

Esselen
Indigenous languages of California
Language isolates of North America
Extinct languages of North America
Hokan languages
Languages extinct in the 19th century
19th-century disestablishments in California