The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families spoken mainly in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, and

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

Etymology

The name ''Hokan'' is loosely based on the word for "two" in the various Hokan languages: ''*xwak'' in Proto-Yuman, (pronounced ) in Seri, in Achumawi, etc. Compare similar construction of the term "

Penutian Penutian is a proposed grouping of language family, language families that includes many Native Americans in the United States, Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington ( ...

History of the proposal

The "Hokan hypothesis" was first proposed in 1913 by Roland B. Dixon and Alfred L. Kroeber, and further elaborated by

Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist-linguistics, linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States ...

. Initial follow-up research found little additional evidence that these language families were related to each other. But since about 1950, increased efforts to document Hokan languages and to establish sound correspondences in proposed lexical resemblance sets have added weight to the Hokan hypothesis, leading to its acceptance by many specialists in the languages of California, Oregon, and

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

. However, some skepticism remains among scholars. Linguist Paul Rivet claimed the Yurumanguí language of

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

was part of the Hokan family. This claim has not been accepted by historical linguists. Terrence Kaufman wondered if Hokan might be related to Oto-Mangean of Central America. An automated computational analysis ( ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013.
ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013)
'. found lexical similarities among Seri, Yuman and Tequistlatecan. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.

Distribution

The geographic distribution of the Hokan languages suggests that they became separated around the Central Valley of California by the influx of later-arriving

and other peoples; archaeological evidence for this is summarized in Chase-Dunn & Mann (1998). These languages are spoken by Native American communities around and east of

Mount Shasta Mount Shasta ( ; Shasta people, Shasta: ''Waka-nunee-Tuki-wuki''; Karuk language, Karuk: ''Úytaahkoo'') is a Volcano#Volcanic activity, potentially active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California. A ...

, others near

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; Washo language, Washo: ''dáʔaw'') is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Lying at above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest a ...

, the

Pomo The Pomo are a Indigenous peoples of California, Native American people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to ...

on the California coast, and the Yuman peoples along the lower

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

. Some linguists also include Chumash, between San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles, and other families, but the evidence is insubstantial, and most now restrict Hokan to some or all of the languages listed below. Linguists have suggested that Coahuilteco and Comecrudan spoken in southern Texas and northern Mexico belong to the Hokan language family. These languages are extinct and confirmation of the relationship is lacking.

Languages

The Hokan languages retained by Kaufman (1988) due to regular sound correspondences and common core vocabulary are as follows. (The data on which these conclusions were drawn have not been published or evaluated by anyone else.) Apart from Shasta–Palaihnihan and Yuman, all branches are single languages or shallow families. * Hokan ** Chimariko ** Yana/Yahi **

Karuk The Karuk people ()Andrew Garrett, Susan Gehr, Erik Hans Maier, Line Mikkelsen, Crystal Richardson, and Clare Sandy. (November 2, 2021) ''Karuk; To appear in The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America: A Comprehensive Guide (De G ...

** Shasta–Palaihnihan *** Shastan (4) *** Palaihnihan (2) ** Pomoan (7) ** Washo ** Esselen ** Salinan ** Yuman (12) ** Seri ** Coahuilteco ** Comecrudan (3) ** Tequistlatecan (3) ** Jicaquean (Tolan, 2) Marlett (2008) reevaluated the evidence and concluded that the evidence for Seri and Salinan has not been systematically or convincingly presented. The inclusion of the Tequistlatecan languages has also not received much support. The Chumash languages were once included, but that position has been almost universally abandoned.

Zhivlov (2013)

A lexicostatistical classification of the Hokan languages by Zhivlov (2013) is roughly presented as follows. * Hokan ** Northern *** **** Chimariko **** *****

***** ****** Shasta ****** ******* Achumawi *******

Atsugewi The Atsugewi are Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans residing in northeastern California, United States. Their traditional lands are near Mount Shasta, specifically the Pit River drainage on Burney, California, Burney, Hat, an ...

** Southern *** **** Yana **** ***** Seri ***** ****** Highland Chontal ****** Yuman *** **** Salinan **** Pomoan Zhivlov (2013) does not consider Jicaquean (Tol) and Washo to be Hokan languages.

Vocabulary

Some Hokan lexical correspondences from Mary R. Haas (1963) are provided below. : Similar forms for 'tongue' include: * Chumash ''elʔew'', ''elew'' < *ipariwa * Washo ''alŋ'' < *ipariwa * Salinan ''épal'', ''ipaL'' < *ipari * Seri ''apɬ'' < *ipari * Chontal ''pala'', ''peɬ''- < *ipari

Similarities with Uto-Aztecan

Shaul (2019) notes the following similarities between Proto-Hokan (based on Kaufman 2015Kaufman, Terrence. 2015.
A research program for reconstructing proto-Hokan: first gropings
'

) and Proto-Uto-Aztecan. :

References

Sources

* * * * Golla, Victor. (2011). ''California Indian Languages''. Berkeley: University of California Press. . *Kaufman, Terrence. 1988. "A Research Program for Reconstructing Proto-Hokan: First Gropings." In Scott DeLancey, ed. ''Papers from the 1988 Hokan–Penutian Languages Workshop'', pp. 50–168. Eugene, Oregon: Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon. (University of Oregon Papers in Linguistics. Publications of the Center for Amerindian Linguistics and Ethnography 1.) *Kaufman, Terrence. 2015a.
A research program for reconstructing proto-Hokan: first gropings
'

*Kaufman, Terrence. 2015b.
Some hypotheses regarding proto-Hokan grammar
'

*Marlett, Stephen A. 2007. Las relaciones entre las lenguas “hokanas” en México: ¿Cuál es la evidencia?. In Cristina Buenrostro & others (eds.), Memorias del III Coloquio Internacional de Lingüística Mauricio Swadesh, 165–192. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México & Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas. *Marlett, Stephen A (2008)
The Seri and Salinan connection revisited.
''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 74.3: 393–99. *

External links

* (

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Las relaciones entre las lenguas “hokanas” en México: ¿Cuál es la evidencia?
(prepublication version)

{{Authority control Indigenous languages of California Indigenous languages of Mexico Indigenous languages of the North American Great Basin Indigenous languages of the North American Southwest Indigenous languages of the Southwestern United States Mesoamerican languages Indigenous languages of North America Proposed language families