Mattole, or Mattole–Bear River, is an

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 ...

Athabaskan language Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal ...

once spoken by the

Mattole The Mattole, including the Bear River Indians, are a group of Native Americans in California. Their traditional lands are along the Mattole and Bear Rivers near Cape Mendocino in Humboldt County, California. A notable difference between the Ma ...

and Bear River peoples of northern California. It is one of the four languages belonging to the ''California Athabaskan'' cluster of the Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages. It was found in two locations: in the valley of the Mattole River, immediately south of Cape Mendocino on the coast of northwest California, and a distinct dialect on Bear River, about 10 miles to the north. California-athabaskan

References

* * Goddard, Pliny Earle (1929). "The Bear River Dialect of Athapascan." ''University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology'' 24 (5):291-334, 1929. * Golla, Victor (2011). ''California Indian Languages''. Berkeley: University of California Press. . * * Yeadon, David, "California’s North Face", National Geographic, vol. 184, no. 1, p. 48-79, July 1993.

External links

A Survey of the Athabaskan Language Mattole

Mattole language
overview at the

Survey of California and Other Indian Languages The Survey of California and Other Indian Languages (originally the Survey of California Indian Languages) at the University of California at Berkeley documents, catalogs, and archives the indigenous languages of the Americas. The survey also hosts ...

Mattole
at native-languages.org
Mattole, World Atlas of Language Structures Online

OLAC resources in and about the Mattole language

Mattole basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
* "It is the desire of the Live Your Language Alliance to hear and speak the traditional languages of the Tolowa, Karuk, Yurok,

Hupa Hupa (Yurok language term: Huep'oola' / Huep'oolaa = "Hupa people") are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in northwestern California. Their endonym is Natinixwe, also spelled Natinook-wa, meaning "Peopl ...

, Tsnungwe, Wiyot, Mattole, and

Wailaki The Eel River Athabaskans include the Wailaki, Lassik, Nongatl, and Sinkyone (Sinkine) groups of Native Americans that traditionally live in present-day Mendocino, Trinity, and Humboldt counties on or near the Eel River and Van Duzen River o ...

." {{Athabaskan languages Indigenous languages of California Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages Mattole people Extinct languages of North America