The Ramaytush language is one of the eight

Ohlone languages The Ohlone languages, also known as Costanoan, form a small Indigenous language, Indigenous language family historically spoken in Northern California, both in the southern San Francisco Bay Area and northern Monterey Bay area, by the Ohlone peop ...

, historically spoken by the

Ramaytush people The Ramaytush () or Rammay-tuš people are a linguistic subdivision of the Ohlone people of Northern California. The term Ramaytush was first applied to them in the 1970s, but the modern Ohlone people of the peninsula have claimed it as their e ...

who were indigenous to California. Historically, the Ramaytush inhabited the

San Francisco Peninsula The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Los Altos and Mountain View, ...

between

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

and the Pacific Ocean in the area which is now

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and San Mateo Counties. Ramaytush is a dialect or language within the Ohlone branch of the Utian family. The term Ramaytush was first applied to it during the 1970s, and is derived from the term "people from the west". It is extinct, but efforts are being taken to revive it. The Ramaytush language territory was largely bordered by ocean, except in the south, which was bordered by the people of the Santa Clara Valley who spoke the

Tamyen language The Tamyen language (also spelled as ''Tamien'', ''Thamien'') is one of eight Ohlone languages, once spoken by Tamien people in Northern California. ''Tamyen'' (also called ''Santa Clara Costanoan'') has been extended to mean the Santa Clara V ...

and the people of the Santa Cruz Mountains and Pacific Coast at Point Año Nuevo who spoke dialects merging toward the

Awaswas language Awaswas, or Santa Cruz, is one of eight Ohlone languages. It was historically spoken by the Awaswas people, an indigenous peoples of California, indigenous people of California. The last speaker of Awaswas died in the 19th century, and the lan ...

. To the east, across San Francisco Bay, were tribes that spoke the

Chochenyo language Chochenyo (also called ''Chocheño'', ''Northern Ohlone'' and ''East Bay Costanoan'') is the spoken language of the Chochenyo people. Chochenyo is one of the Ohlone languages in the Utian family. Description and history Linguistically, Chochen ...

. To the north, across the

Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by ...

, was the Huimen local tribe of

Coast Miwok language Coast Miwok was one of the Miwok languages spoken in California, from San Francisco Bay to Bodega Bay. The Marin and Bodega varieties may have been separate languages. All of the population has shifted to English. Grammar According to Catherine ...

speakers. The northernmost Ramaytush local tribe, the

Yelamu The Yelamu were a local tribe of Ohlone people from the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. The Yelamu spoke a language called Ramaytush. The moderAssociation of Ramaytush Ohlone (ARO)are the descendants of the Ramaytush. Randall Mi ...

of San Francisco, were intermarried with the Huchiun Chochenyos of the

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

area at the time of Spanish colonization.Milliken 1995:260 European disease took a heavy toll of life on all tribal people who came to

Mission Dolores Dolores, Spanish for "pain; grief", most commonly refers to: * Our Lady of Sorrows or La Virgen María de los Dolores * Dolores (given name), including list of people and fictional characters with the name Dolores may also refer to: Film * '' ...

after its creation in 1776. The Ohlone people were forced to use Spanish, resulting in the loss of their language. Hundreds of Ohlone people at Mission Dolores were taken to the north bay to construct

Mission San Rafael Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality *Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * O ...

, which was then used as a hospital for sick neophytes. Alfred L. Kroeber claimed that the west bay people were extinct by 1915.

Notes

References

* Heizer, Robert F. 1974. ''The Costanoan Indians''. De Anza College History Center: Cupertino, California. * Milliken, Randall. ''A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769–1910'' Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication, 1995. . Ohlone languages Extinct languages of North America Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area History of the San Francisco Bay Area {{na-lang-stub hr:Ramaytush

See also

Notes

References