lingvo.wikisort.org - Language

Wukchumni or Wikchamni is a dialect of Tule-Kaweah Yokuts that was historically spoken by the Wukchumni people of the east fork of the Kaweah River of California.

Wukchumni
Wikchamni
Region	California
Ethnicity	Wukchumni
Native speakers	2 fluent (L2)[1]
Language family	Yok-Utian Yokuts Nim Tule-Kaweah Yokuts Wukchumni
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	wikc1234

As of 2014, Marie Wilcox (1933–2021) was the last remaining native speaker of the language. There are efforts at revitalization, and Wilcox completed a comprehensive Wukchumni dictionary;[2][3] at her death there were at least three fluent speakers.[1]

Phonology

The following tables are based on Gamble (1978).[4]

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental/ Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t̪	ʈ	k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	t̪ʰ	ʈʰ	kʰ
	ejective	pʼ	t̪ʼ	ʈʼ	kʼ
Affricate	voiceless			t͡ʃ
	aspirated			t͡ʃʰ
	ejective			t͡ʃʼ
Fricative			s	ʃ	x	h
Nasal	plain	m	n		ŋ
	glottalized	mˀ	nˀ		ŋˀ
Approximant	plain	w	l	j
	glottalized	wˀ	lˀ	jˀ

Allophones of /ʃ, x/ include [ʒ̊, xʷ].

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː	ɨ̹ ɨ̹ː	u uː
Mid	e eː	ə̹ ə̹ː	o oː
Open		a aː

A long vowel /eː/ can be lowered to [æː] when occurring before an /n/. The central vowels /ɨ/ and /ə/ are partially rounded.

All phonetic short vowel allophones include [ɪ], [ɛ], [ɨ̞], [ɜ], [ʌ], [o̞], [ʊ].

Status

Wukchumni is categorized as 8a or "moribund" on the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale.[5][6]

Revitalization efforts

In the early 2000s, Marie Wilcox, aided by her daughter Jennifer Malone, began compiling a Wukchumni dictionary. The work was copyrighted in 2019, but has not been published.[7] Wilcox and Malone held classes teaching beginner and intermediate Wukchumni to interested tribal members;[8][9] Malone continues this teaching at Owens Valley Career Development Center.[1][7]

Efforts to revive Wukchumni have additionally been organized through the Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program.[6]

Possibility of more native speakers

Due to Wilcox's efforts, at least three people are fluent in the language.[1] Destiny Treglown, Marie Wilcox's great-granddaughter, is raising her child, Oliver, as a Wukchumni speaker. If he reaches fluency, he will become the first native speaker of the language in four generations.[10][11]

References

External links

• English/Wukchumni dictionary

На других языках

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- [en] Wukchumni dialect

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[fr] Wikchamni

Le wikchamni est une langue amérindienne de la famille des langues yokuts parlée aux États-Unis, le long de la rivière Kaweah, dans le centre sud de la Californie[2]. La langue est quasiment éteinte.

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