Konomihu language
Konomihu is an extinct Shastan language formerly spoken in northern California. There may have been only a few speakers even before contact, and they self-identified as Shasta by the turn of the 20th century.[1]
Konomihu | |
---|---|
Native to | United States |
Region | Salmon River, northern California |
Ethnicity | Shasta |
Extinct | (date missing) |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | None (mis ) |
Glottolog | kono1241 |
Konomihu may have been the most divergent of the Shastan family, although it is difficult to tell, as there is little material on the language.[2] Kroeber noted that "it is still questionable whether their speech is more properly a highly specialized aberration of Shasta or of an ancient and independent but moribund branch of Hokan from which Karok and Chimariko are descended together with Shasta." A wordlist was collected by Angulo in 1928, but not published;[3] some words are documented and compared by Shasta proper by Shirley Silver in Shasta and Konomihu in 1980.
References
- Kroeber (1925)
- Mithun (1999)
- Handbook of North American Indians: California
- Mithun, Marianne (1999), The Languages of Native North America, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press