Language Atlas

How Languages Connect
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Language Family

Coosan

North American Language Families

Coosan, also called Coos or Kusan, is a small extinct language family of two languages, Hanis and Miluk, spoken along the southern Oregon coast. The languages are tentatively classified within Coast Oregon Penutian, though this remains uncertain; researcher Melville Jacobs described the two as close as Dutch and German, sharing more than half their vocabulary despite grammatical differences. The last speaker of Hanis, Martha Harney Johnson, died in 1972.

Facts
Region
Southern Oregon coast, United States. 1
Speaker Count
0 1
Both constituent languages, Hanis and Miluk, are extinct. The family's own overview names no living native speaker of either.
Proto-Language Status
A comparative reconstruction of Proto-Coosan's phonemes and vocabulary has been carried out by Douglas-Tavani. 1
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Coosan Languages
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section, first sentence
    The Coosan (also Coos or Kusan) is a small extinct language family consisting of two languages spoken along the southern Oregon coast.
  • Lead section, family-status clause
    The Coosan (also Coos or Kusan) is a small extinct language family
  • Classification section, closing sentence
    Douglas-Tavani doing a comparative reconstruction of Proto-Coosan's phonemes and vocabulary
View the Source
Wikidata: Coosan
Wikidata Q940278, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.