Karuk, also spelled Karok, is the traditional language of the Karuk people of the region surrounding the Klamath River in northwestern California, between Seiad Valley and Bluff Creek, primarily in Siskiyou, Humboldt and Del Norte counties. It is a language isolate, sharing few if any similarities with neighboring languages. When linguist William Bright began documenting the language in 1949 a couple of hundred fluent speakers remained; by 2011 that number had fallen to fewer than a dozen fluent elders, and UNESCO classifies Karuk as severely endangered.
Facts
RegionThe region surrounding the Klamath River in northwestern California. 1 Speaker Count Proto-Language StatusKaruk is generally treated as a language isolate sharing few if any similarities with other nearby languages. Edward Sapir proposed classifying it within a wider Hokan family and Bright described it as part of a northern Hokan group, but little evidence supports that broader classification and no proto-language beyond Karuk itself is accepted. 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Karuk Language
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, first sentence
The traditional language of the Karuk people in the region surrounding the Klamath River, in Northwestern California.
Classification section, first sentence
a language isolate, sharing few if any similarities with other nearby languages
Infobox, native speakers field
12 (2007)
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