Esselen is the now-extinct language of the Esselen, or self-designated Huelel, Nation, which aboriginally occupied the mountainous Central Coast of California immediately south of Monterey, in the Big Sur area. It is probably a language isolate, though it has been hypothetically included in the proposed Hokan family. Esselen became extinct in the 19th century and may have been the first Californian language to do so; its documentation is limited to roughly 350 preserved words and phrases, though revival efforts began in the 1990s.
Facts
RegionCentral Coast of California, United States, immediately south of Monterey. 1 Speaker CountExtinct; possibly the first Californian language to become extinct, with no fluent speakers recorded since the early twentieth century. Proto-Language StatusNo Proto-Esselen reconstruction exists; Esselen is probably a language isolate, occasionally included in the hypothetical Hokan proposal, with only about 350 words and phrases preserved in the historical record. 1 Connections
Associated With
Hokan, Language Families Why this is disputed. Shaul (2019) assigns Esselen to the proposed Hokan family; H. W. Henshaw earlier treated it as its own monotypic family.
Source Wikipedia: Esselen Language
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Sources
1. Wikipedia: Esselen Language
Wikimedia FoundationLead paragraph
Esselen is the now-extinct language of the Esselen (or self-designated Huelel) Nation, which aboriginally occupied the mountainous Central Coast of California, immediately south of Monterey (Shaul 1995).
Historical background section
About 350 words and phrases and a few complete sentences have been preserved in literature, including a short bilingual catechism
Associated With: Hokan, Classification section
Others, such as Shaul (2019), have assigned the language to the proposed Hokan family.
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