Yukian Languages

The Yukian languages, also called Yuki-Wappo, are a small extinct language family of western California consisting of two distantly related languages, Yuki and Wappo, each with its own dialects. Yuki was historically associated with the Clear Lake region of California, while Wappo was concentrated in the Napa Valley with an additional enclave near Clear Lake; the family became fully extinct in 1990 with the death of Laura Somersal, the last speaker of Wappo. Linguists have proposed various wider genetic relationships for Yukian, including possible links to the Penutian, Hokan, and Siouan language families, but none of these proposals has been successfully demonstrated, and some scholars attribute the similarities between Yuki and Wappo themselves to borrowing between neighboring peoples rather than common descent.