Yuki-Wappo, also called Yukian, is a small extinct language family of western California comprising two distantly related languages, Yuki and Wappo. Yuki had three dialects, Yuki proper, Coast Yuki and Huchnom, while Wappo had four dialects in the Napa Valley plus a separate enclave dialect on Clear Lake. The two languages are quite divergent from each other grammatically and lexically, which once made their relationship contested, though most linguists today accept the connection. The family's last fluent speaker, the Wappo speaker Laura Somersal, died in 1990.
Facts
Speaker CountExtinct family; both member languages, Yuki and Wappo, have no living speakers. Proto-Language StatusThe genetic relationship between Yuki and Wappo, the family's only two languages, is contested: Jesse Sawyer attributed their similarities to borrowing and shared areal features, while William Elmendorf argued the two are as closely related as two branches of Indo-European; later assessments differ on whether the case is closed. 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Yuki-Wappo Languages
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction, first sentence, region clause
The Yuki-Wappo or Yukian languages are a small extinct language family of western California consisting of two distantly related languages.
Genetic relations section
Mithun (1999) reports that the relationship remains open to question, Golla (2011) that it is securely demonstrated.
Introduction, first sentence, extinct-family clause
The Yuki-Wappo or Yukian languages are a small extinct language family of western California consisting of two distantly related languages.
View the Source Wikidata: Yuki-Wappo
Wikidata Q2406722, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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