Mary Yee Explained

Mary Joachina Yee
Birth Name:Mary Joachina Ygnacio Rowe
Birth Date:1897
Birth Place:Near Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Nationality:Chumash, United States
Other Names:Mary J. Rowe[1]
Occupation:Linguist
Known For:Last first-language speaker of the Barbareño language
Children:Valentina Yee, Josie Yee, John Yee, Angela Yee, and Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto
Parents:Lucretia García (mother)
Relatives:Luisa Ygnacio (grandmother)

Mary Joachina Yee (née Mary Joachina Ygnacio Rowe; 1897–1965)[2] [3] was a Barbareño Chumash linguist. She was the last first-language speaker of the Barbareño language, a member of the Chumashan languages that were once spoken in southern California by the Chumash people.

Biography

Mary Rowe-Yee was born in 1897 in an adobe house near Santa Barbara, California, the home of her grandmother. In the late 1890s, Mary was one of only a handful of children brought up to speak any Chumash language. She memorized several old Chumash stories.[4] In her fifties, Mary Yee began to take part in the analysis, description, and documentation of her language, for many years working closely with the linguist John Peabody Harrington, who had also worked with Mary's mother Lucretia García and her grandmother Luisa Ygnacio.[5] [6] Yee and Harrington corresponded with each other in Chumash. After retiring in 1954, Yee worked with Harrington nearly every day.[7] She also worked with linguist Madison S. Beeler.[8] Over the course of her work she became a linguist in her own right, analyzing paradigms and word structure.[5]

Yee's story appears in the documentary film, 6 Generations: A Chumash Family History (2010) which was co-written by her daughter Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto.[9] [10] Posthumously, she published a children's book, The Sugar Bear Story (2005), illustrated by her daughter Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto.[11]

Publication

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: John P. Harrington and two of his principal Barbareno Chumash consultants at the site of their former adobe home, Indian Orchard, Goleta: 1931 ; left to right: Mary J. Yee (nee Rowe), holding her son John Yee, Lucrecia Garcia (nee Ygnacio), John Harrington holding Angela Yee. . 2021-11-13 . Online Archive of California (OAC).
  2. Book: Grant, Campbell . Handbook of North American Indians . Smithsonian Institution . 1978 . 978-0-16-004574-5 . Heizer . Robert F. . 8: California . Washington, DC . 505–508 . Chumash: Introduction.
  3. Web site: 2013-03-21 . Yee, Mary J., 1897- . 2024-03-10 . LC Name Authority File (LCNAF) . Library of Congress.
  4. Book: Yee, Mary J. . The Sugar Bear Story . Sunbelt Publications in cooperation with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History . illustrated by Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto . 2005 . 978-0-932653-70-3 . San Diego . Introduction . 2005003047.
  5. Book: Mithun, Marianne . Marianne Mithun . The Life of Language . Mouton de Gruyter . 1997 . Hill . Jane . Jane H. Hill . Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs . 108 . Berlin . 221–242 . The regression of sibilant harmony through the life of Barbareño Chumash . 10.1515/9783110811155.221 . 978-3-11-015633-1 . Mistry . P. J. . Campbell . Lyle . Lyle Campbell.
  6. Web site: 1913 . Luisa Ygnacio, Barbareño Chumash, consultant to John P. Harrington: 1913 . 2021-11-13 . Online Archive of California (OAC) . English.
  7. Web site: Poser . William J. . 2004-06-13 . On the status of Chumash sibilant harmony . https://web.archive.org/web/20041228093205/http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/dm/featgeom/poser-chumashnew.pdf . 2004-12-28 . 2010-09-22.
  8. News: 1989-03-07 . Madison S. Beeler; Linguistics Scholar, Chumash Expert . 21 September 2010 . Los Angeles Times.
  9. News: Kettmann . Matt . 2011-01-27 . Santa Barbara on Screen . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130117234301/http://www.independent.com/news/2011/jan/27/santa-barbara-screen/ . 2013-01-17 . 2013-05-08 . The Santa Barbara Independent.
  10. Hurst Thomas . David . 2011-02-01 . Listening to Six Generations of Chumash Women . Current Anthropology . 52 . 1 . 127–128 . 10.1086/657926 . 0011-3204 . 224791797.
  11. Ep. 87: The Barbareño Language: the First Language of Santa Barbara . The Indy: A Podcast . . Alexandra Goldberg . 2023-09-05.

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