Wukchumni dialect explained

Wukchumni
Also Known As:Wikchamni
Ethnicity:Wukchumni
Region:California
Date:2021
Ref:[1]
Familycolor:American (areal)
Fam1:Yok-Utian
Fam2:Yokutsan
Fam3:General Yokuts
Fam4:Nim
Fam5:Tule-Kaweah Yokuts
Isoexception:dialect
Glotto:wikc1234
Glottorefname:Wikchamni
Script:Latin alphabet
Extinct:September 25, 2021, with the death of Marie Wilcox
Revived:L2

3 fluent

Wukchumni or Wikchamni is an extinct dialect of Tule-Kaweah Yokuts that was historically spoken by the Wukchumni people of the east fork of the Kaweah River of California.As of 2014, Marie Wilcox (1933–2021) was the last remaining native speaker of the language. There are efforts at revitalization, and Wilcox completed a comprehensive Wukchumni dictionary;[2] [3] at her death there were at least three fluent speakers.[1] [4]

Phonology

The following tables are based on Gamble (1978).[5]

Consonants

BilabialDental/
Alveolar
Post-
alveolar
VelarGlottal
Plosivevoicelesspronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
aspiratedpronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
ejectivepronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
Affricatevoicelesspronounced as /ink/
aspiratedpronounced as /ink/
ejectivepronounced as /ink/
Fricativepronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
Nasalplainpronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
glottalizedpronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
Approximantplainpronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
glottalizedpronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
Allophones of pronounced as //ʃ, x// include pronounced as /[ʒ̊, xʷ]/.

Vowels

FrontCentralBack
Closepronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Midpronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Openpronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
A long vowel pronounced as //eː// can be lowered to pronounced as /[æː]/ when occurring before an pronounced as //n//. The central vowels /ɨ/ and /ə/ are partially rounded.

All phonetic short vowel allophones include pronounced as /[ɪ], [ɛ], [ɨ̞], [ɜ], [ʌ], [o̞], [ʊ]/.

Status

In 2019, Wukchumni was categorized as 8a or "moribund" on the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale.[6] [7] It became extinct upon the death of its last native speaker, Marie Wilcox, in 2021.

Revitalization efforts

In the early 2000s, Marie Wilcox, aided by her daughter Jennifer Malone, began compiling a Wukchumni dictionary. The work was copyrighted in 2019, but has not been published.[8] Wilcox and Malone held classes teaching beginner and intermediate Wukchumni to interested tribal members;[9] [10] Malone continues this teaching at Owens Valley Career Development Center.[1]

Efforts to revive Wukchumni have additionally been organized through the Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program.

Possibility of more native speakers

Due to Wilcox's efforts, at least three people are fluent in the language. Destiny Treglown, Marie Wilcox's great-granddaughter, is raising her child, Oliver, as a Wukchumni speaker. If he reaches fluency, he will become the first native speaker of the language in four generations.[11]

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: October 8, 2021. Marie Wilcox, who saved her tribe's language, dies. Washington Post. 0190-8286. Associated Press. Wilcox was once the last fluent speaker of Wukchumni but she worked for more than 20 years to produce a dictionary of the language spoken by her tribe in California’s San Joaquin Valley and taught her family. Now there are at least three fluent speakers of the language, including her daughter.. 2021-10-10.
  2. Web site: Recording a Dying Language. 2017-06-23. National Geographic Society. 2019-08-29 . with video, 9 min, 36 sec.
  3. News: Teaching With: 'Who Speaks Wukchumni?'. Gilpin. Caroline Crosson. 2018-03-22. The New York Times. 2019-08-29. en-US. 0362-4331.
  4. News: Kohlruss . Carmen . 2021-10-08 . Native elder saved her tribe's language. Her Tulare County family vows to 'keep it going' . The Fresno Bee . 2023-08-23.
  5. Book: Gamble, Geoffrey. Wikchamni Grammar. University of California Publications in Linguistics, 89. 1978. Berkeley / Los Angeles.
  6. Web site: Language Status. Ethnologue. en. 2019-09-01.
  7. Web site: Riley. Elise A.. 2016. Language Revitalization Practices in Indigenous Communities of the U.S.. en-US.
  8. News: Seelye. Katharine Q.. 2021-10-06. Marie Wilcox, Who Saved Her Native Language From Extinction, Dies at 87. The New York Times. 0362-4331. 2021-10-10.
  9. Web site: Tulare County Nüümü Yadoha Program. Owens Valley Career Development Center. 25 September 2013 .
  10. Web site: Keeping Native American languages alive: In 'Marie's Dictionary,' Wukchumni lives on. 2018-04-20. Salon. 2019-08-29.
  11. Web site: Language Keepers. Emergence Magazine. 2019-08-29.