| 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]
The following tables are based on Gamble (1978).[5]
| Bilabial | Dental/ Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ |
| aspirated | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| ejective | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| aspirated | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| ejective | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Nasal | plain | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| glottalized | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Approximant | plain | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| glottalized | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ |
All phonetic short vowel allophones include pronounced as /[ɪ], [ɛ], [ɨ̞], [ɜ], [ʌ], [o̞], [ʊ]/.
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.
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.
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]