The Costanoan Subgroup > LINGUIST List Language Search
Name:
Costanoan
Alternate Names:
Coastanoan; Olamentke
Code:
cost
Code Authority:
LINGUIST List
Code Standard:
Private Use
Families:
Miwok-Costanoan (Utian)
Parent Subgroup:
Utian; Miwok-Costanoan (utia)
Child Languages:
Rumsen; Rumsien; Runsien; Monterey; Carmel; San Carlos (css-rum)
Rumsen (09t)
Chochenyo; Chocheño; East Bay; San Jose; Chokuyem (cst-cho)
Chochenyo; Chocheño (09o)
Chalon (09r)
Chalon; Soledad (cst-cha)
Mutsun (09s)
Mutsun; San Juan Bautista; San Juan Batista (css-mut)
Awaswas (09q)
Awaswas; Santa Cruz (cst-awa)
Ramaytush (09n)
Ramaytush; San Francisco; Sonomi (cst-ram)
Tamyen (09p)
Tamyen; Santa Clara (cst-tam)
Brief Description:
"Costanoan is one of the two branches of the Utian family, and includes eight languages that were spoken in a compact area along the coast of California from north of San Francisco to south of Monterey. All Costanoan languages are extinct, and some are very poorly documented. Three of the four languages formerly spoken around San Francisco Bay, Karkin, Ramaytush and Tamyen, have been extinct since the mid-nineteenth century and are known only through short vocabularies. The fourth language, Chochenyo, formerly spoken along the eastern shore of the bay, was moderately well documented by Harrington early in the twentieth century, although very little of his material has been published. Awaswas, spoken around Santa Cruz, and Chalon, spoken in the Salinas Valley near Mission Soledad, became extinct early along and are very scantily attested. Mutsun was the language of the area around Mission San Juan Bautista. It survived until the 1930s and is well documented, both from the Mission period and in the twentieth century by Harrington. The Mission materials have been published, and there is an unpublished grammar and dictionary based on Harrington's materials. Rumsen (Rumsien) was the language of the Monterey area. It is moderately well documented, mostly by Harrington, and a full dictionary has been prepared based on all extant Rumsen materials." Victor Golla, Atlas of the World's Languages 2007 pg. 13
Linguist List Status: Extinct
Endangerment Status
Linguist List Status: Extinct
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