MultiTree:

Name: Eastern Mono Type: Language Alternate Names: Paiute, Northern; Paviotso; Paiute (Northern); North Paiute; Paviotso-Bannock-Snake; Northern Paiute Spoken in: USA Number of speakers: 1,630 (1999 SIL), decreasing. US Census (2000) lists 25 Northern Paiute, 1,430 Paiute. Ethnic population: 6,000 (1999 SIL) (Ethnologue) Number of speakers: 710 (UNESCO) Number of speakers: 1631 (World Oral Literature Project) Code: pao Code Standard: ISO 639-3 Documentation: SIL Families: Uto-Aztecan (Yuta-Nawan) Parent Subgroup: Comanche; Western Numic; Monoish Group (wnum) Child Dialects: Northern Paiute; Yerington-Schurz (pao-yer) McDermitt; Bannock (pao-ban) Yerington-Schurz; McDermitt (pao-mcd) Brief Description: "Northern Paiute (Paviotso) is a Western Numic language formerly spoken in the western Great Basin from roughly the John Day River in Oregon south through the western third of Nevada, to the vicinity of Mammoth, California. Today limited numbers of speakers are found in reservation communities and colonies in Oregon, Nevada, California and Idaho, as well as in urban locations in these states. Principal communities are at Warm Springs and Burns, Oregon; Fort McDermitt, Owyhee, Winnemucca, Pyramid Lake, Reno-Sparks, Lovelock, Fallon, Yerington, and Walker River, Nevada; Lee Vining and Fort Bidwell, California. A variety (called Bannock) is also spoken by a few elderly people at Fort Hall, Idaho, where otherwise Shoshoni is the heritage language. There are two major dialects, with the Truckee River in west-central Nevada serving as the general dividing line. In addition, most of the individual communities have developed recognisable local varieties. Fluency in all communities except Fort McDermitt is confined to speakers 60 years and above, roughly 300 speakers total. Fort McDermitt has a fluency rate above 50 per cent (roughly 400 speakers), with about 20 per cent to 30 per cent of children acquiring it as their first language. Semi-speakers from all areas add another 400 to these figures. During the past 25 years nearly all communities have started teaching programmes, but few have continued. Beginning in the 1990s, Warm Springs, Reno-Sparks and Pyramid Lake began more sustained efforts." Victor Golla, Atlas of the World's Languages 2007 pg. 20

Endangerment Status

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UNESCO Status: Critically endangered Ethnologue Status: Not listed Sutherland's Red List: Not listed