Chochenyo
Nativenamelisiánish
StatesUnited States
EthnicityChochenyo people
Extinct1934, with the death of José Guzmán[1]
Revivedfrom 2002
Revived-catNative American language revitalization
Familycolorpenutian
Fam 1Yok-Utian
Fam 2Utian
Fam 3Ohlone
Fam 4Northern
Fam 5San Francisco Bay
ScriptLatin
Iso 3none
Iso3comment(included in [cst])
Glottoeast2548
GlottorefnameEast Bay [Costanoan]
Elp7409
ElpnameSan Francisco Bay Costanoan (shared)
AltnameČočeño, East Bay
RegionCalifornia

Chochenyo (also called Chocheño, Northern Ohlone and East Bay Costanoan) is the spoken language of the Chochenyo people. Chochenyo is one of the Ohlone languages in the Utian family.

Description and history

Linguistically, Chochenyo, Tamyen and Ramaytush are thought to have been dialects of a single language, but Tamyen and Ramaytush are very poorly attested. The speech of the last two native speakers of Chochenyo was documented in the 1920s in the unpublished fieldnotes of the Bureau of American Ethnology linguist John Peabody Harrington. The final native speaker of the language was José Guzmán who died in 1934 in Niles, California.

The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, which (as of 2007)[2] is petitioning for U.S. federal recognition, has made efforts to revive the language. As of 2004, "the Chochenyo database being developed by the tribe ... [contained] from 1,000 to 2,000 basic words."[3][1] By 2009, many students were able to carry on conversations in the Chochenyo language. Through both successful word formation, as well as extending documented words, the Chochenyo dictionary has grown significantly throughout the early 21st century.[4] During the canonization of Saint Junípero Serra on September 23, 2015, the first reading at Mass was read in Chochenyo by Vincent Medina.[5]

Phonology

Consonants[6]
LabialDental/
alveolar		RetroflexPalatalVelarGlottal
hardsoft
Nasalmnnʲ
Plosiveptʈkʔ
Affricatetstʃ
Fricativesʃxh
Approximantwlj
Flapɾ
Vowels[6]
FrontBack
Closeiu
Close-mido
Open-midɛ
Openɑ

The vowels can be long or short. Prolongation is shown by repeating the vowel.

  • oo is pronounced /oː/, not /uː/

References

  1. ^ Tremain, Kerry (Apr 4, 2008). "A faith in words". Archived from the original on April 4, 2008. Retrieved Dec 18, 2019.
  2. ^ Ron Russell (2007-03-28). "The Little Tribe That Could. As descendants of San Francisco's aboriginal people, the Muwekma Ohlone Indian tribe seldom gets much respect. But that could be about to change.". SF Weekly. Archived 2023-02-25 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  3. ^ Kathleen Maclay (2004-06-04). "06.04.2004 - Conferences focus on saving native languages". UC Berkeley News. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  4. ^
  5. ^ Canonization Mass for Junipero Serra (in Latin, Spanish, English, Chochenyo). Washington: C-SPAN. September 23, 2015. p. 67. Archived 2023-08-14 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2023-08-14.
  6. ^ Harrington, John Peabody. "Chochenyo Linguistics Notes". siris-archives.si.edu. Smithsonian Institution.