Maiduan languages
Small endangered language family of northeastern California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maiduan (also Maidun, Pujunan) is a small endangered language family of northeastern California.
distributionCalifornia
| Maiduan | |
|---|---|
| Maidun, Pujunan | |
| Geographic distribution | California |
| Ethnicity | Maidu, Konkow, Nisenan |
| Linguistic classification | Penutian?
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | maid1262 |
Pre-contact distribution of Maiduan languages | |
 Pre-contact distribution of Maiduan languages (California detail map) | |
Family division
The Maiduan consists of four languages:
The languages have similar sound systems but differ significantly in terms of grammar. They are not mutually intelligible, even though many works often refer to all of the speakers of these languages as Maidu. The Chico dialects are little known due to scanty documentation, so their precise genetic relationship to the other languages probably cannot be determined (Mithun 1999), and in any case may have been not a fourth Maiduan language, but widely divergent dialects of Konkow (Ultan 1967).
Three of the languages went extinct by approximately the year 2000. Konkow was reported to have three elderly speakers in 2007.[1]
Genetic relations
Maiduan is often considered in various Penutian phylum proposals. It was one of the original members of California Penutian (the Penutian "core").
