Penutian languages

Penutian
(controversial)
Geographic
distribution
North America
Linguistic classificationProposed language family
Subdivisions
Language codes
GlottologNone
Pre-contact distribution of proposed Penutian languages.

Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The existence of a Penutian stock or phylum has been the subject of debate among specialists. Even the unity of some of its component families has been disputed. Some of the problems in the comparative study of languages within the phylum are the result of their early extinction and limited documentation.[1]

Some of the more recently proposed subgroupings of Penutian have been convincingly demonstrated. The Miwokan and the Costanoan languages have been grouped into a Utian language family by Catherine Callaghan.[2] Callaghan has more recently provided evidence supporting a grouping of Utian and Yokutsan into a Yok-Utian family.[3][4] There also seems to be convincing evidence for the Plateau Penutian grouping (originally named Shahapwailutan by J. N. B. Hewitt and John Wesley Powell in 1894) which would consist of Klamath–Modoc, Molala, and the Sahaptian languages (Nez Percé and Sahaptin).[5]

  1. ^ Campbell 1997; but see Delancey & Golla 1997, Golla 2007:81–82
  2. ^ Callaghan 1967
  3. ^ Callaghan 1997
  4. ^ Callaghan 2001
  5. ^ Delancey and Golla, 1997