 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (October 2024) |
| Wiyot | |
|---|---|
| Wishosk | |
| Soulatluk | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Northwestern California |
| Ethnicity | Wiyot |
| Extinct | 1962, with the death of Della Prince |
| Revival | late 2019[1] |
Algic
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wiy |
| Glottolog | wiyo1248 |
| ELP | Wiyot |
 Wiyot is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger [2] | |
Wiyot (also Wishosk) or Soulatluk (lit. 'your jaw') is an Algic language[3] spoken by the Wiyot people of Humboldt Bay, California. The language's last native speaker, Della Prince, died in 1962.
Wiyot, along with its geographical neighbor, the Yurok language, were first identified as relatives of the Algonquian languages by Edward Sapir in 1913, though this classification was disputed for decades in what came to be known as the Ritwan controversy. Due to the enormous geographical separation of Wiyot and Yurok from all other Algonquian languages, the validity of their genetic link was hotly contested by leading Americanist linguists; as Ives Goddard put it, the issue "has profound implications for the prehistory of North America".[4] However, by the 1950s, the genetic relationship between the Algonquian languages and Wiyot and Yurok had been established to the satisfaction of most, if not all, researchers, giving rise to the term Algic to refer to the Algonquian languages together with Wiyot and Yurok.[5]
The Wiyot Tribal Government is fostering a revival of the language through videos, online dictionaries, and an annual Wiyot language calendar.[1]
- ^ a b ""Rou Soulatlouy" Wiyot Conversation Book Project". Wiyot Tribe. Archived from the original on August 26, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
- ^ Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (Report) (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. p. 11. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
- ^ Campbell, Lyle (1997), p. 152
- ^ Goddard, Ives (1975). Algonquin, Wiyot and Yurok: Proving a Distant Genetic Relationship. The Peter de Ridder Press.
- ^ Campell, Lynn (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York City: Oxford University Press.