Alsea language

Alsea /ˈælsiː/ or Alsean (also Yakonan) and Yaquina were two closely related speech varieties spoken along the central Oregon coast until the early 1950s.^[2] They are sometimes taken to be different languages, but it is difficult to be sure given the poor state of attestation; Mithun believes they were probably dialects of a single language.^[3] They are commonly held to be components of a language isolate.^[4]

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Quick Facts Native to, Region ...

Alsea
Alsea–Yaquina, Yakonan, Alséya
Native to	United States
Region	Oregon
Ethnicity	Alsea people, Yaquina people
Extinct	1951, with the death of John Albert^[1]
Language family	Coast Oregon Penutian? Alsea
Dialects	Alsea Yaquina
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`aes`
Linguist List	`aes`
Glottolog	`alse1251`
Pre-contact distribution of Alsean
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Classification

Alsea is usually considered to belong to the Penutian phylum, and may form part of a Coast Oregon Penutian subgroup together with Siuslaw and the Coosan languages.^[5] Numerous lexical resemblances between Alsea and the Northern Wintuan languages, however, are more likely the result of borrowing about 1,500 years ago when the (Northern) Wintuan speech community appears to have been located in Oregon. Alsea is also considered to be a language isolate.^[6]

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Varieties

Alsea
- Alsea (Alséya) †
- Yaquina (Yakwina, Yakona) †

Both are now extinct.

The name Alsea derives from the Coosan name for them, alsí or alsí·, and the Marys River Kalapuyan name for them, alsí·ya. Alsea was last recorded in 1942 from the last speaker, John Albert, by J. P. Harrington. Albert died in 1951.

The name Yaquina derives from the Alsean name for the Yaquina Bay and the Yaquina River region, yuqú·na. Yaquina was last recorded in 1884 by James Owen Dorsey.

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Phonology

Consonants

Alsea had 34 consonants:^[3]

More information Labial, Alveolar ...

	Labial	Alveolar	(Alveolo-) palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
plain	lateral	plain	labialized	plain	labialized	plain	labialized
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	p	t		tɕ	k	kʷ	q	qʷ	ʔ
ejective	p’	t’	tɬ’	tɕ’	k’	kʷ’	q’	qʷ’
Fricative			ɬ	ɕ	x	xʷ	χ	χʷ	h	hʷ^[a]
Sonorant	plain	m	n	l	j		w
glottalized	m’	n’	l’	j’		w’

The status of /hʷ/ is uncertain.

/ɕ/, /tɕ/ and /tɕ’/ are spelled as s, c and c̓ in modern descriptions.^[3]^[7] Their phonetic value has been described as "palatal",^[8] or "between alveolar and palatal".^[3]

Vowels

More information Front, Back ...

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low	a

Three vowels are listed as /a, i, u/. Long vowel variants of /i, u/ are [eː, oː]. A mid vowel /ə/ occurs as a phonetically inserted vowel sound.^[7]

Classification

Varieties

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

References

Further reading

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