Central Pomo language

Central Pomo is an extinct Pomoan language spoken in Northern California. Pre-contact speakers of all the Pomoan languages have been estimated at 8,000 all together. This estimation was from the American anthropologist Alfred Kroeber.

Central Pomo
Native to	United States
Region	Northern California
Extinct	by 2000[1]
Language family	Hokan? Pomoan Western Southern Central Pomo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	poo
Glottolog	cent2138
ELP	Central Pomo
The seven Pomoan languages with an indication of their pre-contact distribution within California; Central Pomo in   green

"The Central Pomo language was traditionally spoken from the Russian River southwest of Clear Lake to the Pacific coast. There were settlements along the Russian River (in the southern Ukiah Valley, in Hopland Valley, and further south near the Sonoma County line), in the coastal region (at Manchester, Point Arena, and at the mouth of the Gualala River), and in the region between the two (around Yorkville and in Anderson Valley)."^[2]

It has a consonant inventory that is identical to the related Southern Pomo language with the following exceptions:

Central Pomo distinguishes velar /k/, /kʰ/, /kʼ/ from uvular /q/, /qʰ/, /qʼ/. It lacks a non-ejective alveolar affricate (i.e., it does not have /ts/ as a phoneme), and does not have length, in the form of geminate root consonants, as found in Southern Pomo.

As of 2013, a transcription project of Central Pomo materials collected by J.P. Harrington is underway.^[3]

Phonology

Consonants

			Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stop	Voiced		b		d
	Voiceless	Plain	p	t̪	t			k	q	ʔ
		Aspirated	pʰ	t̪ʰ	tʰ			kʰ	qʰ
		Ejective	pʼ	t̪ʼ	tʼ			kʼ	qʼ
Affricate		Plain			t͡s	t͡ʃ
		Aspirated				t͡ʃʰ
		Ejective			t͡sʼ	t͡ʃʼ
Nasal			m		n
Fricative					s	ʃ				h
Approximant			w		l		j

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː			u	uː
Mid	e	eː			o	oː
Open			a	aː

/e/ may also be heard as [ɛ].^[4]