Maiduan languages

Not to be confused with the Mailuan languages.

Maiduan (also Maidun, Pujunan) is a small endangered language family of northeastern California.

Maiduan
Maidun, Pujunan
Geographic distribution	California
Ethnicity	Maidu, Konkow, Nisenan
Linguistic classification	Penutian? Maiduan
Subdivisions	Maidu Konkow Nisenan Chico† ?
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 4 languages:

• Maiduan
  • Maidu † (also known as Maidu proper, Northeastern Maidu, Mountain Maidu)
  • Chico † (also known as Valley Maidu)
  • Konkow (also known as Northwestern Maidu)
  • Nisenan † (also known as Southern Maidu)

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 3 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").

See also

• Maidu