Patwin language

Patwin (Patween) is a critically endangered Wintuan language of Northern California. As of 2021, there was one documented first language speaker of Patwin.^[1][4] As of 2010, Patwin language classes were taught at the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation (formerly Rumsey Rancheria) tribal school (Dubin 2010).

Patwin
Southern Wintun
Native to	United States
Region	Colusa, Lake, Napa, Solano, and Yolo Counties, northern California
Ethnicity	Patwin
Native speakers	1 (2021)[1][2]
Revival	Being taught in schools and learned by adults[3]
Language family	Wintuan Southern Patwin
Dialects	Hill Patwin River Patwin ?Southern Patwin †
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pwi
Glottolog	patw1250
ELP	Patwin
Map of Patwin people and language
Patwin is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Patwin has two (excl. Southern Patwin) or three (incl. Southern Patwin) dialects: "River Patwin (or Valley Patwin) was traditionally spoken along the Sacramento River in Colusa County ... Hill Patwin, was spoken in the plains and foothills to the west."^[4][5]

Southern Patwin became extinct shortly after contact. It is very poorly attested, and may be a separate Southern Wintuan language (Mithun 1999).

As of 2012, the Tewe Kewe Cultural Center of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation has "a California Indian Library Collection and an extensive Patwin language and history research section."^[6]

Phonemes

Consonants

Patwin has 25 consonant phonemes.^[1] In the table below, the IPA form(s) of each consonant are given. This is followed by the form commonly used in Lawyer (2021)'s grammar, if this is different from the IPA form.

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			central	lateral
Plosive	voiceless	p	t				k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ				kʰ
	glottalized	pʼ	tʼ				kʼ
	voiced	b	d
Nasal		m	n
Fricative			s	ɬ ⟨ƚ⟩				h
Affricate	voiceless			t͡ɬ ⟨ƛ⟩	t͡ʃ ⟨č⟩
	glottalized			t͡ɬʼ ⟨ƛʼ⟩	t͡ʃʼ ⟨čʼ⟩
Trill/Flap			r̥ ~ ɾ ⟨r⟩
Approximant		w		l		j ⟨y⟩	w

• /ʔ/ is a marginal phoneme, occurring exclusively at morpheme boundaries. Its distribution is not entirely predictable, however.
• Glottalized and aspirated consonants occur only syllable-initially.
• Some or all of the "alveolar" consonants (both central and lateral) would be more accurately described as being retracted alveolar consonants.

Vowels

Patwin has 10 vowels:^[1]

	Short		Long
	Front	Back	Front	Back
High (close)	i	u	iː ⟨i·⟩	uː ⟨u·⟩
Mid	e	o	eː ⟨e·⟩	oː ⟨o·⟩
Low (open)	a		aː ⟨a·⟩

• Patwin vowels have a simple length distinction (short vs. long).
• All vowels are voiced and oral.

Orthography

Patwin Alphabet

a

a·

b

č

č’

d

e

e·

h

i

i·

k

kʰ

k’

l

ɬ

ƛ

ƛ’

m

n

o

o·

p

pʰ

p’

r

s

t

tʰ

t’

u

u·

w

y

ʔ