Karuk language

Karuk
Region	Northwestern California, USA
Native speakers	10 (1997), 335 (2000)
Language family	Language isolate.
Language codes
ISO 639-2	nai
ISO 639-3	kyh
ELP	Karuk

Karuk or Karok is a moribund language of northwestern California. It was the traditional language of the Karuk people, most of whom now speak English.

William Bright worked to record the Karuk language, and this caused a revival.

According to Census 2000, there are 55 people between the ages of 5 and 17 who can speak Karuk, including 10 with limited English proficiency.

Classification

There have been proposals to include Karuk into the hypothetical Hokan phylum.

"The Karok language is not closely or obviously related to any other (in the area), but has been classified as a member of the northern group of Hokan languages, in a subgroup which includes Chimariko and the Shasta languages, spoken in the same general part of California as Karok itself." (Bright 1)

"The Karok, Yurok and Hupa formed the southern focus of the so-called North Pacific Coast Culture. While most of the information of this culture comes from studies of the Yuroks, there was a high degree of cultural uniformity among the three groups; neighbours on the same river highway, they visited each other's performances of the same festivals, intermarried and feuded over the same issues." (Drucker 176) As concerns the Karok, Yurok and Hupa cultures, in spite of the sameness of culture, the languages are not. The Karok language is not closely or obviously related to any other language.

Phonology

Vowels

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

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal or postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n
Stop	p			t	t͡ʃ	k	ʔ
Fricative	β	f	θ	s	(ʃ)	x	h
Flap				ɾ
Approximant					j

Grammar

Karuk is a polysynthetic language known for its method of arranging old and new information: "...skilled Karuk speakers use separate words to communicate new, salient detail, or to underscore known detail; and they use affixes for background details so that a listener's attention is not diverted."

References

• Bright, William. The Karok Language. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1957.
• Drucker, Philip. Cultures of the North Pacific Coast. San Francisco: Chandler, 1965.

External links

• Karuk Language Resources
• Karok Linguistic Lineage
• Efforts Under Way to Preserve Karuk Language
• Karuk Songs
• Karuk language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages