Karuk language

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Karuk
Spoken in:	Northwestern California, USA
Total speakers:	10 (1997), 335 (2000)
Language family:	Language isolate.
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	nai
ISO 639-3:	kyh
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

Karuk or Karok is a moribund language of northwestern California, USA. 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.

Contents 1 Classification 2 Phonology 2.1 Vowels 2.2 Consonants 3 Grammar 4 References

[edit] Classification

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

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i (ĩ) iː	u uː
Mid	eː	oː
Low	a (ã) aː

[edit] Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal or postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Stops and affricate	p			t	tʃ	k	ʔ
Fricatives	β	f	θ	s	(ʃ)	x	h
Nasals	m			n
Flap				ɾ
Approximant					j

[edit] 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." ^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ Silver, Shirley & Miller, Wick R., "American Indian Languages: Cultural and Social Contexts" (1997, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pg. 41).