Mono language (Native American)

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Mono
Spoken in: United States 
Region: California
Total speakers: 37-41, see below
Language family: Uto-Aztecan
 Northern
  Numic
   Western
    Mono
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2:
ISO 639-3: mnr

The Mono language (also Monachi) is an Native American, Uto-Aztecan language of the Mono Indians (Shoshonean) of east-central California that is nearly extinct in the modern day.

Some researchers consider Mono to be two languages or dialects, Eastern and Western. The name Monachi is commonly used in reference to Western Mono. Monachi is additionally not a native term, but one given by another tribe.

Very little research has been done on Eastern Mono, which is spoken on the Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine, Bishop, and Benton reservations.

There has been no census on speakers of Eastern Mono, so the number of speakers above is almost certainly incorrect. Additionally, many speakers do not feel they are not fluent enough to be listed as speakers on the census.

[edit] References

  • Bethel, Rosalie; Paul Kroskrity; & Chris Loether. 1993. A Dictionary of Western Mono. In press.

[edit] External links

In other languages