Tataviam language

The Tataviam language was spoken by the Tataviam people of the upper Santa Clara River basin in southern California. It had become extinct by 1916 and is known only from a few early records, notably a word list collected by the linguist John P. Harrington in 1917.

Most scholars have recognized Tataviam as belonging to the Uto-Aztecan linguistic family. They have been uncertain whether it should be considered a member of the Takic branch (along with Gabrielino, Serrano, Luiseño, Cahuilla, and others) (Goddard 1996:7; King and Blackburn 1978:535; Mithun 1999:539) or perhaps a separate isolate-branch of Uto-Aztecan, like Tubatulabal and Hopi (Hinton 1994:85).

An alternative suggestion is that Tataviam was a Chumashan language that had been influenced by the neighboring Uto-Aztecans (Beeler and Klar 1977).

External links

• Tataviam web site
• native-languages.org
• Tataviam language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages

References

• Beeler, Madison, and Kathryn A. Klar. 1977. "Interior Chumash". Journal of California Anthropology 4:287-305.
• Bright, William. 1975. "The Alliklik Mystery". Journal of California Anthropology, 2:228-230.
• Goddard, Ives. 1996. "Introduction". In Languages, edited by Ives Goddard, pp. 1-16. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 17. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• Hinton, Leanne. 1994. Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages. Heyday Books, Berkeley, California.
• Hudson, Travis. 1982. "The Alliklik-Tataviam Problem". Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 4:222-232.
• Johnson, John R., and David D. Earle. 1990. "Tataviam Geography and Ethnohistory". Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 12:191-214.
• King, Chester, and Thomas C. Blackburn. 1978. "Tataviam". In California, edited by Robert F. Heizer, pp. 535-537. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 8. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.