Ethnicity Chochenyo people Revival early 2000s | Extinct 1920s | |
Language family Yok-UtianUtianCostanoanNorthernSan Francisco BayChochenyo | ||
Chochenyo (also called Chocheño and East Bay Costanoan) is the spoken language of the Chochenyo people. Chochenyo is one of the Costanoan dialects in the Utian family. Linguistically, Chochenyo, Tamyen and Ramaytush are thought to have been dialects of a single language.
Contents
The speech of the last two native speakers of Chochenyo was documented in the 1920s in the unpublished fieldnotes of the Bureau of American Ethnology linguist John Peabody Harrington.
The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, which (as of 2007) is petitioning for U.S. federal recognition, has made efforts to revive the language. As of 2004, "the Chochenyo database being developed by the tribe ... [contained] from 1,000 to 2,000 basic words." By 2009, many students were able to carry on conversations in the Chochenyo language. Through both successful word formation, as well as extending documented words, the Chochenyo dictionary has grown significantly throughout the early 21st Century. During the canonization of Saint Junípero Serra on September 23, 2015, the first reading at Mass was read in Chochenyo by Vincent Medina, a Muwekma Ohlone tribal member.
Phonology
Consonants
There are five vowels:
The vowels can be long or short. Prolongation is shown by repeating the vowel
Vocabulary
Animals
Plants:
Earth
Body