Shasta language

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Shasta language

Overview
- Shasta is an extinct language of the Shastan family that was spoken from northern California into southwestern Oregon by the Shasta people.
- It had several dialects. The last fluent speaker died in 1978 (Clara Wicks). By 1980, only two elderly native speakers remained. Today, all Shasta people speak English as their first language.

Dialects
- Ikirakácˑu (Oregon Shasta)
- Irahikwáˑcˑu (Klamath River Shasta)
- Uwáˑtuhúcˑu (Scott Valley Shasta)
- Ahútˑireˀeˑcˑu (Shasta Valley Shasta)

Phonology in brief
- Consonants: Length matters for meaning. Includes stops like p, t, k and ejective forms such as pʼ, tʼ, t͡sʼ, t͡ʃʼ, kʼ; also s, x, h; nasals m, n; and approximants r, j, w.
- Vowels: Four vowels /i, e, a, u/ with short and long versions. There are two tones: high and low.
- Tone and length can change the meaning of words.

Orthography
- A spelling system created by Silver in 1966 marks long sounds with a ˑ after the letter and ejectives with a diacritic mark over the letter. The letter y represents /j/, and the glottal stop is written as ʔ.

Language family and codes
- Part of the Shastan branch within the broader Hokan language family.
- ISO 639-3 code: sht. Glottolog: shas1239.

References (selected)
- Silver, Shirley (1966). The Shasta Language. Ph.D. thesis, University of California.
- Golla, Victor (2011). California Indian languages. University of California Press.
- Mithun, Marianne (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge University Press.