Barbareño language

Barbareño is one of the Chumashan languages, a group of Native American languages spoken almost exclusively in the area of Santa Barbara, California. The closely related Ineseño may have been a dialect of the same language. A dialect of the Barbareño language was also "spoken at San Emigdio near Buena Vista Lake" in the southern Central Valley. This dialect, called Emigdiano, "was heavily influenced by Buena Vista Yokuts."^[3] Barbareño lost its last known native speaker in 1965 with the death of Mary Yee.^[1] Both Barbareño and Ineseño are currently undergoing processes of language revitalization.^{[2][4][5][6][7][8]} An Ineseño dictionary was published in 2007.^[9]

Barbareño
Šmuwič
Native to	California, United States
Region	Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez
Extinct	1965, with the death of Mary Yee[1]
Revival	2010 (Barbareño), 2003 (Ineseño)[2]
Language family	Chumashan Southern Central Barbareño
Dialects	Emigdiano
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: boi – Barbareño inz – Ineseño
Glottolog	barb1263  Barbareno ines1240  Ineseno
ELP	Barbareño
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Language revitalization

As of 2013, the Barbareno Chumash Council is engaged in ongoing efforts to revive the language. Two of its members are language apprentices and teachers.^[10][11] Wishtoyo Chumash Village, in Malibu, California, announced the opening of its Šmuwič Language School in 2010.^[4][5]

Phonology

Consonants

Barbareño consonant phonemes

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Postalveolar/ Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
			plain	sibilant
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	p	t	t͡s	t͡ʃ	k	q	ʔ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	t͡sʼ	t͡ʃʼ	kʼ	qʼ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	t͡sʰ	t͡ʃʰ	kʰ	qʰ
Fricative	plain			s	ʃ	x		h
	ejective			sʼ	ʃʼ	xʼ
	aspirated			sʰ	ʃʰ
Nasal	plain	m	n
	glottalized	ˀm	ˀn
Approximant	plain		l		j	w
	glottalized		ˀl		ˀj	ˀw

Vowels

Barbareño vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Open	e	a	o

References

1. Poser, William J. (2004). "On the Status of Chumash Sibilant Harmony" (PDF). Ms., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Retrieved 2010-09-22.
2. "Chumash Culture". Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
3. "Barbareño". Survey of California and Other Indian Languages. Retrieved 2012-11-01.
4. "Chumash Language". Wishtoyo Foundation. Archived from the original on 2013-07-05. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
5. Moreno, Sarah Koyo (2011). "Our Ancestors are Happy: Chumash Language Learning at Wishtoyo". News from Native California. 24 (4). Archived from the original on 2013-02-02. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
6. Chawkins, Steve (2008-04-20). "Chumash recover their 'alishtaha'n: Armed with a trove of scattered notes, linguist saves ancestral tongue from brink of extinction". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
7. "Chumash Dictionary Breathes Life into Moribund Language". The Santa Barbara Independent. Archived from the original on 2014-05-08. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
8. "Bringing Back the Samala Chumash Language". Channel Islands National Park. 2010-04-08. Archived from the original on June 26, 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
9. Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians of the Santa Ynez Reservation, California; Applegate, Richard B., eds. (2007). Samala-English dictionary: a guide to the Samala language of the Ineseño Chumash People (1st ed.). Santa Ynez, Calif: Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. ISBN 978-0-615-13131-3. OCLC 231862451.
10. "Barbareno Chumash Council". Archived from the original on 2013-08-22. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
11. "Funded Projects". Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development. Archived from the original on 2013-05-09. Retrieved 2013-05-08.

Further reading

• Beeler, M. S. (January 1970). "Sibilant Harmony in Chumash". International Journal of American Linguistics. 36 (1): 14–17. doi:10.1086/465084. JSTOR 1264477. S2CID 145163145.
• Applegate, Richard. (1972). Ineseño Chumash Grammar. (Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley).
• Beeler, M. S. 1976. Barbareno Chumash: a farrago. In Langdon, Margaret and Silver, Shirley, eds. Hokan Studies: Papers from the 1st Conference on Hokan Languages held in San Diego, California April 23–25, 1970, pp. 251–270. The Hague: Mouton.
• Wash, Suzanne. (1995). Productive Reduplication in Barbareño Chumash. (Master's thesis, University of California, Santa Barbara; 210 + x pp.)
• Wash, Suzanne. (2001). Adverbial Clauses in Barbareño Chumash Narrative Discourse. (Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara; 569 + xxii pp.)

External links

• Barbareño language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• "Barbareño / Chumash sound recordings". Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
• Chumash Barbareño, Smithsonian Archives
• Barbareño Chumash Names for the Body
• Samala Chumash Language Tutorial
• OLAC resources in and about the Barbareño language
• OLAC resources in and about the Ineseño language
• Ineseño basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
•  This article incorporates public domain material from Bringing Back the Samala Chumash Language. National Park Service.