Algic languages

Algisch (also Algonquian - Wiyot - Yurok or Algonquian Ritwan ) is a US-based North American language family. It belongs to the indigenous American languages ​​.

For Algischen belongs to a subfamily of the Algonquian languages ​​, on the other hand the individual languages ​​Yurok and Wiyot in northwestern California, one of which is disputed whether they are pooled to form Ritwan mentioned family or not. Algisch as a language family was first proposed in 1913 by Edward Sapir. The proposal, however, was long debated, until 1958, a further satisfactory evidence has been adduced to show that the languages ​​involved are actually used. The reconstruction of a proto-language was still not possible.

  • 6.1 Linguistic Databases
  • 6.2 Science and Education Pages

Original home and habitat

Victor Golla considering the possibility that Wiyot and Yurok are the only remains of an Oregon - California dialect chain along the Pacific coast could be comparable to the Oregon - California Athabaskan, by its propagation, it was largely obsolete. However, there are clear indications were that the two languages ​​originally much further north, in the Columbia Basin, spoken in the east of the present-day state of Washington. In addition, recently advocated by some researchers a Western origin of the Algonquian languages ​​, after having their presumed starting area for a long time in the Great Lakes region. So it is more likely that the common precursor of algischen languages ​​spoken in the extreme northwest of the United States today, in an area in which a very different language group, the inland Salish, was located in historic times.

The last Wiyot speaker died in 1962; Yurok only something few speakers.

Classification of Algischen languages

  • Yurok
  • Wiyot
  • Algonquian
Yurok language Wiyot language Columbia River Washington (state)
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