Konomihu is an extinct Shastan language formerly spoken in northern California. There may have been only a few speakers even before contact, and they self-identified as Shasta by the turn of the 20th century.[1]

Konomihu
Native toUnited States
RegionSalmon River, northern California
EthnicityKonomihu Shasta
Extinct1940s
Hokan ?
  • Shasta–Palaihnihan
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologkono1241
  Konomihu

Konomihu may have been the most divergent of the Shastan family, although it is difficult to tell, as there is little material on the language.[2] Kroeber noted that "it is still questionable whether their speech is more properly a highly specialized aberration of Shasta or of an ancient and independent but moribund branch of Hokan from which Karok and Chimariko are descended together with Shasta." A wordlist was collected by Angulo in 1928, but not published;[3] some words are documented and compared by Shasta proper by Shirley Silver in Shasta and Konomihu in 1980.

References

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  1. ^ Kroeber (1925)
  2. ^ Mithun (1999)
  3. ^ Handbook of North American Indians: California

Sources

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  • Mithun, Marianne (1999), The Languages of Native North America, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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