Esselen
The traditional Esselen language area is the northern Santa Lucia Range in what is now Monterey County. In pre-contact times, there were between 500 and 1,000 speakers (Kroeber 1925). There have been no first-language speakers of Esselen since the beginning of the 21st century (Golla 2011). Esselen is an isolate within the hypothesized Hokan language family. This includes, in addition to Esselen, Chimariko, Karuk, the Palaihnihan languages (Achumawi and Atsugewi), the Pomoan languages (Central Pomo, Eastern Pomo, Kashaya, Northeastern Pomo, Northern Pomo, Southeastern Pomo, and Southern Pomo), Salinan, the Shastan languages (Konomihu, New River Shasta, Okwanuchu, and Shasta), Washo, Yana, and the Yuman languages (Cocopa, Kiliwa, Kumeyaay, Maricopa, Mojave, Pai, Paipai, and Quechan).
Selected archival materials at Berkeley
Selected materials in other archives
Further reading
- Beeler, Madison S. 1978. Esselen. Journal of California Anthropology, Papers in Linguistics 1:3-38.
- Golla, Victor. 2011. California Indian languages. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Heizer R. F., ed. 1952. California Indian linguistic records: The Mission Indian vocabularies of Alphonse Pinart. University of California Anthropological Records 15:1-84. [PDF]
- Shaul, David. 1995. The Huelel (Esselen) language. International Journal of American Linguistics 61:191-239.[PDF]
- Shaul, David & Turner, Katherine & Collins, James. 1984. Esselen Linguistic Materials. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics. [PDF]
- Shaul, David. 1995. The Last Words of Esselen. International Journal of American Linguistics 61:2 245-249 [PDF]
- Shaul, David. 2019. Esselen studies: Language, culture, and prehistory. Muenchen: Lincom GmbH