Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in Washington, Oregon, and California. There a number of varying opinions concerning its validity.

The name is based on the words meaning 'two' in the Wintuan, Maiduan, and Yokutsan languages (which is pronounced something like ) and the Utian languages (which is pronounced something like [uti]).

Contents

1 Discussion 2 History of Proposals 2.1 Origin of the 5 core families 2.2 Sapir's expansion 2.3 The current hypothesis 3 External link 4 Bibilography

Discussion

It is probably best to consider the Penutian grouping as undemonstrated. Not only is Penutian undemonstrated, but many of the lower groupings are also undemonstrated although some of the subgroupings appear to be promising. The initial proposal of Penutian was based on scarce data which was sometimes not entirely reliable. Quite a bit of research has been done and is continuing to be done on investigating the genetic relations between the various subgroupings. Research is still needed to determine many uncertainties, and there remain differences in opinion between linguists. A number of the languages are no longer spoken leaving researchers with no new data to work with.

Some sugroupings have been convincingly demonstrated. Miwokan and Costanoan languages are grouped into an Utian language family. There seems to be convincing evidence for the Plateau Penutian grouping (a grouping originally called Shahapwailutan by J. N. B. Hewitt and John Wesley Powell in 1894) which would consist of Klamath-Modoc, Molala, and the Sahaptian languages, Nez Perce and Sahaptin. The inclusion of Cayuse into Plateau Penutian is questionable due to so little data.

The other groupings probably need more research before asserting them as fact. The final determination of Penutian is yet to come.

History of Proposals

Origin of the 5 core families

In 1910, Alfred L. Kroeber had combined the Maiduan languages and the Costanoans languages (later these were conclusively demonstrated to make up an Utian family by linguist Catherine Callaghan). The original hypothesis of Penutian was suggested by Roland B. Dixon and Kroeber in 1903, published later in 1913 and 1919. This hypothesis combined Miwok-Costanoan (i.e. Utian) with three other Californian language families and is known as "Core Penutian":

• Utian languages (a.k.a. Miwok-Costanoan)
• Maiduan languages
• Wintuan languages
• Yokutsan languages

The grouping, like many of Dixon & Kroeber's other family proposals, was based mostly on shared typological characteristics. Starting from this early date, the Penutian hypothesis was controversial.

Sapir's expansion

In 1916 Edward Sapir expanded Dixon and Kroeber's California Penutian family with a sister stock, Oregon Penutian:

• California Penutian
  • Maiduan languages
  • Wintuan languages
  • Yokutsan languages
  • Utian languages  (a.k.a. Miwok-Costanoan)
• Oregon Penutian
  • Takelma
  • Coosan languages
  • Siuslaw

Later Sapir and Leo Frachtenberg added Kalapuyan and Chinookan languages and then Alsea, culminating in Sapir's 1921 four-branch classification:

I. California Penutian family

1. Maiduan
2. Wintuan
3. Yokutsan
4. Utian

II. Oregon Penutian family

1. Takelma
2. Coosan
3. Siuslaw
4. Kalapuyan
5. Alsea

III. Chinookan languages

IV. Tsimshianic languages

By Sapir's 1929 Encylopedia Britannica article, he had added two more branches:

• Plateau Penutian family
  • Klamath-Modoc
  • Cayuse
  • Molala
  • Sahaptian languages
• Mexican Penutian family
  • Mixe-Zoque languages
  • Huave

resulting in a six-branch family:

I. California Penutian

II. Oregon Penutian

III. Chinookan

IV. Tsimshianic

V. Plateau Penutian

VI. Mexican Penutian

(Sapir's full 1929 classification scheme including the Penutian proposal can be seen here: Native American languages/Previous classifications#Sapir (1929).)

Other linguists have suggested other languages be included within the Penutian grouping.

The current hypothesis

As of Goddard's (1996) Languages volume of the Handbook of North American Indians series, the current Penutian grouping that is being investigated is the following

I.	Alsean family
II.	Chinookan family
III.	Coosan family
IV.	Maiduan family
V.	Plateau Penutian family
VI.	Takelman family
VII.	Tsimshianic family
VIII.	Utian family
IX.	Wintuan family
X.	Yokutsan family
XI.	Siuslaw language

External link

• Penutian (Scott DeLancey's site) (has online papers)
• Bibliography of comparative Penutian
• Tribal Language Groups of Northern and Central California
  • California Tribal Linguistics Groups map (.gif)
  • California Indian Tribal Groups Map (.gif)
• Ethnologue classification for Penutian (note that Ethnologue is using one of the older classification schemes)

Bibilography

• Berman, Howard. (1996). The position of Molala in Plateau Penutian. International Journal of American Linguistics, 62, 1-30.
• Callaghan, Catherine A. (1967). Miwok-Costanoan as a subfield of Penutian. International Journal of American Linguistics, 33, 224-227.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• DeLancey, Scott; & Golla, Victor. (1997). The Penutian hypothesis: Retrospect and prospect. International Journal of American Linguistics, 63, 171-202.
• Dixon, Roland R.; & Kroeber, Alfred L. (1903). The native languages of California. American Anthropologist, 5, 1-26.
• Dixon, Roland R.; & Kroeber, Alfred L. (1913). Relationship of the Indian languages of California. Science, 37, 225.
• Dixon, Roland R.; & Kroeber, Alfred L. (1913). New linguistic families in California. American Anthropologist, 15, 647-655.
• Dixon, Roland R.; & Kroeber, Alfred L. (1919). Linguistic families of California (pp. 47-118) Berkeley: University of California.
• Kroeber, Alfred L. (1910). The Chumash and Costanoan languages. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, 9, 259-263.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Sapir, Edward. (1921). A bird's-eye view of American languages north of Mexico. Science, 54, 408.
• Sapir, Edward. (1929). Central and North American languages. Encyclopaedia Britaannica (14th ed.; Vol. 5; pp. 138-141).