Wailaki language

Wailaki
Eel River
Native to	USA
Region	California
Ethnicity	Eel River Athapaskans
Extinct	1960s
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Pacific Coast Athabaskan California Athabaskan Wailaki
Dialects	Sinkyone Wailaki Nongatl Lassik
Language codes
ISO 639-3	wlk
Glottolog	wail1244

Wailaki, also known as Eel River, is an extinct Athabaskan language spoken by the people of the Round Valley Reservation of northern California, one of four languages belonging to the California Athabaskan cluster of the Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages. Dialect clusters reflect the four Wailaki-speaking peoples, the Sinkyone, Wailaki, Nongatl, and Lassik, of the Eel River confederation.

Phonology

The sounds in Wailaki:

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Lateral	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
						plain	pal.
Plosive	plain	p	t			k	kʲ	ʔ
	aspirated		tʰ			kʰ	kʲʰ
	ejective		tʼ			kʼ	kʲʼ
Affricate	plain		(ts)		tʃ
	aspirated				tʃʰ
	ejective		tsʼ		tʃʼ
Fricative	plain		s	ɬ	ʃ			h
	voiced					ɣ
Nasal		(m)	n			ŋ
Approximant				l	j	(w)

Sounds /m, ts, w/ are rather rare.

Vowels

Vowels in Wailaki are /i e a o/, and with length as /iː eː aː oː/.

References

• Goddard, Pliny. Wailaki Texts. International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 2, No. 3/4 (Jan., 1923), pp. 77–135
• Seaburg, William. A Wailaki (Athapaskan) Text with Comparative Notes. International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 43, No. 4 (Oct., 1977), pp. 327–332
• Begay, Kayla Rae. Wailaki Grammar. PhD University of California Berkeley. (Fall 2017)[1]

External links

• Wailaki language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• Wailaki Language (Sinkyone, Lassik, Nongatl, Eel River Athabaskan)
• OLAC resources in and about the Wailaki language
• Wailaki at the California Language Archive