| Also Known As: Karuk
Description:
Karuk or Karok is a moribund language of northwestern California. It was the traditional language of the Karuk people, most of whom now speak English.
William Bright worked to record the Karuk language, and this caused a revival.
According to Census 2000, there are 55 people between the ages of 5 and 17 who can speak Karuk, including 10 with limited English proficiency.
There have been proposals to include Karuk into the hypothetical Hokan phylum.
"The Karok language is not closely or obviously related to any other (in the area), but has been classified as a member of the northern group of Hokan languages, in a subgroup which includes Chimariko and the Shasta languages, spoken in the same general part of California as Karok itself." (Bright 1)
"The Karok, Yurok and Hupa formed the southern focus of the so-called North Pacific Coast Culture. While most of the information of this culture comes from studies of the Yuroks, there was a high degree of cultural uniformity among the three groups; neighbours on the same river highway, they visited each other's performances of the same festivals, intermarried and feuded over the same issues." (Drucker 176) As concerns the Karok, Yurok and..... full article at Wikipedia |
