Achumawi (also Achomawi, Pit River) is a severely endangered Palaihnihan language spoken in northeastern California by perhaps ten speakers out of an estimated ethnic group of 1500.
Originally comprised of nine dialects.
Achumawi is related to Atsugewi. The Palaihnihan family is being considered as part of the hypothetical Hokan stock.
Bibliography
- Bright, William. (1965). [Review of A history of Palaihnihan phonology by D. L. Olmstead]. Language, 41 (1), 175-178.
- Good, Jeff. (2004). A sketch of Atsugewi phonology. Boston, MA. (Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, January 8–11).
- Good, Jeff; McFarland, Teresa; & Paster, Mary. (2003). Reconstructing Achumawi and Atsugewi: Proto-Palaihnihan revisited. Atlanta, GA. (Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, January 2–5).
- Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
- Olmstead, David L. (1954). Achumawi-Atsugewi non-reciprocal intelligibility. International Journal of American Linguistics, 20, 181-184.
- Olmstead, David L. (1956). Palaihnihan and Shasta I: Labial stops. Language, 32 (1), 73-77.
- Olmstead, David L. (1957). Palaihnihan and Shasta II: Apical stops. Language, 33 (2), 136-138.
- Olmstead, David L. (1959). Palaihnihan and Shasta III: Dorsal stops. Language, 35 (4), 637-644.
- Olmstead, David L. (1964). A history of Palaihnihan phonology. University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 35). Berkeley: University of California Press.
