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Okwanuchu language

Okwanuchu is an extinct Shastan language formerly spoken in northern California. Kroeber described the language as "peculiar. Many words are practically pure Shasta; others are distorted to the very verge of recognizability, or utterly different." Golla^[1] speculates at length that the language may have mixed in another, non-Shasta language. Du Bois,^[2] interviewing a survivor of a group that the Wintu called Waymaq ("north people"), who she believed were probably identical to the Okwanuchu, recorded some words, including atsa ("water").^[1] Golla writes that eighteen more words are found, under the name "Wailaki [also meaning 'North People'] on McCloud", in an 1884 work by Jeremiah Curtin; he too recorded atsa ("water"), and five words not found elsewhere in Shastan.^[1]

• Mithun, Marianne (1999), The Languages of Native North America, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

• Overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages

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