Mono language (California)

File:Mono audio- mnr story (UCLAPhoneticsLab).webm in 1984]]

The number of Native speakers in 1994 ranged from 37 to 41. The majority of speakers are from the Northfork Rancheria and the community of Auberry. The Big Sandy Rancheria and Dunlap have from 12 to 14 speakers.{{sfn|Hinton|1994|p=30}} The Northfork Mono are developing a dictionary, and both they and the Big Sandy Rancheria provide language classes. While not all are completely fluent, about 100 members of Northfork have "some command of the language."{{sfn|Hinton|1994|p=31}} In the late 1950s, Lamb compiled a dictionary and grammar of Northfork Mono.{{sfn|Miller|1986|p=101}} The Western Mono language has a number of Spanish loanwords dating to the period of Spanish colonization of the Californias,{{sfn|Kroskrity|Reinhardt|1985}} as well as loanwords from Yokuts and Miwok.{{sfn|Loether|1998}}{{sfn|Loether|1993}}

In the mid-1990s, an estimated 50 people spoke the Owens Valley Paiute language, also known as Eastern Mono.{{sfn|Hinton|1994|p=30}} Informal language classes exist and singers keep native language songs alive.{{sfn|Hinton|1994|p=31}} Linguist Sydney Lamb studied this language in the 1950s and proposed the name Paviotso, but that was not widely adopted.{{sfn|Miller|1986|p=98}}The Handbook of Indians of California, by A. L. Kroeber (1919) says that the Owens Valley Paiutes are Northern Paiute or Mono/Bannock.

{{notelist}}

• Vowel length is also evenly distributed among the dialects.

Below is given the consonant phoneme inventory of Northfork Western Mono and Owens Valley Paiute as presented by Lamb (1958) and Liljeblad & Fowler (1986).

• Geminated sounds of plosives, nasals and fricatives are also evenly distributed.

Lamb (1958) also described four suprasegmental features{{Which|date=September 2024}} that he ascribed phonemic status.

Mono is an agglutinative language, in which words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.

• Mono traditional narratives

{{reflist|20em}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book |first=Leanne |last=Hinton |author-link=Leanne Hinton |date=1994 |title=Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages |location=Berkeley |publisher=Heyday Books |isbn=0-930588-62-2 |url=https://pages.ucsd.edu/~rfrank/class_web/ES-110/ETHN110articles/California/hinton_21-69.pdf}}
• {{cite journal |first=Wick R. |last=Miller |author-link=Wick R. Miller |date=1986 |title=Numic Languages |journal=Handbook of North American Indians: Great Basin |volume=11 |pages=98–106 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |isbn=978-0-16-004581-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofnorth011stur}}
• {{cite book |first1=Sven |last1=Liljeblad |first2=Catherine |last2=Fowler |author2-link=Catherine S. Fowler |date=1986 |chapter=Owens Valley Paiute |title=Great Basin |editor=W. L. d'Azevedo |pages=412–434 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}
• {{cite thesis |first=Sydney M |last=Lamb |author-link=Sydney Lamb |year=1958 |title=A Grammar of Mono |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |url=https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/documents/dissertations/lamb-1958.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120602011837/https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/documents/dissertations/lamb-1958.pdf |archive-date=June 2, 2012}}
• {{cite journal |first1=Paul V. |last1=Kroskrity |first2=Gregory A. |last2=Reinhardt |date=Apr 1985 |title=On Spanish Loans in Western Mono |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=51 |number=2 |pages=231–237 |doi=10.1086/465868}}
• {{cite book |first=Christopher |last=Loether |date=1998 |chapter=Yokuts and Miwok Loan Words in Western Mono |title=The Life of Language: Papers in Linguistics in Honor of William Bright |pages=101–122 |editor-first1=Jane H. |editor-last1=Hill |editor-first2=P. J. |editor-last2=Mistry |editor-first3=Lyle |editor-last3=Campbell |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |doi=10.1515/9783110811155.101 |isbn=978-3-11-015633-1}}
• {{cite journal |first=Christopher |last=Loether |date=1993 |title=Nɨ-ɨ-mɨna Ahubiya: Western Mono Song Genres |journal=Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology |volume=15 |number=1 |pages=48–57 |jstor=27825506}}
• {{cite journal |first=Sheldon |last=Klein |date=Oct 1959 |title=Comparative Mono-Kawaiisu |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=25 |number=4 |pages=233–238 |doi=10.1086/464537}}

{{Refend}}

• {{cite book

| first1=Rosalie |last1=Bethel

| last2=Kroskrity |first2= Paul V.

| last3=Loether |first3=Christopher

| last4=Reinhardt |first4=Gregory A.

| year=1993

| title=A Dictionary of Western Mono

| publisher=American Indian Studies Center, University of California

| location=Los Angeles

}}

• {{cite book

| first = Sydney M | last = Lamb | author-link = Sydney Lamb

| title = Monachi dictionary

| url=https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/documents/publications/Lamb.002.pdf

| publisher=Ms., Survey of California and Other Indian Languages

| access-date=July 9, 2012

}}

• {{cite thesis

| first = Evan J. | last = Norris

| year= 1986

| title = A Grammar Sketch and Comparative Study of Eastern Mono

| type = PhD dissertation

| publisher = University of California, San Diego

}}

• {{cite news

|first=Norimitsu |last=Onishi

|date=17 June 2012

|title=With Casino Revenues, Tribes Push to Preserve Languages, and Cultures

|work=The New York Times

|page=14

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/us/chukchansi-tribe-in-california-pushes-to-preserve-language.html}}

• {{Cite news

| first = Charles | last = McCarthy

| title = Learning an almost lost language; The few Mono Indians remaining who speak their tongue are passing it down to children to preserve culture.

| work = The Fresno Bee

| access-date = 2012-07-09

| date = 2007-10-14

| url = https://www.kumeyaay.com/kumeyaay-news/news-archive/185-learning-an-almost-lost-language-the-few-mono-indians-remaining-who-speak-their-tongue-are-passing-it-down-to-children-to-preserve-culture.html

}}

• {{Cite news

| first = James |last = May

| title = Defying the Silence, Part 2: A Race Against Time

| work = Indian Country Today

| access-date = 2012-07-09

| date = 2003-07-11

| url = https://senaawest.bravehost.com/nativelanguage/defyingsilence.htm

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131220081758/https://senaawest.bravehost.com/nativelanguage/defyingsilence.htm

| archive-date = 2013-12-20

| url-status = dead

}}

• {{Cite web

| title = Mono Language and the Mono Indian Tribe (Monache, Monachi)

| access-date = 2012-07-09

| url = https://www.native-languages.org/mono.htm

}}

• [https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/languages/mono.php Mono language] overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• {{Citation

| title = Nuumu Yadoha Language Program: Lessons 1 thru 8 CD, Quick Pronunciation Guide: Lessons 9-16 CD

| access-date = 2012-07-09

| date = April 2002

| url = https://eslibrary.berkeley.edu/NASsites/finding-aid-native-american-audio-collection

}}

• [https://www.language-archives.org/language/mnr OLAC resources in and about the Mono language]

{{Uto-Aztecan languages}}

{{Languages of California}}

{{Populations of Native California Groups}}

{{Language families}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mono language}}

Category:Mono people

Category:Agglutinative languages

Category:Numic languages

Category:Indigenous languages of California

Category:Indigenous languages of the North American Great Basin

Category:Endangered Uto-Aztecan languages

Category:Native American language revitalization