California linguistic area

E73824

The California linguistic area is a region of North America where diverse indigenous languages, including the Utian family, share convergent structural features due to long-term contact and diffusion.


Statements (44)
Predicate Object
instanceOf Sprachbund
linguistic area
continent North America
country United States of America
surface form: "United States"
distinctFrom Great Basin linguistic area
Mesoamerican linguistic area
Pacific Northwest
surface form: "Pacific Northwest linguistic area"
hasCause long-term contact among indigenous groups
multilingualism among indigenous communities
hasConceptualOrigin observation of areal patterns in California languages
hasFeature areal convergence of morphological traits
areal convergence of phonological traits
areal convergence of syntactic traits
complex verbal morphology in many languages
diffusion of grammatical patterns across language families
extensive lexical borrowing among neighboring languages
frequent use of suffixing morphology
patterns of case-marking influenced by contact
relatively small phoneme inventories in many languages
shared discourse particles and evidentials in some languages
shared semantic calques across languages
shared structural features due to language contact
hasReferenceWork studies of California Indian languages
hasTemporalExtent pre-contact period to present
hasTypeOfContact intermarriage-related language contact
ritual and ceremonial language contact
trade-related language contact
includesLanguageFamily Costanoan languages
Hokan languages
Maiduan languages
Miwok languages
Penutian languages
Pomoan languages
Utian languages
Uto-Aztecan
surface form: "Uto-Aztecan languages"

Wintuan languages
Yokutsan languages
surface form: "Yokuts languages"

Yuman language family
surface form: "Yuman languages"
influences structural similarity among unrelated languages in California
involvesPopulation indigenous peoples of California
locatedIn California, United States
surface form: "California"
studiedInField Native American linguistics
areal linguistics
historical linguistics

Referenced by (5)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Costanoan languages arealAssociation California linguistic area
Yokutsan languages arealFeature California linguistic area
Utian languages arealGroup California linguistic area
Maiduan languages arealGrouping California linguistic area
Yana language belongsTo California linguistic area

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