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Northern Pomo language

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Northern Pomo language

Northern Pomo is a dormant Pomoan language, formerly spoken by the indigenous Pomo people in what is now called California. The speakers of Northern Pomo were traditionally those who lived in the northern and largest area of the Pomoan territory. Other communities near to the Pomo were the Coast Yuki, the Huchnom, and the Athabascan. Ukiah High School first began offering Northern Pomo in the Fall 2020.

Northern Pomo falls under the Western branch of the Pomoan language family, and it is the only language categorized in this branch that is not part of the Southern group.

There are seven different Pomoan languages:

While these languages are related, "Pomo" is roughly equivalent to "Germanic"—while there may be similarities, these are all clearly distinct languages that are not mutually intelligible.

The earliest noted documentation of Native Americans in this area was by General Drake in 1579, but it cannot be certain that the people he encountered were what is now considered to be the Pomo. A census was delivered of the people in this area by Colonel Redick M'Kee during an expedition in 1851 putting the Pomo at roughly 1000–1200 people. The language was not documented during either encounter.

Later expeditions by John Wesley Powell in 1891 and Samuel Barrett in 1908 would record accounts of the language family and its branches.

Northern Pomo was spoken in the United States of America in the northern coastal area of California. The Pomo inhabited a massive amount of territory north of the San Francisco Bay and surrounding Clear Lake in northern California, US. According to the 2010 United States Census, there are 10,308 Pomo people in the United States. Of these, 8,578 reside in California.

Allophones of /kʰ, t͡sʼ/ include [x, sʼ].

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