Shoshonean Languages

Shoshonean Languages 

the languages of the Shoshoni Indians, who include the Comanche, Ute, and Hopi; the collective name for the languages of the four subgroups of the Uto-Aztecan family spoken in the southwestern USA and Lower California.

The four subgroups of the Shoshonean languages are the Numic languages, the Tübatulabal language, the Takic languages, and the Hopi language. The Numic, or Plateau Shoshonean, languages include Bannock, whose dialects are Snake, Northern Paiute, and Mono; Shoshoni, whose dialects are Comanche, Gosiute, and Koso (Panamint); and Ute, whose dialects are Southern Paiute, Chemehuevi, and Kawaiisu. The Takic, or Southern Californian, languages comprise Serrano, Luiseño, Cupeño, Cahuilla, and the extinct Gabrielino and Juaneño.

The theories of linguists of the early 20th century that the Shoshonean languages form a single group within the Uto-Aztecan family have been controverted by later studies based on the research of such American scholars as B. Whorf and S. Lamb.

REFERENCES

Voegelin, C. F. Tübatulabal Grammar. Berkeley, Calif., 1935. (University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 34.)
Voegelin, C. F., and F. M. Voegelin. Hopi Domains: A Lexical Approach to the Problem of Selection. Baltimore, 1957.
Lamb, S. M. The Classification of the Ulo-Aztecan Languages: A Historical Survey. Berkeley, Calif., 1964. (University of California Publications in Linguistics, vol. 34).
Kroeber, A. L., and G. W. Grace. The Sparkman Grammar of Luiseño. Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1960.