Excerpt from The Languages of the Coast of California North of San Francisco

To Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, whose generosity began ten years ago to secure for the University of California a valuable series of anthropological museum collections, and has since supported an Ethnological and Archaeological Survey of California, the credit is due for the following pages.

The paper completes the preliminary studies of a grammatical nature made by the author among the languages of California since 1901. Taken in conjunction with his previous articles in this series and those prepared by other investigators working for the University, together with the studies made of several languages of northeastern California by Dr. R. B. Dixon, and the two or three works published before Mrs. Hearst enabled the University to turn its attention to the field, the present paper brings the knowledge of the subject to a point where at least some information is available on the structure of practically every linguistic family in the state.

The territory covered by the present treatise is that lying between the Coast range and the sea from San Francisco to the northern boundary of the state. Two languages in this area have previously been monographically treated in the present series of publications: the Athabascan family as represented by Hupa, by Dr. Goddard,1 and Chimariko, an isolated stock, by Dr. Dixon.2 These are accordingly not included here. Those sketched are, in order from south to north, Miwok, Porno, Yuki, Wiyot, Yurok, Karok. Further studies of Yurok are in progress; and the author hopes to continue a more detailed examination of Yuki and Karok. No attempt at an exhaustive treatment of these languages has therefore been made: the descriptions of them are preliminary. The accounts given of the other three languages make use of all the information that has been gathered, and are therefore somewhat fuller.

It must be clearly understood that while languages may be spoken of, it is really linguistic families that are dealt with.

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