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This article will summarize various perspectives of the Karuk language regarding some cultural aspects woven into the language, the revitalization efforts of some to bring back Karuk, and general grammatical characteristics of the language. The article will reference primary works of Karuk used in stories and traditions, along with translations and definitions. In an effort to display grammatical characteristics Karuk will also be compared to other Northern Californian languages, this region is regarded as “a linguistically diverse area in which multilingualism was common” by Lisa Conathan, a researcher of languages in that region looking to recover sociolinguistic context (Conathan 209). This article will draw from local news sources and academically peer-reviewed sources to exemplify the efforts of many to preserve the language, either through general classes or even implementing the learning of Karuk into public schools and higher education. Through its components this article will attempt to broaden the general knowledge of several aspects of the Karuk language. 

Use/History

Prior to European contact, it is estimated that there may have been up to 1,500 speakers. 

Geographic distribution

The Karuk language is spoken within the range of the original territory where the Karuk people lived prior to European contact. The ancestral territory is in Northwestern California existing in Siskiyou, Humboldt, and Del Norte counties. The language originated around the Klamath River between Seiad Valley and Bluff Creek. Karuk is most notably found in towns Somes Bar, which is near The Karuk Center of the World (in Karuk, "Katimiin"), Happy Camp ("Athithufvuunupma"), and Orleans ("Panamniik").

Grammar

Morphology

Karuk is similar to many other American Indian Languages because "verbs bear a complex person-marking system, where subject and object are marked in portmanteau prefixes." Depending on the subject and the object the speaker is referring to, there is a prefix for both positive and negative indicatives, as well as a prefix for the potential mood. Through his research, William Bright found there to insufficient words to describe cardinal directions, but the language uses suffixes on verbs to describe relevant direction. Many motion verbs have a singular and plural form. Through morphology, long-form vowels are used when a is next to i or u. Karuk uses accents where vowels can sound differently in each word, making the language difficult to learn. Although the structure may be similar, Karuk is considered to be much different than its neighboring languages, such as Yurok.

Verb Examples

Karuk uses prefixes and suffixes in a way William Bright relates to how English words snort, sniff, and sneeze all start with a sn-. The following are examples of prefixes in Karuk.

Karuk	English Translation
im-	'involving heat or fire'
impat	'to become broken due to heat'
imčak	'to get burnt'
imčax	'to be hot'
ʔak-	'with the hand'
ʔaknup	'to thump'
ʔaktuṽ	'to pluck at'
akxárap	'to scratch'

Sounds/Phonology

Consonants

Karuk differs from other California languages because it only has 16 consonants for sounding out different words.

Vowels

There are only 5 vowels in Karuk, where a, i, and u have both long and short forms, while e and o are in the long form.

Syllabification Examples

When two high vowels are juxtaposed in a word, then the first vowel turns into a glide in the following examples.

First Vowel	Glide Transition	English Translation
imuira	imwira	fishery
imiuha	imjúha	soap plant
suniiθih	sunjíθih	nut of a giant chinquapin

Note: Syllabification in these examples are from right-to-left.

The following example is a more rare case in Karuk where the syllabification is from left-to-right.

First Vowel	Glide Transition	English Translation
uiriwsaw	wíriwʃaw	to bequeath to

Word/Phrase Examples

From Dr. William Bright's Research

Karuk	English Translation
xâatik vaa ukupítih	Let it do that
kári xás pihnêefich upiip, pûuhara.	Then coyote said, "no."
pihnêefich	coyote
túuyship	mountain
koovúra yúruk kámvuunupahitih.	Let it all flow downstream.

Note: More translations can be found online in the Dictionary section depicting Dr. Bright's research.

From Phil Albers, Jr.'s Work

Karuk	English Translation
hãa	yes
pûuhara	no
ta'ávahiv	time to eat
íikam	it's time to go outside
ka'íru	be quiet/quiet down

Revitalization Efforts

Dr. William Bright's Contribution

Dr. William Bright started studying the Karuk language in 1949 in pursuit of his doctorate in linguistics at U.C Berkeley. Bright was met with open arms by tribal elders and was taken in and called Uhyanapatánvaanich, or "little word-asker" in Karuk. A little under a decade later, Bright published The Karok Language (University of California), which was a highly informative piece on the Karuk language, its grammar, and syntax. Bright worked with Susan Gehr, a tribe member and fellow linguist, on a Karuk dictionary, which was published in 2005. Bright was a different type of linguist because he did not see language without cultural context. He would record everyday conversations, songs, stories, and poetry of fluent Karuk speakers to attempt to capture the language and what it meant to those speaking it. He spent over fifty years studying, researching, and documenting Karuk, and is the only non-Indian to be inducted as an honorary member of the tribe thanks to his contributions to the community. Bright was buried on Karuk land when he died in 2006.

Revival Through Education

American Indian Bilingual Teacher Credential Program

In the late 1980's, Humboldt State University started the "American Indian Bilingual Teacher Credential Program", where they brought in teachers from four local tribes, being the Hupa, Yurok, Karuk, and Tolowa. These teachers were bilingual in their tribe's native language as well as English, and would be employed in local public schools to teach American Indian children. The university developed this initiative to help local American Indian populations either further develop their English for higher education or improve upon their native language to preserve culture. Bilingual teachers in both Karuk and English would teach Orleans Elementary and Happy Camp Elementary, where children would learn how to live in America while keeping their identity.

The Karuk Language Restoration Committee

In 1990, attempts were made to revive the language by The Karuk Language Restoration Committee. This committee, comprised of eight volunteers, drafted a 5-year minimum plan in attempt to preserve the Karuk language and help it grow in the future. The committee was also advised by Dr. William Bright and tribal member Julian Lang, a dedicated researcher of the language. Their studies showed that the decline of the language is caused by a combination of a lack of younger fluent speakers, the number of speakers is falling in general, it is not typically taught at home at young ages, it is not flexible to be modernized, and most tribal members cannot read the Karuk language.

The committee ultimately created a five-step plan:

1. Recording and writing down fluent speakers communicating in Karuk.
2. Training more people to become fluent for a long-term goal.
3. Teaching tribal members and local communities why learning the language is vital to not only the language, but also to the culture.
4. Reviewing and receiving community feedback regarding the current plan.
5. Facilitating the community to participate in programs that have people practice and speak Karuk.

External Links

• Susan Gehr
• The Karuk Language Restoration Committee
• Julian Lang
• Ancestral Territory Map by Susan Gehr

Bibliography

Bennett, R. & Humboldt State Univ., A. D. (1987). Integration of Bilingual Emphasis Program into University Curriculum. Multiple Subjects Credential Program: Hupa, Yurok, Karuk, or Tolowa Emphasis.

Bright, W. & Gehr, S. (n.d.). Ararahih'urípih. Retrieved March 09, 2017, from http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~karuk/karuk-dictionary.php?text-search=no

Brugman, C. & Macaulay, M. (n.d). Relevance, cohesion, and the storyline: The discourse function of the Karuk particle karuma. Journal Of Pragmatics, 41(6), 1189-1208.

Burcell-Price, S. M. (1990). Karuk Language Restoration Committee nearing completion of five-year plan. Hispanic Times Magazine, 11(4), 21.

Conathan, L. (2006). Recovering Sociolinguistic Context from Early Sources: The Case of Northwestern California. Anthropological Linguistics, 48(3), 209-232. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25132388

Golla, V. (2011). California Indian Languages (1). Berkeley, US: University of California Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

Hill, J. (2007). Obituary: William Oliver Bright. Language, 83(3), 628-641. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40070905

Keeling, R. (1995). Review: Ararapíkva, Creation Stories of the People: Traditional Karuk Indian Literature from Northwestern California by Julian Lang. Anthropological Linguistics, 37(2), 228-230. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30028317

Kirby, S. (2016, Jun 29). Group works to preserve Karuk language. Siskiyou Daily News (Yreka, CA), p. 1.. Retrieved from http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15DD9D7B56CE3220?p=AWNB

Leibovich San Jose Mercury News, M. (1996, Feb 4). Tribal Elders on Quest to Preserve Ancestral Tongue. Daily News of Los Angeles (CA), p. N13.. Retrieved from http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/0EF76B1C6894A478?p=AWNB

Levi, S. (n.d). Phonemic vs. derived glides. Lingua, 118(12), 1956-1978.

Macaulay, M. (2000). Obviate Marking in Ergative Contexts: The Case of Karuk 'iin. International Journal Of American Linguistics, 66(4), 464.

Macaulay, M. (1993). Reduplication and the Structure of the Karuk Verb Stem. International Journal of American Linguistics, 59(1), 64-81. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1265470

Macaulay, M. (1992). Inverse Marking in Karuk: The Function of the Suffix -ap. International Journal of American Linguistics, 58(2), 182-201. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3519755

Monette, M. (1994). American Indian Quarterly, 18(4), 552-555. doi:10.2307/1185402

News, D. (2008, Nov 17). Karuk awarded language grant. Siskiyou Daily News (Yreka, CA). Retrieved from http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/1267145EE2238850?p=AWNB

Sims, C. P. (1998). Community-based efforts to preserve native languages: a descriptive study of the Karuk Tribe of northern California. International Journal Of The Sociology Of Language, 1998(132), 95-113.