Карукский язык: на грани исчезновения в Калифорнии.

Endangered language of California, US

Karuk or Karok ( or ) is the traditional language of the Karuk people in the region surrounding the Klamath River, in Northwestern California. The name ‘Karuk’ is derived from the Karuk word káruk, meaning “upriver”. Karuk is classified as severely endangered by UNESCO with only around 12 fluent native speakers of the language left. Most members of the Karuk nation now use English in their everyday lives. Since 1949, there have been efforts to revitalize the language and increase the number of speakers led by linguists such as Dr. William Bright and Susan Gehr, as well as members of the Karuk community.

The Karuk language originated around the Klamath River between Seiad Valley and Bluff Creek. Before European contact, it is estimated that there may have been up to 1,500 speakers. A standardized system for writing the languages was adopted in the 1980s. In 1848, gold was discovered in California, and thousands of Europeans came to the Klamath River and its surrounding region to search for gold.

Karuk 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 in Siskiyou, Humboldt, and Del Norte counties. The language originated around the Klamath River between Seiad Valley and Bluff Creek. Most Karuk speakers now live in the towns of Somes Bar, which is near the Karuk Center of the World (in Karuk, "Katimiin"), Happy Camp ("Athithufvuunupma"), and Orleans ("Panamniik"). In 1887, some members of the Karuk tribe were given small plots of land under the General Allotment Act.

Long vowels are represented by doubling the letters: ⟨ii⟩, ⟨aa ⟩ and ⟨uu⟩ are used for /iː/ /aː/ and /uː/. Tones are marked for vowels in Karuk using accent marks. The high and falling tones are represented using the acute and circumflex diacritics, respectively, above the vowels. The low tone is not represented, and tones on long vowels are notated only on the first letter in the digraph.

Karuk is a polysynthetic language known for its method of arranging old and new information: " skilled Karuk speakers use separate words to communicate new, salient detail, or to underscore known detail; and they use affixes for background details so that a listener's attention is not diverted."

+From Dr. William Bright's researchKarukEnglish Translationxâatik vaa ukupítihLet it do thatkári xás pihnêefich upiip, pûuhara. Then coyote said, "no. "pihnêefichcoyotetúuyshipmountainkoovúra 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 workKarukEnglish Translationhãayespûuharanota'ávahivtime to eatíikamit's time to go outsideka'írube quiet/quiet down

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 given the Karuk name Uhyanapatánvaanich, or "little word asker". Bright set himself apart from linguists from his time for incorporating elements of the cultural context of Karuk into his descriptions. Bright later worked with Susan Gehr, a tribe member and fellow linguist, on a Karuk dictionary, which was published in 2005.

In the late 1980s, Humboldt State University started the "American Indian Bilingual Teacher Credential Program", where they brought in teachers from four local tribes, 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 develop their native language to preserve culture. Bilingual teachers in both Karuk and English would teach at Orleans and Happy Camp Elementary Schools, where children would learn how to live in America while keeping their identity. The committee was advised by Dr. William Bright and tribal member Julian Lang, a dedicated researcher of the language. Their studies suggest that the decline of the language is caused by a combination of a lack of younger fluent speakers, a decline in the number of speakers, not being typically taught at home at young ages, a feeling of disconnect between its use and the contemporary world, and the lack of literacy in the language among tribal members.