Language
Pakanapul Language Team - funded by
Owens Valley Career Development Center (OVCDC), Bishop, CA.
"Our language is now extinct"...
Prior to 1990's - we had Tribal Elders who had help to teach our language: Aunt Lou "Lucy", Steban Miranda, Frances Phillips, Mercedes (Ignacio) Lenares, Petra Miranda, Bill Mace and others.
Aunt Lucy and Jim Andreas pictured below:
Our last fluent speaker, Jim Andreas, passed away July 2008 - he is well missed. Jim Andreas. There are four of his nieces and one nephew who are studying the language and worked with Jim for 5 years. We have recorded over 200 tapes and know of some universities that visit with our elders during 1890-1980s (i.e., Voeglins, Harrington, Powers).
Here are our numbers and animal words in our language - paka'anil dialect:
tciict (cheech) - one
wo' (wooh) - two
pai (pie) - three
naanau' (na-now) - four
ma'haijin (ma-high-jen) - five
ict (isht) - coyote
uunal (ewh-nall) - bear
koiyoot (coi-yoot) - turtle
pukabict (pook-ah-bisht) - dog
We have a developed alphabet and full language structure. We are one of the languages under the Uto-Aztecan and 1 of 63 Tribal languages of Califorinia.