An Extension of San Francisco Bay Costanoan?

Abstract

The shores of San Francisco bay were the first California region to attract a heavy influx of white settlers. The consequence was the quick decline and early disappearance of the native peoples who formerly lived there, none of whose languages remained available for study when interest in the subject was quickened toward the end of the first half of the present century. What we have is but fragments of information, randomly recorded in the 19th and early 20th centuries; and they give us a very spotty picture of what once must have been a complicated linguistic situation. Therefore any new vocabulary is to be welcomed, and invites interpretation to see what light it may throw on the languages around the bay. What is already known of the distribution of aboriginal speech around the shores of the bay may be briefly summarized. Tribelets speaking dialects of three Penutian stocks occupied these lands, although the major portion was held by the Costanoans, whose villages were found throughout the eastbay region and the San Francisco peninsula as well as along Carquinez Strait. These have been grouped into three dialect areas, East Bay Costanoan, Peninsular Costanoan, and Karkin. The region of Vallejo, Mare Island, and Suisun bay was occupied by the southernmost of the Wintun, the Suisun. The southern shores of the delta and estuary area westward to Martinez may have been held by the westernmost speakers of eastern Miwok; and the whole of the Marin county part of the north bay region is assigned to people who spoke other varieties of Miwok.1