Hinton glances at the fact that the Maidu language group is closely related to two other language groups, “Certain resemblances had also become apparent between Wintun and Maidu and Maidu and Yokuts. A systematic comparison revealed a unitary basis underlying all the languages” (Hinton 80). There is evidence that shows how these languages closely resemble one another. “The word for “two” in Wintun, Maidun, and Yokuts languages generally begins with p followed by some vowel followed by n (or sometimes l or m)” (Hinton 81). Hinton shows such examples:
Maidun: Konkow-pene Maidu-pene Nisenan-pen
Wintun: Wintu-pale-t Nomlaki-pale-t Patwin-pampa-ta
Yokuts: Main Valley-ponoi Palewyami-pungi Northern Valley-punoi
Kings River-punoi Tule-Kaweah-pongoi Buena Vista-pongoi
The Maidu language has one of the twelve California counties bearing their name. Hinton writes that the county of Yuba is a Maidu name.
The history of the Maidun languages starts with an estimate of how many people there were, “Estimates of the entire Maiduan population in late prehistoric times vary between about 4,000…
But, as my research went on, I learned that the Maidun were people who lived in Northern California, people who shared beautiful stories with one another, and people who are now trying to preserve their language. The Maidun or (Maiduan) language is a language that is part of the Penutian family and has three sub languages. These languages, live all across Northern California, more specifically near Sierra Nevada. Although, they do not have many speakers left, they are trying to preserve their language through documents of vocabulary, songs, and stories. Hopefully in the next 100 years, when looking back, we can see that the Native American languages were saved, with generations of new native…
