Mattole, or Mattole–Bear River, is an extinct Athabaskan language once spoken by the Mattole and Bear River peoples of northern California. It is one of the four languages belonging to the California Athabaskan cluster of the Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages. It was found in two locations: in the valley of the Mattole River, immediately south of Cape Mendocino on the coast of northwest California, and a distinct dialect on Bear River, about 10 miles to the north. The Mattole have expressed interest in reviving their language.

References

• Goddard, Pliny Earle (1929). "The Bear River Dialect of Athapascan." University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 24 (5):291-334, 1929.

• Golla, Victor (2011). California Indian Languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. .

• Yeadon, David, "California’s North Face", National Geographic, vol. 184, no. 1, p.48-79, July 1993.

External links

• A Survey of the Athabaskan Language Mattole

• Mattole language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages

• Mattole at native-languages.org

• Mattole, World Atlas of Language Structures Online

• OLAC resources in and about the Mattole language

• Mattole basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

• "It is the desire of the Live Your Language Alliance to hear and speak the traditional languages of the Tolowa, Karuk, Yurok, Hupa, Tsnungwe, Wiyot, Mattole, and Wailaki."