Mary Yee
Encyclopedia
Mary J. Yee was the last first-language speaker of the Barbareño language
, which was also the last Chumash language to have first-language speakers.
Born in an adobe
house near Santa Barbara, the home of her grandmother, in the late 1890s, Yee was one of only a handful of children brought up to speak any Chumash language. She memorized several old Chumash stories.
In her fifties, Yee began to take part in the analysis, description, and documentation of her language, for many years working closely with the linguist J. P. Harrington, who had also worked with Yee's mother Lucretia García and her grandmother Luisa Ignacio. Yee and Harrington corresponded with each other in Chumash. After retiring in 1954, Yee worked with Harrington nearly every day. She also worked with linguist Madison S. Beeler. Over the course of her work she became a linguist in her own right, analyzing paradigms and word structure. She also illustrated stories published by her daughter Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto.
Barbareño language
Barbareño is one of the extinct Chumash languages, a group of Native American languages previously spoken along the coastal areas of Southern California from as far north as San Luis Obispo to as far south as Malibu, California. The last first-language speaker of Barbareño was Mary...
, which was also the last Chumash language to have first-language speakers.
Born in an adobe
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
house near Santa Barbara, the home of her grandmother, in the late 1890s, Yee was one of only a handful of children brought up to speak any Chumash language. She memorized several old Chumash stories.
In her fifties, Yee began to take part in the analysis, description, and documentation of her language, for many years working closely with the linguist J. P. Harrington, who had also worked with Yee's mother Lucretia García and her grandmother Luisa Ignacio. Yee and Harrington corresponded with each other in Chumash. After retiring in 1954, Yee worked with Harrington nearly every day. She also worked with linguist Madison S. Beeler. Over the course of her work she became a linguist in her own right, analyzing paradigms and word structure. She also illustrated stories published by her daughter Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto.