Mary Yee

Mary Joachina Yee
Born	Mary Joachina Ygnacio Rowe 1897 Near Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Died	1965 (aged 67–68)
Nationality	Chumash, United States
Other names	Mary J. Rowe[1]
Occupation	Linguist
Known for	Last first-language speaker of the Barbareño language
Children	Valentina Yee, Josie Yee, John Yee, Angela Yee, and Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto
Parent	Lucretia García (mother)
Relatives	Luisa Ygnacio (grandmother)

Mary Joachina Yee (née Mary Joachina Ygnacio Rowe; 1897–1965)^[2][3] was a Barbareño Chumash linguist. She was the last first-language speaker of the Barbareño language, a member of the Chumashan languages that were once spoken in southern California by the Chumash people.

Biography

Mary Rowe-Yee was born in 1897 in an adobe house near Santa Barbara, California, the home of her grandmother. In the late 1890s, Mary was one of only a handful of children brought up to speak any Chumash language. She memorized several old Chumash stories.^[4]

In her fifties, Mary Yee began to take part in the analysis, description, and documentation of her language, for many years working closely with the linguist John Peabody Harrington, who had also worked with Mary's mother Lucretia García and her grandmother Luisa Ygnacio.^[5][6] Yee and Harrington corresponded with each other in Chumash. After retiring in 1954, Yee worked with Harrington nearly every day.^[7] She also worked with linguist Madison S. Beeler.^[8] Over the course of her work she became a linguist in her own right, analyzing paradigms and word structure.^[5]

Yee's story appears in the documentary film, 6 Generations: A Chumash Family History (2010) which was co-written by her daughter Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto.^[9][10] Posthumously, she published a children's book, The Sugar Bear Story (2005), illustrated by her daughter Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto.^[11]

Publication

• Yee, Mary J. (2005). "Introduction". The Sugar Bear Story. illustrated by Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto. San Diego: Sunbelt Publications in cooperation with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. ISBN 978-0-932653-70-3. LCCN 2005003047.

See also

• List of last known speakers of languages

References

1. "John P. Harrington and two of his principal Barbareno Chumash consultants at the site of their former adobe home, Indian Orchard, Goleta: 1931 ; left to right: Mary J. Yee (nee Rowe), holding her son John Yee, Lucrecia Garcia (nee Ygnacio), John Harrington holding Angela Yee". Online Archive of California (OAC). Retrieved November 13, 2021.
2. Grant, Campbell (1978). "Chumash: Introduction". In Heizer, Robert F. (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 8: California. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 505–508. ISBN 978-0-16-004574-5.
3. "Yee, Mary J., 1897-". LC Name Authority File (LCNAF). Library of Congress. March 21, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
4. Yee, Mary J. (2005). "Introduction". The Sugar Bear Story. illustrated by Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto. San Diego: Sunbelt Publications in cooperation with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. ISBN 978-0-932653-70-3. LCCN 2005003047.
5. Mithun, Marianne (1997). "The regression of sibilant harmony through the life of Barbareño Chumash". In Hill, Jane; Mistry, P. J.; Campbell, Lyle (eds.). The Life of Language. Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs. Vol. 108. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 221–242. doi:10.1515/9783110811155.221. ISBN 978-3-11-015633-1.
6. "Luisa Ygnacio, Barbareño Chumash, consultant to John P. Harrington: 1913". Online Archive of California (OAC). 1913. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
7. Poser, William J. (June 13, 2004). "On the status of Chumash sibilant harmony" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 28, 2004. Retrieved September 22, 2010.
8. "Madison S. Beeler; Linguistics Scholar, Chumash Expert". Los Angeles Times. March 7, 1989. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
9. Kettmann, Matt (January 27, 2011). "Santa Barbara on Screen". The Santa Barbara Independent. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
10. Hurst Thomas, David (February 1, 2011). "Listening to Six Generations of Chumash Women". Current Anthropology. 52 (1): 127–128. doi:10.1086/657926. ISSN 0011-3204. S2CID 224791797.
11. Alexandra Goldberg (September 5, 2023). "Ep. 87: The Barbareño Language: the First Language of Santa Barbara". The Indy: A Podcast (Podcast). Santa Barbara Independent.

External links

• Image collection: Native Americans on the Central Coast from OAC include photos of Yee, her mother, grandmother, and extended family and tribe