Language: Yurok is an Algic language of Northern California, spoken by
only a handful of elders there. (It should not be confused with the unrelated Siberian language Nenets,
sometimes also called "Yurok.") Yurok is related to Wiyot but not to the other languages of Northern
California--known to linguists as the Ritwan languages, Wiyot and Yurok are actually distant relatives of Algonquian languages
like Ojibway and Cree.
Like the Algonquian languages, Yurok is an agglutinative language with complex verbs and fairly free word order.
People: The Yurok tribe traditionally lived in the far northwestern corner of California, along
the lower Klamath River and on the Pacific Coast near its mouth. ("Yurok" means, in fact, "downriver," in the language of the
Karoks who lived at its other end.) Unlike most native peoples of
the west coast, the Yuroks are Algonquian speakers. There are about 3500
Yurok people in Northern California today; in some places, they have merged with their neighbors
the Wiyot.
History: The California Indians were brutally
trampled underfoot in the American gold rush of the 1800's, and the Yurok tribe was no exception. By
most accounts a quiet and unassertive people, the Yurok Indians did not often clash with miners,
but the government offices paying $5 bounties for the severed heads of Indian men did not tend to know
the difference between the head of a Karok
warrior and a Yurok fisherman, and all the natives of California suffered under the same yoke--more than 90%
of the American Indian population of California were killed during the 19th century.
Yurok Vocabulary:
List of vocabulary words in the Yurok language, with comparison to words in Algonquian languages.
Yurok Pronunciation Guide:
How to pronounce Yurok words.
Yurok Animal Words:
Picture glossary of animal words in the Yurok language.
Yurok Body Parts:
Online and printable worksheets showing parts of the body in the Yurok language.
Yurok Language Lessons and Linguistic Descriptions
Yurok Texts:
Two Yurok stories with English translation.
Yurok Language Preservation and Usage
Yurok Language Project:
Information about Yurok p reservation efforts from the Yurok Language Project at UCBerkeley.
Yurok Language:
Brief overview of Yurok language use.
House of Languages: Yurok:
Information about Yurok language usage.
Yurok:
Demographic information about Yurok from the Ethnologue of Languages.
Pacific Northwest Language Domains:
Language map of Yurok and other Northwest Coast languages of Washington, Oregon and California.
Yurok Language Tree:
Theories about Yurok's language relationships compiled by Linguist List.
Yurok Dictionaries, Audio Tapes and Language Resources
Native culture index
Yurok Language Resources
Yurok Language Resources
Yurok Vocabulary:
Yurok Grammar 
