page_title: Miwok languages
section_title: Languages
hierarchical_section_title: Miwok languages / Languages
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the Plains and Sierra Miwok territories, an excerpt from the map titled "Territory and Villages of the Maidu and Miwok", taken from the Handbook of the Indians of California by Alfred L. Kroeber, published by the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1925. Edited: territories of Plains Miwok (green), Northern Sierra Miwok (orange), Central Sierra Miwok (red), and Southern Sierra Miwok (purple) indicated by color.
context_page_description: The Miwok or Miwokan languages, also known as Moquelumnan or Miwuk, are a group of endangered languages spoken in central California by the Miwok peoples, ranging from the Bay Area to the Sierra Nevada. There are seven Miwok languages, four of which have distinct regional dialects. There are a few dozen speakers of the three Sierra Miwok languages, and in 1994 there were two speakers of Lake Miwok. The best attested language is Southern Sierra Miwok, from which the name Yosemite originates. The name Miwok comes from the Northern Sierra Miwok word miw·yk meaning 'people' or 'Indians.'
context_section_description: Language family by Mithun (1999):
  Eastern Miwok
  Plains Miwok †
  Bay Miwok (AKA Saclan) †
  Sierra Miwok
  Northern Sierra Miwok (†) (Camanche, Fiddletown, Ione, and West Point dialects)
  Central Sierra Miwok (nearly extinct) (East Central and West Central dialects)
  Southern Sierra Miwok (nearly extinct) (Yosemite, Mariposa, and Southern dialects)
  Western Miwok
  Coast Miwok † (Bodega and Marin dialects)
  Lake Miwok †
caption: 1925 map of the Plains and Sierra Miwok territories
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