Hokan

Hokan is a proposed language family linking about a dozen small Native American language groups of California, Arizona and Baja California. Its name draws on the word for “two” recurring across them, such as ha'k in Achumawi.

The best-attested branch is Yuman–Cochimí: the Yuman languages of the lower Colorado River and Cochimí of central Baja California, recorded in Jesuit documents of the 1700s, which is thought to have split from the Yuman languages around 1000 BC. Other members include Pomo, Karuk, Shasta and Seri.

Their scattered distribution suggests they once covered the California Central Valley before being separated by later-arriving peoples. The grouping, proposed by Roland Dixon and Alfred Kroeber and expanded by Edward Sapir, remains debated among linguists.