Mary Yee
American linguist
title: "Mary Yee" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1897-births", "1965-deaths", "american-women-linguists", "native-american-linguists", "last-known-speakers-of-a-native-american-language", "chumash-people", "20th-century-american-linguists", "linguists-of-chumashan-languages", "native-american-people-from-california", "20th-century-native-american-women", "20th-century-native-american-people", "academics-from-santa-barbara,-california"] description: "American linguist" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Yee" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American linguist ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Mary Joachina Yee |
| birth_name | Mary Joachina Ygnacio Rowe |
| birth_date | 1897 |
| birth_place | Near Santa Barbara, California, U.S. |
| death_date | |
| nationality | Chumash, United States |
| other_names | Mary J. Rowe |
| 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 |
| parents | Lucretia García (mother) |
| relatives | Luisa Ygnacio (grandmother) |
| :: |
| name = Mary Joachina Yee | birth_name = Mary Joachina Ygnacio Rowe | birth_date = 1897 | birth_place = Near Santa Barbara, California, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = Chumash, United States | other_names = Mary J. Rowe | occupation = Linguist | known_for = Last first-language speaker of the Barbareño language | spouse = | children = Valentina Yee, Josie Yee, John Yee, Angela Yee, and Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto | parents = Lucretia García (mother) | relatives = Luisa Ygnacio (grandmother)
Mary Joachina Yee (née Mary Joachina Ygnacio Rowe; 1897–1965) 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.
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. 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.
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. Posthumously, she published a children's book, The Sugar Bear Story (2005), illustrated by Ygnacio-De Soto.
Publication
References
References
- "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.".
- Grant, Campbell. (1978). "Handbook of North American Indians". Smithsonian Institution.
- (2013-03-21). "Yee, Mary J., 1897-". Library of Congress.
- Yee, Mary J.. (2005). "The Sugar Bear Story". Sunbelt Publications in cooperation with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
- Mithun, Marianne. (1997). "The Life of Language". Mouton de Gruyter.
- (1913). "Luisa Ygnacio, Barbareño Chumash, consultant to John P. Harrington: 1913".
- Poser, William J.. (2004-06-13). "On the status of Chumash sibilant harmony".
- (1989-03-07). "Madison S. Beeler; Linguistics Scholar, Chumash Expert". Los Angeles Times.
- Kettmann, Matt. (2011-01-27). "Santa Barbara on Screen". The Santa Barbara Independent.
- Hurst Thomas, David. (2011-02-01). "Listening to Six Generations of Chumash Women". Current Anthropology.
- (2023-09-05). "Ep. 87: The Barbareño Language: the First Language of Santa Barbara". [[Santa Barbara Independent]].
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