| (Upper) Umpqua | |
|---|---|
| Etnemitane | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Oregon (Umpqua Valley) |
| Ethnicity | Upper Umpqua |
| Extinct | 1945 |
Dené–Yeniseian?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xup |
xup | |
qhk (not ISO) | |
| Glottolog | uppe1436 |
 Upper Umpqua is classified as Extinct by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. [1] | |
Upper Umpqua is an extinctAthabaskan language formerly spoken along the south fork of theUmpqua River in west-centralOregon byUpper Umpqua (Etnemitane) people in the vicinity of modernRoseburg. It has been extinct for at least seventy years and little is known about it other than it belongs to the sameOregon Athabaskan cluster ofPacific Coast Athabaskan languages as theLower Rogue River language,Upper Rogue River language andChetco-Tolowa.
The most important documentation of Upper Umpqua is the extensive vocabulary obtained byHoratio Hale in 1841 (published in Hale 1846).Melville Jacobs andJohn P. Harrington were able to collect fragmentary data from the last speakers as late as the 1940s (Golla 2011:70-72). Although known to early explorers and settlers asUmpqua, the language is now usually calledUpper Umpqua to distinguish it from the unrelated Oregon CoastPenutian languageLower Umpqua (Kuitsh or Siuslaw language) that was spoken closer to the coast in the same area.