Shoshonean

[ shoh-shoh-nee-uhn, shoh-shuh-nee-uhn ]

noun

, plural Sho·sho·ne·ans, (especially collectively) Sho·sho·ne·an

1. (in some, especially earlier, classifications) a grouping of four branches of the Uto-Aztecan language family including Numic, Hopi, and several languages of southern California.
2. a member of a group speaking a Shoshonean language.

adjective

1. of or relating to the Shoshonean-speaking peoples or their languages.

Shoshonean

/ ʃəʊˈʃəʊnɪən; ˌʃəʊʃəˈniːən /

noun

1. a subfamily of North American Indian languages belonging to the Uto-Aztecan family, spoken mainly in the southwestern US

Word History and Origins

Origin of Shoshonean¹

First recorded in 1890–95; Shoshone + -an

Example Sentences

Stroll through Cabrillo Beach Park and onto Shoshonean Drive, turn right on 22nd Street and left along the waterfront, then continue parallel to Harbor Boulevard to the Vincent Thomas Bridge and the San Pedro Ferry Terminal, where you’ll hop on the one-hour Catalina Streak ferry to Santa Catalina.

From Los Angeles Times

They served to store seeds, and seem often to have been hidden in caves and out-of-the-way spots by Shoshonean desert tribes.

From Project Gutenberg

During the periods of the fur trade and early emigration increasing amounts of information on Shoshonean and Mono-Bannock speakers became available.

From Project Gutenberg

The action was brought jointly by the Shoshone Indians of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada, and the Bannock of Idaho; it excluded the Shoshonean speakers of California, and the Bannock remained separate from the suit brought by their colinguists, the Northern Paiute of Oregon and Idaho.

From Project Gutenberg

It is doubtful whether Shoshonean peoples hunted extensively east of the Continental Divide in the period following their eighteenth-century retreat from the northern Plains and before the disappearance of the buffalo west of the Rockies.

From Project Gutenberg