Penutian

Penutian [puh-noo-tee-uh n, -shuh n] Word Origin noun

1. a group of American Indian language families of central and coastal California, including Wintu, Maidu, Yokuts, Miwok, and Costanoan, thought to be descendants of a single protolanguage spoken at a remote period.
2. any of several other hypothesized genetic groupings of languages that include these languages and, in addition, otherwise unclassified languages of the Pacific Northwest, Columbia River plateau, Mexico, and Central America.

adjective

3. of or relating to Penutian.

Origin of Penutian 1913; pen + uti, schematized bases for “two” in Maidu-Wintu-Yokuts and Miwok-Costanoan, respectively + -an British Dictionary definitions for penutian Penutian noun

1. a family of North American Indian languages of the Pacific coast
2. a phylum of languages of North and South America, including Araucanian, Chinook, Mayan, and Sahaptin