Shoshonean

American  

[shoh-shoh-nee-uhn, shoh-shuh-nee-uhn] / ʃoʊˈʃoʊ ni ən, ˌʃoʊ ʃəˈni ən /

noun

plural

Shoshoneans,

plural

Shoshonean

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.

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adjective

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

Shoshonean British  

/ ʃəʊˈʃəʊnɪən, ˌʃəʊʃəˈniːən /

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of Shoshonean

First recorded in 1890–95; Shoshone + -an

Example Sentences

First came Wallace J. "Chief" Newman, a full-blooded Shoshonean Indian who coached 155-lb.

From Time Magazine Archive

Upon the north Shoshonean tribes extended far into Oregon, meeting Shahaptian territory on about the forty-fourth parallel or along the Blue Mountains.

From Indian Linguistic Families Of America, North Of Mexico Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 1-142 by Powell, John Wesley

Hoffman worked upon the Shoshonean tribes, aided by the Director’s personal supervision.

From Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891 by Powell, John Wesley

They were members of the Sha-hap-ti-an family of North Americans—a family not so large as the Algonquian, Siouan, Shoshonean and several other families, yet important.

From Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women by Sabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)

The region thus described, from Fremont's Peak to the Uinta Mountains, has been the home of tribes of Indians of the Shoshonean family from time immemorial.

From Canyons of the Colorado by Powell, John Wesley