Shoshonean

American  

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

noun

• Shoshoneans,
  plural
• Shoshonean
  plural

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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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Shoshonean
  plural
• Shoshoneans
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Shoshonean

First recorded in 1890–95; Shoshone + -an

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Shoshonean

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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 Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand) Sabin

The earliest peoples inhabiting the northern Montana plains of which we have any record were apparently Snake Indians of Shoshonean stock.

From Glacier National Park [Montana] by United States Dept. of the Interior

Upon the northeast the eastern limits of the pristine habitat of the Shoshonean tribes are unknown.

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 John Wesley Powell

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 John Wesley Powell