The Shastan family consisted of four languages, spoken in present-day northern California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and southern Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

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Family division

1. Konomihu
   Konomihu language
   Konomihu is an extinct Shastan language formerly spoken in northern California. It may have been the most divergent of the Shastan family, though it is difficult to tell, as there is little material on the language...
   
   (†)
2. New River Shasta
   New River Shasta language
   New River Shasta is an extinct Shastan language formerly spoken in northern California. It may have had only 300 speakers before contact .-External links:* at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages...
   
   (†)
3. Okwanuchu
   Okwanuchu language
   -External links:* at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages...
   
   (†)
4. Shasta
   Shasta language
   -External links:* overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages*...
   
   ( Shastika) (†)

Konomihu appears to have been the most divergent Shastan language. Okwanuchu may have been a dialect of Shasta proper, which is know to have had a number of dialects.

The entire Shastan family is now extinct

Extinct language

An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...

. Shasta was the last language that was spoken. Three elderly speakers were reported in the 1980s.

Shastan has often been considered to be in the hypothetical Hokan

Hokan languages

The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families spoken in California, Arizona and Mexico. In nearly a century since Edward Sapir first proposed the "Hokan" hypothesis, little additional evidence has been found that these families were related to each other...

stock.

External links

• Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770 (after Kroeber)