Chumash territory extended along the southern California coast from Malibu to some point north of San Luis Obispo, with the densest population along the coast south of Point Conception. This area included the Santa Barbara channel islands and stretched inland to present-day Castaic (Chumash katq) and the Grapevine Pass at the southern extreme of the Central Valley. Many well-known Chumash placenames still survive, such as Malibu (humaliwo) Ojai (awhay), Lompoc (lompo) and Cuyama (kuyam).
Five missions were founded in Chumash territory, at Ventura, Santa Barbara, La Purisima, Santa Ynez, and San Luis Obispo. The inhabitants of many outlying areas were gathered into these centers. The original distribution of Chumash speech very likely showed a more or less continuous gradation from one local dialect into another, but the five missions were linguistic focal points. The idioms spoken in their vicinity are distinct languages rather than merely dialects of a single language.
The languages spoken around the missions at Ventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez and La Purisima comprise the most cohesive subgrouping of the Chumash languages, with Ventureño somewhat less closely related to the other three. Scholars refer to these four as the Central Chumash languages. They are about as different from one another as Spanish and Portuguese: obviously related but with noticeable differences.
Ventureño
Ventureño territory extended along the coast from as far southeast as Malibu (humaliwo) to approximately El Rincon in the north. Ventureño speech extended inland from these points, into Simi Valley (simii) and up the drainage of the Santa Clara River as far inland as the vicinity of Mt. Pinos.
Barbareño
Barbareño territory extended along the coastal plain from Point Conception in the west to some point east of Carpinteria. It was bounded by the Santa Ynez Mountains on the inland side.
Where the coastal plain is wider, this area supported the highest population density due to the favorable combination of easy access to resources from the mountains, plains and coast well protected by the offshore islands..
Inezeño
Inezeño territory (usage fluctuates between the spellings “Ynezeño” and “Inezeño”; these pages use “Inezeño”) extended along the middle and upper reaches of the Santa Ynez River. Downstream, the Inezeño language shaded into Purisimeño, while further upstream and across the Santa Ynez range to the southwest, Inezeño shaded more noticeably into Barbareño.
The Inezeño called themselves samala. The sound at the beginning of this word is not like English “SH” but rather an “S” followed by an “H,” very much as in the English word “grasshopper.”
Purisimeño
Purisimeño territory extended some 15 miles along the coast from Point Conception, near Jalama (xalam), to some point north of Nipomo (nipumu).
The Purisimeño speech area probably shaded gradually into Inezeño further up the valley of the Santa Ynez River, as well as gradually into Obispeño further north. Information is sparse.
Obispeño
The Obispeño occupied the northwestern corner of Chumash territory. This area stretched from south of Pismo (pismu) west for some 30 miles and north into the upper watershed of the Salinas River . To the north and northeast, Obispeño territory bordered on land which the Salinans occupied. The Obispeño language shows some influences from Salinan.
Island Chumash
Three of the Santa Barbara Channel Islands were permanently occupied: Santa Cruz (limuw), Santa Rosa (wima), and San Miguel (tuqan). The islands were more sparsely populated than the mainland. By the 1830s, all of the islanders had been relocated to mainland missions.
Interior Chumash
Territory called “Interior Chumash” stretched inland from Purisimeño and Obispeño territory and included the basins of the Sisquoc (sisqwa) and Cuyama (kuyam) Rivers to the watershed of the San Joaquin Valley. Relatively little is known of the interior Chumash and their linguistic affiliations. This rugged inland area was sparsely populated compared to the coastal regions, and early on the inhabitants were forcibly relocated to the missions.
In 1905 C. Hart Merriam collected some information on interior languages. According to Merriam’s consultants, the speech of the people of talipun on San Emigdio Creek was similar to that of the Santa Barbara area while the speech of the people at Castaic (katq) was more similar to Ventureño. This may be more a result of post-contact movements than a snapshot of the pre-contact situation, however.
The San Emigdio area is quite remote from Santa Barbara, separated by areas occupied by speakers of Inezeño and the Cuyama dialect or language. The population of San Emigdio may well have included descendants of people who left the coastal area to avoid being forced into the mission system.
t
q) and the Grapevine Pass at the southern extreme of the Central Valley. Many well-known Chumash placenames still survive, such as Malibu (humaliwo) Ojai (
awhay), Lompoc (lompo
amala. The sound at the beginning of this word is not like English “SH” but rather an “S” followed by an “H,” very much as in the English word “grasshopper.”