# Mary Yee

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{{short description|American linguist}}
{{use mdy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Mary Joachina Yee
| birth_name         = Mary Joachina Ygnacio Rowe
| birth_date         = 1897
| birth_place        = Near [Santa Barbara, California](/source/Santa_Barbara%2C_California), U.S.
| death_date         = {{death year and age|1965|1897}}
| death_place        = 
| citizenship        = Chumash, United States
| other_names        = Mary J. Rowe<ref>{{Cite web |title=John P. Harrington and two of his principal Barbareno Chumash consultants at the site of their former adobe home, Indian Orchard, Goleta: 1931; left to right: Mary J. Yee (nee Rowe), holding her son John Yee, Lucrecia Garcia (nee Ygnacio), John Harrington holding Angela Yee. |url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/c8hh6hwg/?order=1 |access-date=2021-11-13 |website=Online Archive of California (OAC)}}</ref>
| occupation         = [Linguist](/source/Linguist)
| known_for          = Last first-language speaker of the [Barbareño language](/source/Barbare%C3%B1o_language)
| spouse             = 
| children           = Valentina Yee, Josie Yee, John Yee, Angela Yee, and [Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto](/source/Ernestine_Ygnacio-De_Soto)
| parents            = Lucretia García (mother)
| relatives          = Luisa Ygnacio (grandmother)
}}

'''Mary Joachina Yee''' ({{née|'''Ygnacio Rowe'''}}; 1897–1965)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grant |first=Campbell |title=Handbook of North American Indians |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-16-004574-5 |editor-last=Heizer |editor-first=Robert F. |volume=8: California |location=Washington, DC |pages=505–508 |chapter=Chumash: Introduction}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-03-21 |title=Yee, Mary J., 1897- |url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2005007839.html |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=LC Name Authority File (LCNAF) |publisher=Library of Congress}}</ref> was a Barbareño Chumash linguist. She was the [last first-language speaker](/source/terminal_speaker) of the [Barbareño language](/source/Barbare%C3%B1o_language), a member of the [Chumashan languages](/source/Chumashan_languages) that were once spoken in southern California by the [Chumash people](/source/Chumash_people).

== Biography ==
Mary Rowe-Yee was born in 1897 in an [adobe](/source/adobe) house near Santa Barbara, California, the home of her grandmother. In the late 1890s, Mary was one of only a handful of children brought up to speak any Chumash language. She memorized several old Chumash stories.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yee |first=Mary J. |title=The Sugar Bear Story |publisher=Sunbelt Publications in cooperation with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History |others=illustrated by Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-932653-70-3 |location=San Diego |chapter=Introduction |lccn=2005003047}}</ref>
  
In her fifties, Mary Yee began to take part in the analysis, description, and documentation of her language, for many years working closely with the linguist [John Peabody Harrington](/source/John_Peabody_Harrington), who had also worked with Mary's mother Lucretia García and her grandmother Luisa Ygnacio.<ref name="mithun1997regression">{{Cite book |last=Mithun |first=Marianne |author-link=Marianne Mithun |title=The Life of Language |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |year=1997 |editor-last=Hill |editor-first=Jane |editor-link=Jane H. Hill |series=Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs |volume=108 |location=Berlin |pages=221–242 |chapter=The regression of sibilant harmony through the life of Barbareño Chumash |doi=10.1515/9783110811155.221 |isbn=978-3-11-015633-1 |editor-last2=Mistry |editor-first2=P. J. |editor-last3=Campbell |editor-first3=Lyle |editor-link3=Lyle Campbell}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1913 |title=Luisa Ygnacio, Barbareño Chumash, consultant to John P. Harrington: 1913 |url=https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/c8s1819g/ |access-date=2021-11-13 |website=Online Archive of California (OAC) |language=English}}</ref> Yee and Harrington corresponded with each other in Chumash. After retiring in 1954, Yee worked with Harrington nearly every day.<ref name="poser2004status">{{Cite web |last=Poser |first=William J. |date=2004-06-13 |title=On the status of Chumash sibilant harmony |url=http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/dm/featgeom/poser-chumashnew.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041228093205/http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/dm/featgeom/poser-chumashnew.pdf |archive-date=2004-12-28 |access-date=2010-09-22}}</ref> She also worked with linguist Madison S. Beeler.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1989-03-07 |title=Madison S. Beeler; Linguistics Scholar, Chumash Expert |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-03-07-mn-86-story.html |access-date=21 September 2010 |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> Over the course of her work she became a linguist in her own right, analyzing paradigms and word structure.<ref name=mithun1997regression/>

Yee's story appears in the documentary film, ''6 Generations: A Chumash Family History'' (2010) which was co-written by her daughter [Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto](/source/Ernestine_Ygnacio-De_Soto).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kettmann |first=Matt |date=2011-01-27 |title=Santa Barbara on Screen |url=http://www.independent.com/news/2011/jan/27/santa-barbara-screen/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117234301/http://www.independent.com/news/2011/jan/27/santa-barbara-screen/ |archive-date=2013-01-17 |access-date=2013-05-08 |work=The Santa Barbara Independent}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hurst Thomas |first=David |date=2011-02-01 |title=Listening to Six Generations of Chumash Women |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/657926 |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=127–128 |doi=10.1086/657926 |issn=0011-3204 |s2cid=224791797|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Posthumously, she published a children's book, ''The Sugar Bear Story'' (2005), illustrated by Ygnacio-De Soto.<ref>{{Cite podcast |url=https://www.independent.com/multimedia/ep-87-the-barbareno-language-the-first-language-of-santa-barbara/ |title=Ep. 87: The Barbareño Language: the First Language of Santa Barbara |website=The Indy: A Podcast |publisher=[Santa Barbara Independent](/source/Santa_Barbara_Independent) |host=Alexandra Goldberg |date=2023-09-05}}</ref>

== Publication ==

* {{Cite book |last=Yee |first=Mary J. |title=The Sugar Bear Story |publisher=Sunbelt Publications in cooperation with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History |others=illustrated by Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-932653-70-3 |location=San Diego |chapter=Introduction |lccn=2005003047}}

==See also==
*[List of last known speakers of languages](/source/List_of_last_known_speakers_of_languages)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==

* Image collection: [https://calisphere.org/collections/26869/ Native Americans on the Central Coast] from OAC include photos of Yee, her mother, grandmother, and extended family and tribe
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yee, Mary}}
Category:1897 births
Category:1965 deaths
Category:American women linguists
Category:Native American linguists
Category:Last known speakers of a Native American language
Category:Chumash people
Category:20th-century American linguists
Category:Linguists of Chumashan languages
Category:Native American people from California
Category:20th-century Native American women
Category:20th-century Native American people
Category:Academics from Santa Barbara, California
Category:Chumash women

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Mary Yee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Yee) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Yee?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.