Esselen
English
edit
Etymology
editThe name Esselen "probably derived from the name of a major native village", possibly from the village known as Exse'ein, or the place called Eslenes, the site of the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo. The Spanish extended the term to mean the entire linguistic group (Hester 1978:498-499).
Noun
editEsselen pl (plural only)
- An indigenous population native to the region of Big Sur on the Central Coast of California.
Proper noun
editEsselen
- The language of this people.
Further reading
edit- Ethnologue entry for Esselen, esq
References
editBreschini, Gary S. and Trudy Haversat. 2004. The Esselen Indians of the Big Sur Country: The Land and the People. Salinas: Coyote Press. →ISBN
- Hester, Thomas R. 1978. Esselen, in Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8 (California). William C. Sturtevant, and Robert F. Heizer, eds. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978. →ISBN / 0160045754, pages 496-499.