Wintu is an extinct Wintuan language which was spoken by the Wintu people of Northern California. It was the northernmost member of the Wintun family of languages. The Wintuan family of languages was spoken in the Sacramento River Valley and in adjacent areas up to the Carquinez Strait of San Francisco Bay. Wintun is a branch of the hypothetical Penutian language phylum or stock of languages of western North America, more closely related to four other families of Penutian languages spoken in California: Maiduan, Miwokan, Yokuts, and Costanoan. The Wintu were in contact also with adjacent speakers of Hokan languages such as Southeastern, Eastern, and Northeastern Pomo; Athabaskan languages such as Wailaki and Hupa; Yukian languages such as Yuki and Wappo; and other Penutian languages such as Miwok, Maidu, Yokuts, and Saclan. Besides these contiguous languages surrounding the Wintun area wider contacts with speakers of Russian, Spanish, and English. As of 2011, Headman Marc Franco of the Winnemem Wintu has been working with the Indigenous Language Institute on revitalization of the Winnemem Wintu language. Phonology Consonants Wintu has 28 (to 30) consonants: are nonnative phonemes borrowed from English. is a rare phoneme that occurred, only word finally, in only one of Pitkin's informants (his main consultant. In other speakers, it has merged with . Dental stops are denti-alveolar: , , , . Younger speakers, however, employ (apico-)alveolar-stop articulations as in English , , , . The lateral is usually a fricative but occasionally an affricate among McCloud speakers while Trinity speakers have only the affricate. It is interdental after non-low front vowels , post-dental after low , and retroflex after non-low back . In the speech of older speakers, postalveolar is retroflex adjacent to back vowels . Velars are advanced before non-low front vowels and retracted before non-low back vowels . In the manner of articulation, velars and post-velars can be glottalized and non-glottalized (voiceless). The trill is apico-postalveolar retroflex. It is occurs as a flap between vowels. The glottal stop is weakly articulated except when the speaker is being deliberate or emphatic. It is always fully articulated in word-final position. Vowels Wintu has 10 (or 11) vowels: Wintu has short and long vowels. is a phoneme that only occurs in borrowed English words. All vowels are slightly nasalized before the glottal consonant All vowels are voiced and oral (except for the above-mentioned nasal allophones). Syllable structure Segmental phonemes require