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18-720: Somis ( / ˈ s oʊ m ɪ s / ; Chumash : Śo Mís ) is an unincorporated community in Ventura County, California . It was established in 1892 by Thomas Bard and D.T. Perkins on a portion of the Rancho Las Posas Mexican land grant. Somis is in the Las Posas Valley on the south bank of Fox Barranca, just west of Arroyo Las Posas. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Somis as

36-492: A census-designated place (CDP). The name of this townsite is derived from the Chumash term śo mís , meaning 'water of the scrub oak.' There was a Ranchería named Somes noted in records from 1795 and 1796. Somes was located in the vicinity of present-day Lake Casitas , prior to the dam being built. Like many of the farms on the adjacent Oxnard Plain , the crops of corn, wheat and barley grown here were shipped through

54-411: A symmetrical six-vowel system. The distinctive high central vowel is written various ways, including <ɨ> "barred I," <ə> "schwa" and <ï> "I umlaut." Contemporary users of the languages favor /ɨ/ or /ə/ . Striking features of this system include The Central Chumash languages have a complex inventory of consonants. All of the consonants except / h / can be glottalized; all of

72-563: Is recent (within a couple thousand years). There is internal evidence that Obispeño replaced a Hokan language and that Island Chumash mixed with a language very different from Chumashan; the islands were not in contact with the mainland until the introduction of plank canoes in the first millennium AD. Although some say the Chumashan languages are now extinct or dormant, language revitalization programs are underway with four of these Chumashan languages. These languages are well-documented in

90-639: Is serviced by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department and the Ventura County Fire Department . The Somis ZIP Code, 93066, includes a large area of surrounding agricultural lands bounded on the south by the edge of housing tracts in Camarillo and on the north by the ridge line of South Mountain, 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Los Angeles Avenue. The ZIP Code encompasses an area some 11 miles (18 km) in width in

108-474: Is the nearest stop for Amtrak and Metrolink trains and is served by Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner from San Luis Obispo to San Diego and Metrolink's Ventura County Line from Los Angeles Union Station to East Ventura . Somis first appeared as a census designated place in the 2020 U.S. Census . Chumashan languages The Chumashan languages may be, along with Yukian and perhaps languages of southern Baja California such as Waikuri , one of

126-579: The Oxnard Union High School District include the census-designated place. The Somis Union School District operates Somis Elementary School. Somis Road ( SR 34 ), the main thoroughfare, is lined with a few shops, businesses and a county fire station and intersects State Route 118 (Los Angeles Avenue) just north of town after crossing Fox Barranca. The railroad, which is parallel with Los Angeles Avenue between Somis and Moorpark , turns and becomes parallel with Somis Road at

144-451: The 1770s and 1830s: Roland Dixon and Alfred L. Kroeber suggested that the Chumashan languages might be related to the neighboring Salinan in a Iskoman grouping. Edward Sapir accepted this speculation and included Iskoman in his classification of Hokan . More recently it has been noted that Salinan and Chumashan shared only one word, which the Chumashan languages probably borrowed from Salinan (the word for 'white clam shell', which

162-646: The east-west direction. Forbes Magazine ranked Somis the 108th most-expensive ZIP code in the United States in 2015. Somis had the highest median home prices in Ventura County in 1999. This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F (22.0 °C). According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Somis has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate , abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps. Somis Union School District and

180-471: The local understanding of the historical area of the community. Several structures have been designated County of Ventura Landmarks . Shown as Central Avenue on the original plat filed by Bard, Somis Road runs in a north-south direction through the middle of the townsite as its main thoroughfare. The parallel roads on either side are named West Street and East Street. Three streets are oriented in an east-west direction. The most northerly, named North Street,

198-527: The mainland in the early 19th century. John Peabody Harrington conducted fieldwork on all the above Chumashan languages, but obtained the least data on Island Chumash, Purisimeño, and Obispeño. There is no linguistic data on Cuyama, though ethnographic data suggests that it was likely Chumash (Interior Chumash). The languages are named after the local Franciscan Spanish missions in California where Chumashan speakers were relocated and aggregated between

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216-642: The older names based on the local missions. Obispeño was the most divergent Chumashan language. The Central Chumash languages include Purisimeño, Ineseño, Barbareño and Ventureño. There was a dialect continuum across this area, but the form of the language spoken in the vicinity of each mission was distinct enough to qualify as a different language. There is very little documentation of Purisimeño. Ineseño, Barbareño and Ventureño each had several dialects, although documentation usually focused on just one. Island Chumash had different dialects on Santa Cruz Island and Santa Rosa Island , but all speakers were relocated to

234-409: The oldest language families established in California, before the arrival of speakers of Penutian , Uto-Aztecan , and perhaps even Hokan languages . Chumashan, Yukian, and southern Baja languages are spoken in areas with long-established populations of a distinct physical type. The population in the core Chumashan area has been stable for the past 10,000 years. However, the attested range of Chumashan

252-523: The south end of town where they located the railroad stop for shipping agricultural products. The tracks continue south to the Camarillo Station and the intersection with US 101 . Somis Road becomes Lewis Road a little over 1 mile (1.6 km) south of town at the northern boundary of the City of Camarillo which is also generally the southerly boundary of Rancho Las Posas. The Camarillo station

270-489: The unpublished fieldnotes of linguist John Peabody Harrington . Especially well documented are Barbareño , Ineseño , and Ventureño . The last native speaker of a Chumashan language was Barbareño speaker Mary Yee , who died in 1965. Six Chumashan languages are attested , all now extinct. However, most of them are in the process of revitalization, with language programs and classes. Contemporary Chumash people now prefer to refer to their languages by native names rather than

288-465: The wharf that had been constructed in Hueneme in 1871. Agricultural products were able to be shipped by rail when the line from Los Angeles to San Francisco was routed through the valley and a stop was established adjacent to the community. The current spelling of the name was established when the railroad came through in 1899. The Census Bureau definition of the area does not precisely correspond to

306-525: Was extended northwesterly with plats filed in 1948 and 1953 that subdivided additional town lots. No further subdivision of town lots has occurred after this post- World War II expansion of the townsite to 96 acres (39 ha). It is primarily an agricultural area, but is home to a hardware store , a market with a Mexican cafe, a post office , an elementary school , several shops, a small animal hospital, one main residential tract and numerous estates and ranches. It has no formal local government , but it

324-407: Was used as currency). As a result, the inclusion of Chumashan into Hokan is now disfavored by most specialists, and the consensus is that Chumashan has no identified linguistic relatives. The Chumashan languages are well known for their consonant harmony (regressive sibilant harmony). Mithun presents a scholarly synopsis of Chumashan linguistic structures. The Central Chumash languages all have

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