Chimariko is an extinct language isolate formerly spoken in northern Trinity County, California, by the inhabitants of several independent communities.

While the total area claimed by these communities was remarkably small, Golla (2011:87–89) believes there is evidence that three local dialects were recognized: Trinity River Chimariko, spoken along the Trinity River from the mouth of South Fork at Salyer as far upstream as Big Bar, with a principal village at Burnt Ranch; South Fork Chimariko, spoken around the junction of South Fork and Hayfork Creek, with a principal village at Hyampom; and New River Chimariko, spoken along New River on the southern slopes of the Trinity Alps, with a principal village at Denny.

A Kahi family consisting of Chimariko, Shastan, Palaihnihan, and Karuk has been suggested (appearing also within Sapir's 1929 Northern Hokan).

[4] Harrington's assistant John Paul Marr also made recordings of the language with speaker Martha Zigler.

[5] George Grekoff collected previous works of linguistics intending to write a grammar, but died before it was completed (Golla, 2011, p. 89).

According to Golla, bilingual Hupa-Chimariko speakers native to the South Fork of the Trinity River, Burnt Ranch and New Rivers areas, organized as the Tsnungwe Tribe (from Hupa cʰe:niŋxʷe: 'Ironside Mountain people') and are seeking federal acknowledgement, but emphasize Hupa for purposes of cultural revitalization".

[10] Verb templates:[11] Because the documentary corpus of Chimariko was limited, the description of the grammar of the language was not complete.

Among the recorded grammatical characteristics are the following: Chimariko had reduplication in many nominal forms, particularly in the names of fauna (e.g., tsokoko-tci "bluejay", himimitcei "grouse").

Like many American languages (such as Shasta, Maidu, Wintun, as well as Shoshoni, Siouan, and Pomo), Chimariko verbs had a series of instrumental and body-part prefixes, indicating the particular body part or object with which an action was carried out.

[20] The modal suffixes function as interrogatives, negatives, dubitatives, speculatives, conditionals, emphatics, potentials, potential futures, purposive futures, optatives, desideratives, imperatives, admonitives, intensives, inferentials, resultatives, and evidentials.

[22] The clauses are separated by brackets and the verbs are bolded in the following example: ʔawaidače[ʔawa-ida-čehome-POSS-LOCxowonat,x-owo-na-t]NEG-stay-NEG-ASPšičel[šičelhorsehiwontath-iwonta-t]3-ride-ASPʔawaidače xowonat, šičel hiwontat[ʔawa-ida-če x-owo-na-t] [šičel h-iwonta-t]home-POSS-LOC NEG-stay-NEG-ASP horse 3-ride-ASP'She does not stay at home, she goes around on horseback.

[30] Examples from JP Harrington field notes (Jany 2007) contrasting alienable and inalienable possession: In Chimariko, there is no grammatical complementation, however there are a few strategies to convey semantic complementation including separate clauses, verbal affixes, the use of attitude words, and using the desiderative imiˀna 'to want'.