Palaihnihan (also Palaihnih) is a small language family of northeastern California.
It consists of two closely related languages, both now extinct: The original reconstruction of proto-Palaihnihan suffered from poor quality data.
David Olmsted's dictionary depends almost entirely upon de Angulo, who did not record the phonological distinctions consistently or well,[1] and carelessly includes Pomo vocabulary from a manuscript in which he (de Angulo) set out to demonstrate that Achumawi and Pomo are not related.
[2] William Bright has also pointed out problems with Olmsted's methods of reconstruction.
Consonants were as follows:[4] The Palaihnihan family is often connected with the hypothetical Hokan stock.