Each Yokuts tribe spoke its own language. The people in the tribe could also speak and understand the language of the other Yokuts tribes. The Yokuts used sign language mostly with strangers whose language they did not speak.
Symbols found in Yokuts pictographs represented happenings, ideas, and emotions. The Yokuts also used smoke to communicate. If a stranger entered the tribe’s territory, smoke signals provided a warning for the tribes.
–Adapted from research by Mary Ann Brensel