Ivilyuat | |
---|---|
Cahuilla | |
ʔívil̃uʔat Ivil̃uɂat 'Ívillu'at Ivi'a | |
Pronunciation | [ʔivɪʎʊʔat] |
Native to | United States |
Region | Southern California |
Ethnicity | 800 Cahuilla (2007) [1] |
Native speakers | 35 (2009) [1] |
Uto-Aztecan
| |
Dialects | Desert Mountain Pass |
Latin, NAPA | |
Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | None |
Regulated by | None |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | chl |
Glottolog | cahu1264 [2] |
Ivilyuat (ʔívil̃uʔat or Ivil̃uɂatIPA: [ʔivɪʎʊʔat] or Cahuilla /kəˈwiːə/ ), is an endangered Uto-Aztecan language, spoken by the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the Coachella Valley, San Gorgonio Pass and San Jacinto Mountains region of Southern California. [3] Cahuilla call themselves ʔívil̃uwenetem or Iviatam–speakers of Ivilyuat (Ivi'a)–or táxliswet meaning "person." [4] [5] A 1990 census revealed 35 speakers in an ethnic population of 800. With such a decline, Ivilyuat is classified as "critically endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger as most speakers are middle-aged or older with limited transmission rates to children.
Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a family of indigenous languages of the Americas, consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family was created to show that it includes both the Ute language of Utah and the Nahuan languages of Mexico.
The Cahuilla, also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native American people of the inland areas of southern California. Their original territory included an area of about 2,400 square miles (6,200 km2). The traditional Cahuilla territory was near the geographic center of Southern California. It was bounded to the north by the San Bernardino Mountains, to the south by Borrego Springs and the Chocolate Mountains, to the east by the Colorado Desert, and to the west by the San Jacinto Plain and the eastern slopes of the Palomar Mountains.
The Coachella Valley (, is a desert valley in Southern California which extends for approximately 45 mi in Riverside County southeast from the San Bernardino Mountains to the northern shore of the Salton Sea. It is the northernmost extent of the vast trough which includes the Salton Sea, the Imperial Valley and the Gulf of California. It is approximately 15 mi wide along most of its length, bounded on the west by the San Jacinto Mountains and the Santa Rosa Mountains and on the north and east by the Little San Bernardino Mountains. The San Andreas Fault crosses the valley from the Chocolate Mountains in the southeast corner and along the centerline of the Little San Bernardinos. The fault is easily visible along its northern length as a strip of greenery against an otherwise bare mountain.
Three dialects are known to exist: Desert, Mountain and Pass, [6] as well as some other sub-dialects. [7]
Cahuilla is found in the Uto-Aztecan language family where it is denoted alongside Cupeño to be a Cupan language within the larger Californian language subgroup where it joins Serrano, Kitanemuk, Luiseño and Tongva (Gabrielino). This Californian subgroup consisting of Cupan and Serran languages was once titled the Takic group which has fallen out of use.
Cupeño is an extinct Uto-Aztecan language, formerly spoken by the Cupeño people of Southern California, United States, who now speak English.
The Serrano language is a language in the Serran branch of the Uto-Aztecan family spoken by the Serrano people of Southern California. The language is closely related to Tongva, Kitanemuk and Vanyume.
Kitanemuk was a Northern Uto-Aztecan language of the Serran branch. It was very closely related to Serrano, and may have been a dialect. It was spoken in the San Gabriel Mountains and foothill environs of Southern California. The last speakers lived some time in the 1940s, though the last fieldwork was carried out in 1937. J. P. Harrington took copious notes in the 1916 and 1917, however, which has allowed for a fairly detailed knowledge of the language.
One of the indigenous designations for the language is ʔívil̃uʔat, alongside 'Ívillu'at, where Cahuilla could call themselves ʔívil̃uqalet (s)/ʔívil̃uwenetem (pl.), 'speaker(s) of ʔívil̃uʔat.' Other variations include Ivilyuat and Ivia. However, both the language and the people are oftentimes called 'Cahuilla.'
An exonym or xenonym is an external name for a geographical place, a group of people, an individual person, or a language or dialect. It is a common name used only outside the place, group, or linguistic community in question. An endonym or autonym is an internal name for a geographical place, a group of people, or a language or dialect. It is a common name used only inside the place, group, or linguistic community in question; it is their name for themselves, their homeland, or their language.
Cahuilla has the following vowel and consonant phonemes (Bright 1965, Saubel and Munro 1980:1-6, Seiler and Hioki 1979: 8-9): [8]
A vowel is one of the two principal classes of speech sound, the other being a consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (length). They are usually voiced, and are closely involved in prosodic variation such as tone, intonation and stress. Vowel sounds are produced with an open vocal tract. The word vowel comes from the Latin word vocalis, meaning "vocal". In English, the word vowel is commonly used to refer both to vowel sounds and to the written symbols that represent them.
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are, pronounced with the lips;, pronounced with the front of the tongue;, pronounced with the back of the tongue;, pronounced in the throat; and, pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and and, which have air flowing through the nose (nasals). Contrasting with consonants are vowels.
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | labial. | ||||||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||||
Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | kʷ | q | ʔ | ||
voiced | (b) | ||||||||
Affricate | t͡ʃ | ||||||||
Fricative | voiceless | (f) | s | ʃ | x | xʷ | |||
voiced | v | (ð) | (ɣ) | ||||||
Approximant | w | j | h | ||||||
Lateral | l | ʎ | |||||||
Flap | ɾ |
Consonants in parentheses only occur in loans.
Front | Central | Back | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
short | long | short | long | short | long | |
Close | i | u | ||||
Near-close | ɪ | ɪː 1 | ʊ 1 | ʊː | ||
Mid | e | ( o )2 | ( oː ) | |||
Open-mid | ɛ 3 | ɛː | ||||
Near-open | æ 3 | |||||
Open | a | ɒ 4 | ɒː | |||
Diphthongs | i̯e i̯u u̯e u̯i ai̯ ei̯ ui̯ au̯ eu̯ iu̯ i̯a u̯a ɛ̯a5 |
A salient feature found in Ivilyuat is the phenomenon of voiceless vowels which occur in word-final positions or around /ʔ/. Word-finally, voiceless vowels occur as -Vh (a vowel followed by /h/).
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies voicing and that voicelessness is the lack of phonation.
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Words in Ivilyuat may never start with a vowel, and consonant clusters generally indicate the break between morphemic units. Whereas /ʔ/ is treated as a regular consonant in word-initial locations, it occurs in consonant clusters via infixation or insertion and is not representative of a morphemic break.
There are three primary types of stress in Ivilyuat: primary, secondary and unstressed. Primary is distinguished from an unstressed syllable by loudness and elevation of pitch. Secondary stress carries less volume and the pitch is not as elevated as with primary stress. Generally, stress falls on the first syllable of the root, however there are numerous cases of doubt and ambiguity. The general pattern is: ... CV̀CVCV́CVCV̀CVCV̀ ..., where regular alternation occurs after the primary stress and secondary stress is added to the first syllable if followed by an additional -CV- group without stress. Long vowels function also as a distinct -CV- unit and take stress with the following syllable unit also taking stress: ... CV́VCV̀ ... This process can be seen here:
Ivilyuat is an agglutinative language. It uses various affixes, alternating between prefixes and suffixes, to change the meaning and grammatical function of words. As well, Ivilyuat leans heavily on descriptive properties in the construction of nouns, turning predicates into nouns.
Ivilyuat consists of rich morphological phenomena, especially through its descriptive properties. For example, the word 'arrow,' or húyal, is derived from 'it is straightened' (húya) which has been transformed into 'that which is straightened' or 'the straightened one' (húya + -l), where the verb stem 'to straighten' is immediately recognizable. This phenomenon permeates the language such that some words are examples of a double derivation, such as 'blue/green' (túkvašnekiš). The word for the colour, túkvašnekiš, is derived from 'that which comes from heaven' which in turn comes from 'the thing where carrying [of the sun?] takes place,' where túkvaš means 'sky' and -nek is from nek-en ('to carry' with -en being the realized suffix). [8]
Some, but not all, nouns occur in two different states: absolutive and construct. Outside of these two states fall certain other nouns that both refuse to take a P1 (see below) nor a construct state form such as ʔáwal ('dog') and almost all additional animal terms which cannot be directly possessed; however, there is indication that some of these nouns show historical ties to both states, and issues present with either state usage tend to be semantic.
Distinguishing a noun from a verb can sometimes be difficult in Ivilyuat, however, whereas both verbs and nouns can take P1 prefixes, only nouns can take P2 ones.
Absolutive, also known as non-possessed nouns (NPN), [9] and construct states help in the classification of nouns. For nouns that take either state, the process can either exhibit itself where the noun takes one form, both forms or even more productive derivations. For example, the word for (its) flower/blossom can be: séʔiš ('the flower' or 'the blossom'), séʔi ('its blossom'), séʔiški ('its flower') where séʔ- means to blossom and iš is the relativizing and absolutive suffix. Thus, séʔiš means 'blossom/flower' or, more literally, 'having completed the act of blossoming.'
The absolutive state occurs when a relational expression is transformed into an absolute expression, or when a predicate becomes an argument that can then be assigned to a particular place in a predicate. This state is constructed using the absolutive suffix, being one of four consonants (-t, -š, -l, -l̃). The suffix often is found in amalgamation with the preceding vowel, mostly -a or -i; however the case may be that there are more complex underlying functions than just that of the absolutive suffix.
The construct state is marked with P1 relational constructions and translates very roughly to possession.
constr.
| npn
| npn & constr.
|
Inflection in Ivilyuat is realized through both prefixation and suffixation, where prefixes mark the distinction of persons and suffixes mark plurality and case. Both O and P2 may co-occur, which sees O precede P2; P2 may precede P1. Never can all three prefixes occur simultaneously. O, for example, cannot combine with P1 within nouns (it can within verbs); P2 can only occur in nouns.
Verbs | Nouns | Nouns |
---|---|---|
O + P1 | P2 + P1 | O + P2 |
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Number is marked with the suffixes -m, -em, -im and -am (táxliswetem 'the Indigenous person'), making a simple singular/plural distinction. Some nouns are not pluralizable, such as kʷíñil̃ 'acorn(s)' or méñikiš 'mesquite bean(s).'
The object is marked with the oblique case suffix (obl) -i, -y and -iy which sometimes includes glottalization either through insertion or infixation:
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The other cases are the: locative -ŋa (loc), lative -(i)ka (lat) and abl -ax (abl), marking roughly location/placement, direction/towards and point of departure, respectively. The lative case appears to combine only with construct state nouns only:
Case and plural endings can combine with one another, especially the locative and ablative:
Pronouns in Ivilyuat can be broken down into three categories: personal, question/answer – indefinite and non-personal – non-question/answer – non-indefinite.
Singular | Plural | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Accented | Clitic | Accented | Clitic | ||
1st | subj. | néʔ | neʔ | čémem čém | čem |
obj. | néʔiy | čémemi | |||
2nd | subj. | ʔéʔ | ʔe | ʔémem ʔém | ʔem |
obj. | ʔéʔiy | ʔémemi |
Nominalization, or the creation of nouns from verbs and adverbs as is the case in Ivilyuat, occurs fairly frequently.
Seiler lists ten nominalizers attached to the verb playing a wide range of functions.
-ka(t) 'inceptive'
Using Seiler's terminology, this nominalizer indicates an oriented relationship in the noun/action, very similar to the nominal suffix '-ka(t)' (see below). As tense plays little role in the language, this should not be taken to mean 'future.'
meškʷakatem | ʔemečemkiʔiwen ʔemešwayikinikatem |
-(a)k(t) 'excellence'
This denotes goodness or excellence.
ʔeʔ ʔetmuak | neʔ hennehak |
-nax(t) 'supposed to fulfill function'
This denotes where one is supposed to fulfill a specialized function, notably in a socio-cultural context.
peypiiʔnax | taxmuʔnax |
-(i)š 'completed action or process'
Denotes a completed action or being completed as a process.
tamiiti piytehwiš
támiit–i .. pi–y–téhw–iš
STEM–SUFF. .. O–P2–STEM–SUFF.
'sun' – obl .. 3sg. – 3sg. – 'find' – nom.
'the one that found the sun'
-vaš 'performing in a special situation'
Denotes performing an act in a specially defined situation. Compare the following examples:
penpayniqal
pe–n–páy–ni–qal
O–P1–STEM–SUFF.–SUFF.
3sg. – 1sg. – 'daylight' – caus – dur
'I'm making it daylight' i.e., 'I'm sitting up all night.'
peypaynivaš
pe–y–páy–ni–vaš
O–P2–STEM–SUFF.–SUFF.
3sg. – 3sg. – 'daylight' – caus – nom.
'the one that makes it daylight' i.e., 'the morning star'
-wet/-et 'habitual or competent performer'
Functioning similarly to '-vaš,' denotes a competent or habitual performer. When in combination with the durative (dur, '-qal'/'-wen') or stative (stat, '-wen'), it takes the form '-et.' Compare the following examples:
nuʔinqalet nuʔinwenetem | taxnuʔinqal taxnuʔinqalet | hičiwet |
-ʔa & -at/-(ʔ)il̃ 'abstract nominalizers'
These makes abstract verbs into nouns. Where '-at' and '-il̃'/'-ʔil̃' can attach to abstract verbs with few restrictions, '-ʔa' is restricted to abstract verbs which are then possessed once nominalized.
ʔaminat neʔaminʔa | kʷaʔisniʔil̃ nekʷaʔisniʔa |
-piš 'unrealized subordination'
Nominalizes verbs that both indicates subordination and something that has not yet happened.
vuvanpiš
vúvan–piš
'hit' – nom.
'an insect that stings'
-vel/-ve 'event already occurring or occurred'
Nominalizes verbs in regard to occurrence of the action.
kupvel | nekupve |
-vaʔal 'located event'
A complex of suffixes where the verbal suffix '-vaʔ' indicates 'locale, place' such as:
pa hemčeŋenvaʔ
pa .. hem–Ø–čeŋen–vaʔ
there .. 3pl. – 'dance' – 'place'
'Where they are dancing.'
Combining with '-al,' the abstract nominalizer, there become forms such as:
pisivaʔal | hempisivaʔa |
There is only one adverbial nominalizer according to Seiler's Grammar, which is '-viš.' It can either affix to adverbs to denote being from a place or time or denote ordering.
PLACE/TIME | PLACE/TIME | ORDERING |
There are three major forms of declension in Ivilyuat: oriented relationship, diminutive (DIM) and special marking.
The suffix '-ka(t)' indicated an oriented relationship which is used most notably in kinship terms, '-mal'/'-mal̃'/'-ma' marks the diminutive and '-(V)k(t)' indicates someone or something that is marked in a special or notable way.
ORIENTED RELATIONSHIP | DIMINUTIVE | SPECIAL MARKING |
Ivilyuat verbs show agreement with both their subject and object. Person agreement, of which there are three, is shown by prefixes and number agreement, of which there are two, is shown by suffixes. Additionally, verbs take both inflectional and derivational affixes, where derivational are formed in the root. As such, an inflectional affix can follow a derivational affix, but a derivational affix can never follow an inflectional one. To be classed as a verb, the word must include both a subject prefix and at least one non-personal inflectional affix; transitive verbs must include also an object prefix.
Within verbs of the Desert dialect, tense plays almost no role, expressing past on nouns and noun phrases with the suffix -ʔa. Kinship terms, though, are excluded and use a form roughly translated to be 'past existence of kinsperson.' However, while tense plays little role within the verb phrase, aspect and mode are present throughout.
Every verb must take both -2 (subject) and at least on inflectional affix from -1 or +1 alongside the necessary stem. -1 and +1 are incompatible as is -4 and -1, as -4 only occurs in combination with +1's -nem.
–4 | –3 | –2 | –1 | STEM | +1 |
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ʔax- expect., absol. (pros) | ne- Obj. 1sing. | ne- Subj. 1sing. | pe2- localis | -ʔi realized, absol. (perf) | |
Ø expect., non-absol. | ʔe- 2 sing. | ʔe- 2 sing. | -Ø non-realized, non-absol. | ||
pe- 3 sing. | Ø- 3 sing. | -nem expect. | |||
čeme- 1 plur. | čem- 1 plur. | -pulu possib. (sjv) | |||
ʔeme- 2 plur. | ʔem- 2 plur. | -e injunctive, absol., sing. (imp) | |||
me- 3 plur. | hem- 3 plur. | -am injunctive, absol., plur. (imp) | |||
-na injunctive, non-absol. (inj) | |||||
tax- reflex./indef. | -ve subordin., realized | ||||
-pi subordin., non-realized | |||||
-nuk subordin., gerundial | |||||
-pa subord., when |
Derivation within the verb phrase takes on a variety of characteristics. Derivational affixes can be classified into one of two categories: endocentric and exocentric, where endocentrically deriving affixes occur about twice as often as exocentric ones. The difference is established upon the change in distribution class which can take the form of a derivation of a verbal stem from a nominal basis or a transitive stem from an intransitive one.
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Although Ivilyuat employs a relatively free word order, its underlying classification is that of a subject–object–verb (or SOV) language. Its verbs show heavy agreement, indicating the subject and object even when not overtly present, and the subject and object may appear after the verb, highlighting specific usage.
Ivilyuat contains about a dozen or so classifiers notably indicating the type of noun being modified or possessed. Classifiers cover nouns ranging from general, inanimate items -ʔa in ne-m-éxam-ʔa 'it (is) my thing' lit., 'it (is) somehow doing this way,' to trees, plants, fruits, meats, animals and moieties.
General
| Trees, plants and their fruits
| Kinds of meats
| Animals
| Moieties
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For all non-animate nouns, the general classifier -ʔa is used, otherwise classifiers distinguish the nouns themselves. For trees, plants and their fruits, there are five classifiers. kíʔiwʔa is used for trees and certain plants/fruits found in a naturally occurring group, and this is used to help denote legal claims as members of certain lineages had grouping-specific sites of harvest. The word derives from the verb stem 'to wait' as visible: pe-n-kíʔiw-qal 'I am waiting for it' ... ne-kíʔiw-ʔa 'It (is) my waiting' i.e., 'It is the thing that I am waiting for' or 'It is my claim.' Generally, pinyons, mesquites and oaks factor into this usage. ʔáyʔa is used for fresh fruit and blossoms picked from trees and stems from the verb 'to pluck' or 'to pick' (pe-n-ʔáy-ʔa 'I am plucking or picking it' ... ne-ʔáy-ʔa 'It (is) my plucking or picking'). Individual beans or acorns are not compatible with this classifier. číʔa is used to describe picking up edible items after they have fallen to the ground such as mesquite beans, acorns, black beans and possibly corn. wésʔa applies to plants and their fruits which have been planted (in a row) by individuals. Plants such as corn, watermelon, cacti, wheat and palm trees fall under this classifier. Finally, séxʔa indicates food items that are being or have been cooked such as black beans, corn or jerked meat.
Other classifiers include kinds of meat, animals and moieties. Meat breaks down into waʔ/wáwa, čáxni and téneq (roasted, melted and barbecued, respectively). The most important classifier for animals is the relation to animals as pets, expressed with ʔaš, which includes horses (pásukat), cottontail rabbits (távut), turtles (ʔáyil̃), coyotes (ʔísil̃), bears (húnwet), snakes (séwet), fish (kíyul) and eagles (ʔáswet) amongst others; however, this does not include wild cat (túkut). Finally, ʔívil̃uwenetem were broken down into two moieties: ʔísil̃ (coyote) and túkut (wildcat) where individuals needed to marry outside of their moiety, i.e. a Wildcat man must marry a Coyote woman and vice versa. This was expressed using kíl̃iw (ne-kíl̃iw 'my partner' or túkut/ʔísil̃ ne-kíl̃iw 'my partner, the wildcat/coyote').
Ivilyuat uses a single demonstrative Ɂi(Ɂ) ("this/that") that takes the form Ɂi before sonorants and ɁiɁ elsewhere.
It can be modified with deictic markers meaning local or distant/remote.
Proximal | Distal | |||
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simple | complex | simple | complex | |
sing. subj. | Ɂet | Ɂevat | peɁ | pevat |
sing. obj. | Ɂetiy | Ɂevatiy | peɁiy | pevatiy |
plur. subj. | Ɂetem | Ɂevatem | peɁem | pevatem |
plur. obj. | Ɂetemi | Ɂevatemi | peɁemi | pevatemi |
The complex and simple forms have no difference in perceived meaning according to Seiler. The inflection agrees with the sentence itself where the deictic marker co-ordinates with the subject or verb such as in "ɁiɁ peɁ menil̃" meaning "this over there, the moon," as peɁ is inflected to mark the singular subject menil̃. Additionally, there are clitic forms of this marker: pe, pee and pey.
A vast majority of Ivilyuat words come from Uto-Aztecan roots and there is a large shared vocabulary between neighbouring languages such as Luiseño or Serrano. Due to language contact, however, many Spanish words have been adopted into the language, such as máys ('corn') or ʔavugáaduʔ ('lawyer') from Spanish maíz and abogado, respectively. Conversely, Ivilyuat has taken little to no English loan words.
Ivilyuat can either express kinship terms relationally or through an establishing expression.
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Ivilyuat uses a base-ten system with unique words for 'five' and 'ten.'
English | Ivilyuat [5] [10] | Cupeño [11] | Luiseño [12] | Gabrieliño/Tongva [13] | Juaneño [14] | Serrano [15] |
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one | súpl̃e | suplawut | supúl | pukuu' | supúl | howpk |
two | wíh | wi | wéh | wehee' | wéx | werh |
three | páh | pa | páahay | pahee' | páahay | paahi' |
four | wíčiw | wichu | wasá | watsaa' | wasá | wacah |
five | namekʷánaŋ | numaqananax | maháar | mahaar | maháar | maharc |
man | náxaniš | naxanis | 'atáax or ya'áš | kworooyt | ye'ích | wecerch |
woman | ñíčil̃ | muwikut | šungáal | tokoor | shongwáala | neerht |
sun | támit | tamyut | timét | taamit | temét | taamit |
moon | ménil̃ | munil | móoyla | muwaar | móyla | muat |
water | pál | pal | páala | paara' | páal | pàt |
Few place names within Cahuilla remained the same over the years with English or Spanish names taking over. Here are several examples:
Cahuilla has been and, to an extent, still is an unwritten language. Between IPA and NAPA, there are ways to write the language down, but there is no agreed-upon script used Nationwide. That being said, the most employed orthography is that of a modified NAPA found in Seiler and Hioki's "Cahuilla Dictionary". The alphabet has 35 letters with an accent (either ' ´ ' or ' ` ') over vowels denoting stress patterns. Words that begin in a vowel can be written without the glottal stop (ɂ / Ɂ), but the sound is still present.
Cahuilla Alphabet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
a | aa | b | č | d | e | ee | g | h | i | ii | k | kʷ | l | l̃ | m | n | ñ | ŋ | o | oo | p | q | r | s | š | t | u | uu | v | w | x | xʷ | y | ɂ |
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Alvin Siva of the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians, a fluent speaker, died on June 26, 2009. He preserved the tribe's traditional bird songs, sung in the Cahuilla language, by teaching them to younger generations of Cahuilla people. [16] Katherine Siva Saubel (b. 1920 - d. 2011) was a native Cahuilla speaker dedicated to preserving the language. [17]
In April 2014, the University of California, Riverside offered free public workshops in the Cahuilla language. [18]
Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix, such as -ness or un-. For example, happiness and unhappy derive from the root word happy.
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Tzotzil is a Maya language spoken by the indigenous Tzotzil Maya people in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Most speakers are bilingual in Spanish as a second language. In Central Chiapas, some primary schools and a secondary school are taught in Tzotzil. Tzeltal is the most closely related language to Tzotzil and together they form a Tzeltalan sub-branch of the Mayan language family. Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Chʼol are the most widely spoken languages in Chiapas.
Halkomelem is a language of various First Nations peoples in British Columbia, ranging from southeastern Vancouver Island from the west shore of Saanich Inlet northward beyond Gabriola Island and Nanaimo to Nanoose Bay and including the Lower Mainland from the Fraser River Delta upriver to Harrison Lake and the lower boundary of the Fraser Canyon.
Wiyot is an extinct Algic language formerly spoken by the Wiyot of Humboldt Bay, California. The language's last native speaker, Delia Prince, died in 1962.
The Tunica language is a language isolate that was spoken in the Central and Lower Mississippi Valley in the United States by Native American Tunica peoples. There are no native speakers of the Tunica language, but as of 2017, there are 32 second language speakers.
Klallam,Clallam, Na'klallam or S'klallam, now extinct, was a Straits Salishan language that was traditionally spoken by the Klallam peoples at Becher Bay on Vancouver Island in British Columbia and across the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.
The Tonkawa language was spoken in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico by the Tonkawa people. A language isolate, with no known related languages, Tonkawa is now extinct. Members of the Tonkawa tribe now speak English.
Quechan or Kwtsaan, also known as Yuma, is the native language of the Quechan people of southeastern California and southwestern Arizona in the Lower Colorado River Valley and Sonoran Desert.
Wintu is an almost extinct Wintuan language spoken by the Wintu people of Northern California. It is 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.
Comanche is a Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Comanche people, who split off from the Shoshone soon after they acquired horses around 1705. The Comanche language and the Shoshoni language are therefore quite similar, although certain consonant changes in Comanche have inhibited mutual intelligibility.
Natchez was the ancestral language of the Natchez people who historically inhabited Mississippi and Louisiana, and who now mostly live among the Creek and Cherokee peoples in Oklahoma. The language is considered to be either unrelated to other indigenous languages of the Americas or distantly related to the Muskogean languages.
Paumarí is an Arauan language spoken in Brazil by about 300 older adults out of an ethnic population of 900. It is spoken by the Paumari Indians, who call their language “Pamoari”. The word “Pamoari” has several different meanings in the Paumarí language: ‘man,’ ‘people,’ ‘human being,’ and ‘client.’ These multiple meanings stem from their different relationships with outsiders; presumably it means ‘human being’ when they refer to themselves to someone of ostensibly equal status, and ‘client’ when referring to their people among river traders and Portuguese speakers.
Southern Athabascan is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken in the North American Southwest. Refer to Southern Athabascan languages for the main article.
Qʼanjobʼal is a Mayan language spoken primarily in Guatemala and part of Mexico. According to 1998 estimates compiled by SIL International in Ethnologue, there were approximately 77,700 native speakers, primarily in the Huehuetenango Department of Guatemala. Municipalities where the Qʼanjobʼal language is spoken include San Juan Ixcoy, San Pedro Soloma, Santa Eulalia, Santa Cruz Barillas (Yalmotx), San Rafael La Independencia, and San Miguel Acatán. Qʼanjobʼal is taught in public schools through Guatemala's intercultural bilingual education programs.
Bororo (Borôro), also known as Boe, is the sole surviving language of a small family believed to be part of the Macro-Gê languages. It is spoken by the Bororo, hunters and gatherers in the Central Mato Grosso region of Brazil.
Malecite–Passamaquoddy is an endangered Algonquian language spoken by the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples along both sides of the border between Maine in the United States and New Brunswick, Canada. The language consists of two major dialects: Malecite, which is mainly spoken in the Saint John River Valley in New Brunswick; and Passamaquoddy, spoken mostly in the St. Croix River Valley of eastern Maine. However, the two dialects differ only slightly, mainly in accent. Malecite-Passamaquoddy was widely spoken by the indigenous people in these areas until around the post-World War II era, when changes in the education system and increased marriage outside of the speech community caused a large decrease in the number of children who learned or regularly used the language. As a result, in both Canada and the U.S. today, there are only 600 speakers of both dialects, and most speakers are older adults. Although the majority of younger people cannot speak the language, there is growing interest in teaching the language in community classes and in some schools.
Ottawa has complex systems of both inflectional and derivational morphology. Like other dialects of Ojibwe, Ottawa employs complex combinations of inflectional prefixes and suffixes to indicate grammatical information. Ojibwe word stems are formed with combinations of word roots, and affixes referred to as medials and finals to create basic words to which inflectional prefixes and suffixes are added. Word stems are also combined with other word stems to create compound words.