Colorado River Numic (also called Ute , Southern Paiute , Ute–Southern Paiute, or Ute-Chemehuevi ), of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, is a

dialect chain A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

that stretches from southeastern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. Individual dialects are Chemehuevi, which is in danger of extinction, Southern Paiute (Moapa, Cedar City, Kaibab, and San Juan subdialects), and Ute (Central Utah, Northern, White Mesa, Southern subdialects). According to the '' Ethnologue'', there were a little less than two thousand speakers of Colorado River Numic Language in 1990, or around 40% out of an ethnic population of 5,000. The Southern Paiute dialect has played a significant role in

linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

, as the background for a famous article by linguist

Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States. Sap ...

and his collaborator Tony Tillohash on the nature of the

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

Dialects

The three major dialect groups of Colorado River are Chemehuevi, Southern Paiute, and Ute, although there are no strong isoglosses. The threefold division is primarily one of culture rather than strictly linguistic. There are, however, three major phonological distinctions among the dialects: :*In Southern Paiute and Ute, initial has been lost: Chemehuevi 'drink', other dialects 'drink'. :*In Ute, nasal-stop clusters have become voiceless geminate stops: Ute 'horse, pet', other dialects . :*In Ute, the mid back round vowel has been fronted to : Ute 'lungs', other dialects . There are no strong isoglosses between Southern Paiute and Ute for the changes but an increasing level of change, as one moves from Kaibab Southern Paiute (0% of nasal-stop clusters have changed) to Southern Ute (100% of nasal-stop clusters have changed).

Phonology

Consonant and vowel charts for the westernmost and easternmost dialects are given.

Consonants

Vowels

Vowels can be long or short. Short unstressed vowels can be devoiced.

Morphology

The Colorado River Numic language is an

agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...

language, in which words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several

morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are ...

s strung together.

References

Bibliography

* Bunte, Pamela A. (1979). "Problems in Southern Paiute Syntax and Semantics," Indiana University Ph.D. dissertation. * Charney, Jean O. (1996). ''A Dictionary of the Southern Ute Language''. Ignacio, Colorado: Ute Press. * Givón, Talmy (2011). ''Ute Reference Grammar''. Culture and Language Use Volume 3. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. * Laird, Carobeth (1976). ''The Chemehuevis''. Banning, CA: Malki Museum Press. * Mithun, Marianne (1999). ''Languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Press, Margaret L. (1979). ''Chemehuevi, A Grammar and Lexicon''. University of California Publications in Linguistics Volume 92. Berkeley, CA. University of California Press. * Sapir, Edward (1930). ''Southern Paiute, a Shoshonean Language''. Reprinted in 1992 in: ''The Collected Works of Edward Sapir, X, Southern Paiute and Ute Linguistics and Ethnography''. Ed. William Bright. Berlin: Mouton deGruyter. * Sapir, Edward (1931). ''Southern Paiute Dictionary''. Reprinted in 1992 in: ''The Collected Works of Edward Sapir, X, Southern Paiute and Ute Linguistics and Ethnography''. Ed. William Bright. Berlin: Mouton deGruyte

External links

A Preliminary Analysis of Southern Ute with a Special Focus on Noun Phrases
- also contains phonology information
Chemehuevi language
overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
A Chemehuevi Language Archive
- 1970s Fieldwork and Analysis by Margaret L. Press
OLAC resources in and about the Ute-Southern Paiute language

Collected Works of Edward Sapir, Vol. X: Southern Paiute and Ute Linguistics and Ethnography

Ute Dictionary
{{Authority control Numic languages Agglutinative languages Indigenous languages of Nevada Indigenous languages of Arizona Indigenous languages of California Indigenous languages of the Southwestern United States Paiute Ute tribe Chemehuevi Endangered indigenous languages of the Americas