The Kawaiisu language is a

Uto-Aztecan The Uto-Aztecan languages are a family of native American languages, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ...

language spoken by the Kawaiisu people of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Classification

Kawaiisu is a member of the Southern Numic division of the

Uto-Aztecan language The Uto-Aztecan languages are a family of native American languages, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ...

family.

Linguistic environment

The Kawaiisu homeland was bordered by speakers of non-Numic Uto-Aztecan languages: the

Kitanemuk The Kitanemuk are an Indigenous people of California and were a tribal village of the Kawaiisu Nation. The Kawaiisu traditionally lived in the Tehachapi Mountains and the Antelope Valley area of the western Mojave Desert of southern Californi ...

to the south spoke

Takic The Takic languages are a putative group of Uto-Aztecan languages historically spoken by a number of Indigenous peoples of California, Indigenous peoples of Southern California. Takic is grouped with the Tübatulabal language, Tubatulabal, Hopi la ...

, the Tubatulabal to the north spoke Tubatulabal, the

Yokuts The Yokuts (previously known as MariposasPowell, 1891:90–91.) are an ethnic group of Native Americans native to central California. Before European contact, the Yokuts consisted of up to 60 tribes speaking several related languages. Yokuts ...

to the west were non-Uto-Aztecan. Because they shared the Southern Numic language, the

Chemehuevi The Chemehuevi ( ) are an indigenous people of the Great Basin. They are the southernmost branch of Southern Paiute. Today, Chemehuevi people are enrolled in the following federally recognized tribes: * Colorado River Indian Tribes * Cheme ...

to the east are considered the closest relatives to Kawaiisu.

Geographic distribution

The remaining Kawaiisu speakers live in the Tehachapi area of

Revitalization

In 1994, the language was severely

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

, with perhaps fewer than 20 remaining speakers. In 2011, The Kawaiisu Project received the Governor's Historic Preservation Award for its efforts to document the Kaiwaiisu language and culture, including "the Handbook of the Kawaiisu, language teaching and the Kawaiisu Language and Cultural Center ndthe Kawaiisu exhibit at the Tehachapi Museum." , the Kawaiisu Language and Cultural Center offers language classes and DVDs for home learning, as well as training for other groups seeking to create language learning programs and materials.

Morphology

Kawaiisu is an

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

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

morpheme A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this ...

s strung together.

Phonology

Vowels

Kawaiisu has a typical Numic vowel inventory of six vowels.

Consonants

Kawaiisu has an atypical Numic

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

inventory in that many of the predictable consonant alternations in other Numic languages are no longer predictable in Kawaiisu. The Kawaiisu consonant inventory, therefore is much larger than the typical Numic language. * and are found only in loanwords.

References

Footnotes

Sources

External links

*
Kawaiisu lexiconKawaiisu language
overview at the

Survey of California and Other Indian Languages The Survey of California and Other Indian Languages (originally the Survey of California Indian Languages) at the University of California at Berkeley documents, catalogs, and archives the indigenous languages of the Americas. The survey also hosts ...

OLAC resources in and about the Kawaiisu language

Sheldon and Carol Klein Papers on the Kawaiisu Language
at the California Language Archive
Sheldon Klein collection of Kawaiisu sound recordings
at the California Language Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Kawaiisu Language Agglutinative languages Numic languages Indigenous languages of California Indigenous languages of the North American Great Basin Endangered Uto-Aztecan languages Native American language revitalization