Siouan Language Family
Introduction
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Introduction
It is estimated that Proto-Uto-Aztecan from which all modern Uto-Aztecan languages are descended, was spoken about 5,000 years ago. The genetic relationship of the languages which are today known as belonging to the Uto-Aztecan language family was recognized by the late 19th century and firmly established by the middle of the 20th century. However, the internal classification of the Uto-Aztecan languages continues to be debated. Today, Uto-Aztecan is one of the largest language families of North and Central America in terms of population, linguistic diversity and geographic distribution. The northernmost Uto-Aztecan language, Northern Paiute, is found as far north as Oregon and Idaho. In the south, varieties of Nahuatl are spoken as far south as Nicaragua and El Salvador. The most famous of these is Classical Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec Empire of central Mexico. |
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Ethnologue lists 61 languages as belonging to the Uto-Aztecan family. Several of them are extinct, many are severely endangered or on the brink of extinction. For instance, In the U.S., only Hopi has over 5,000 speakers. In Mexico, there are sizable populations of speakers still remain. However, an overwhelming majority of them are bilingual in Spanish.
Recently, attempts have been made by various Native peoples to preserve their cultural and linguistic heritage. For example, the Hopi Language Education and Preservation Plan calls for a comprehensive, reservation-wide language instruction program. The survey results and community input show that the Hopi people believe that Hopi should be taught at home and in the villages by knowledgeable fluent speakers. They also want school-based programs for their children. They want assistance, training, and teaching materials so they can teach their own children and grandchildren how to speak Hopi. |
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Structure
Sound System |
Most languages belonging to the Uto-Aztecan language family have four vowels (e.g., Nahuatl) to six vowels (Hopi) that can be either long or short. Their consonant systems have fairly small inventories of phonemes and few consonant clusters. See Nahuatl sound system on this website for an example of an Uto-Aztecan language. Click here to listen to the sounds of Cora. |
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Uto-Aztecan languages are polysynthetic, i.e., many different kinds of affixes (prefixes and/or suffixes) can be added to roots to form very long words. These words function as whole sentences in less synthetic languages such as English. |
Take a look at these basic words across 10 Uto-Aztecan languages.
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Writing |
Prior to the arrival of European settlers in the New World, most Uto-Aztecan languages were unwritten with the exception of Maya and Aztec (Nahuatl). Starting in the 16th century, European missionaries took it upon themselves to devise writing systems for the indigenous languages. They encountered some difficulties in trying to represent sounds that were absent in their own Western European languages. As a result, several different orthographies are used to this day to represent these sounds, e.g., long vowels, /k/, and /kw/.
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Resources |
Uto-Aztecan Language and Culture Resources Click here to learn more about Nahuatl on this website. |
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