Cahuilla language

Cahuilla
Spoken in USA
Region Southern California
Native speakers 15  (2000)
Language family
Uto-Aztecan
Writing system Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3 chl
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Cahuilla is an endangered Uto-Aztecan language, spoken by the Cahuilla tribe, living in the Coachella Valley, San Gorgonio Pass and San Jacinto Mountain region of Southern California.[1] Cahuilla call themselves Iviatam, speakers of 'Ivia' - the 'original' language.[2] A 1990 census revealed 35 speakers in an ethnic population of 800. It is nearly extinct, since most speakers are middle-aged or older.

Three dialects are known to have existed, referred to as Desert, Mountain, and Pass Cahuilla.[3]

Alvino 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.[4] Katherine Siva Saubel (b. 1920 - d. 2011) was a native Cahuilla speaker dedicated to preserving the language.

Contents

Phonology

Cahuilla has the following vowel and consonant phonemes (Bright 1965, Saubel and Munro 1980:1-6)

Front Back
High iː   i uː   u
Mid eː   e (oː)
Low a

Long /oː/ only appears in borrowings.

IPA chart of Cahuilla consonants
Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Alveolar Palatal Velar Labialized Uvular Glottal
Stop p   t   (d) k   qʷ q ʔ <'>
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Flap r
Fricative (f)   v s   (z) ʃ x   ɣ <g> xʷ h
Affricate t͡ʃ <ch>
Approximant w j <y>
Lateral l ʎ <ll>

Consonants in parentheses only occur in loans. Material in <> after a consonant shows how it is spelled in the practical orthography of Saubel and Munro (1980).

Morphology

Verb morphology

Cahuilla verbs show agreement with both their subject and object. Person agreement is shown by prefixes and number agreement is shown by suffixes. (Saubel and Munro p. 29)

kúp-qa
sleep-singular:present
'He is sleeping.'
hem-kúp-we
3rd-sleep-plural:present
'They are sleeping.'

Basic sample vocabulary

  • One: Súplli'
  • Two: Wíh
  • Three: Páh
  • Four: Wíchiw
  • Five: Nemaqwánang
  • Man: Náxanish
  • Woman: Nícill
  • Sun: Támit
  • Moon: Ménill
  • Water: Pál[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Cahuilla." Ethnologue Report for the Language Code: chl. (retrieved 13 Dec 2009)
  2. ^ "Cahuilla Indian Language (Iviatim)." Native Languages of the Americas. 2009 (retrieved 13 Dec 2009)
  3. ^ Shipley, William F. (1978). "Native Languages of California". In R.F. Heizer. Handbook of North American Indians. 8, California. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 80–90. 
  4. ^ Waldner, Erin. "Cahuilla elder, one of last fluent in language, dies." The Press-Enterprise. 9 July 2009 (retrieved 13 Dec 2009)
  5. ^ "Vocabulary Words in Native American Languages: Cahuilla." Native Languages of the Americas. 2009 (retrieved 13 Dec 2009)

External links