Uto-Aztecan languages

Template:Short description Template:Infobox language family

The Uto-AztecanTemplate:Efn languagesTemplate:Efn 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 ancestry of the Ute language of Utah and the Nahuan languages (also known as Aztecan) of Mexico.

The Uto-Aztecan language family is one of the largest linguistic families in the Americas in terms of number of speakers, number of languages, and geographic extension.Template:Sfn The northernmost Uto-Aztecan language is Shoshoni, which is spoken as far north as Salmon, Idaho, while the southernmost is the Nawat language of El Salvador and Nicaragua.<ref name="náwat sabores">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="lenguas Gran Nicoya">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Ethnologue gives the total number of languages in the family as 61, and the total number of speakers as 1,900,412.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Speakers of Nahuatl languages account for over 85% of these.

The internal classification of the family often divides it into two branches: a northern branch including all the languages of the US and a southern branch including all the languages of Mexico, although it is still being discussed whether this is best understood as a genetic classification or as a geographical one. Below this level of classification the main branches are well accepted: Numic (including languages such as Comanche and Shoshoni) and the Californian languages (formerly known as the Takic group, including Cahuilla and Luiseño) account for most of the Northern languages. Hopi and Tübatulabal are languages outside those groups. The Southern languages are divided into the Tepiman languages (including Oʼodham and Tepehuán), the Tarahumaran languages (including Raramuri and Guarijio), the Cahitan languages (including Yaqui and Mayo), the Coracholan languages (including Cora and Huichol), and the Nahuan languages.

The homeland of the Uto-Aztecan languages is generally considered to have been in the Southwestern United States or possibly Northwestern Mexico. An alternative theory has proposed the possibility that the language family originated in southern Mexico, within the Mesoamerican language area, but this has not been generally considered convincing.

Geographic distributionEdit

File:UtoAztecanlanguages.png

Uto-Aztecan-speaking communities in and around Central America

Uto-Aztecan languages are spoken in the North American mountain ranges and adjacent lowlands of the western United States in the states of Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, California, Nevada, and Arizona. In Mexico, they are spoken in the states of Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Nayarit, Durango, Zacatecas, Jalisco, Michoacán, Guerrero, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Puebla, Veracruz, Morelos, State of Mexico, and in Mexico City. Classical Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs) and its modern relatives, the Nahuan languages, are part of the Uto-Aztecan family. The Nawat language, a Nahuan language, spread to Central America in a wave of migration in the Pre-Columbian era and had many speakers there. It was extinct in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua and is nearly extinct in western El Salvador, but it has undergone a recent language revitalization.

ClassificationEdit

History of classificationEdit

Uto-Aztecan has been accepted by linguists as a language family since the early 1900s, and six subgroups are generally accepted as valid: Numic, Takic, Pimic, Taracahitic, Corachol, and Aztecan. That leaves two ungrouped languages: Tübatulabal and Hopi (sometimes termed "isolates within the family"). Some recent studies have begun to question the unity of Taracahitic and Takic and computer-assisted statistical studies have begun to question some of the long-held assumptions and consensuses. As to higher-level groupings, disagreement has persisted since the 19th century. Presently scholars also disagree as to where to draw language boundaries within the dialect continua.

The similarities among the Uto-Aztecan languages were noted as early as 1859 by J. C. E. Buschmann, but he failed to recognize the genetic affiliation between the Aztecan branch and the rest. He ascribed the similarities between the two groups to diffusion. Daniel Garrison Brinton added the Aztecan languages to the family in 1891 and coined the term Uto-Aztecan. John Wesley Powell, however, rejected the claim in his own classification of North American indigenous languages (also published in 1891). Powell recognized two language families: "Shoshonean" (encompassing Takic, Numic, Hopi, and Tübatulabal) and "Sonoran" (encompassing Pimic, Taracahitan, and Corachol). In the early 1900s Alfred L. Kroeber filled in the picture of the Shoshonean group,Template:Sfn while Edward Sapir proved the unity among Aztecan, "Sonoran", and "Shoshonean".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Sapir's applications of the comparative method to unwritten Native American languages are regarded as groundbreaking.Template:Citation needed Template:Harvcoltxt argued for a three-way division of Shoshonean, Sonoran and Aztecan, following Powell.Template:Sfn

As of about 2011, there is still debate about whether to accept the proposed basic split between "Northern Uto-Aztecan" and "Southern Uto-Aztecan" languages.Template:Sfn Northern Uto-Aztecan corresponds to Powell's "Shoshonean", and the latter is all the rest: Powell's "Sonoran" plus Aztecan. Northern Uto-Aztecan was proposed as a genetic grouping by Jeffrey Heath in Template:Harvcoltxt based on morphological evidence, and Alexis Manaster Ramer in Template:Harvcoltxt adduced phonological evidence in the form of a sound law. Terrence Kaufman in Template:Harvcoltxt accepted the basic division into Northern and Southern branches as valid. Other scholars have rejected the genealogical unity of either both nodes or the Northern node alone.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Wick R. Miller's argument was statistical, arguing that Northern Uto-Aztecan languages displayed too few cognates to be considered a unit. On the other hands he found the number of cognates among Southern Uto-Aztecan languages to suggest a genetic relation.Template:Sfn This position was supported by subsequent lexicostatistic analyses by Template:Harvcoltxt and Template:Harvcoltxt. Reviewing the debate, Template:Harvcoltxt considers the evidence in favor of the genetic unity of Northern Uto-Aztecan to be convincing, but remains agnostic on the validity of Southern Uto-Aztecan as a genetic grouping. Template:Harvcoltxt also considered the north–south split to be valid based on phonological evidence, confirming both groupings. Template:Harvcoltxt adduced further evidence for the unity of Southern Uto-Aztecan as a valid grouping.

Template:Harvcoltxt also rejected the validity of the Takic grouping decomposing it into a Californian areal grouping together with Tubatulabal.

Some classifications have posited a genetic relation between Corachol and Nahuan (e.g. Template:Harvcoltxt). Kaufman recognizes similarities between Corachol and Aztecan, but explains them by diffusion instead of genetic evolution.Template:Sfn Most scholars view the breakup of Proto-Uto-Aztecan as a case of the gradual disintegration of a dialect continuum.Template:Sfn

Present schemeEdit

Below is a representation of the internal classification of the language family based on Template:Harvcoltxt. The classification reflects the decision to split up the previous Taracahitic and Takic groups, that are no longer considered to be valid genetic units. Whether the division between Northern and Southern languages is best understood as geographical or phylogenetic is under discussion. The table contains demographic information about number of speakers and their locations based on data from The Ethnologue. The table also contains links to a selected bibliography of grammars, dictionaries on many of the individual languages.(^{Template:Extinct} = extinct)

Genealogical classification of Uto-Aztecan languages
Family	Groups			Languages	Where spoken and approximate number of speakers	Works
Uto-Aztecan languages	Northern Uto-Aztecan (possibly an areal grouping)	Numic	Western Numic	Paviotso, Bannock, Northern Paiute	700 speakers in California, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada	Template:Harvcoltxt
			Western Numic	Mono	About 40 speakers in California	Template:Harvcoltxt
			Central Numic	Shoshoni, Goshiute	1000 fluent speakers and 1000 learners in Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Idaho	Template:Harvcoltxt
				Comanche	Less than 9 native speakers<ref name="Duncan">Template:Cite news</ref>	Template:Harvcoltxt
				Timbisha (Panamint)	20 speakers in California and Nevada	Template:Harvcoltxt
			Southern Numic	Colorado River dialect chain: Ute, Southern Paiute, Chemehuevi	920 speakers of all dialects, in Colorado, Nevada, California, Utah, Arizona	Template:Harvcoltxt, Template:Harvcoltxt, Template:Harvcoltxt
			Southern Numic	Kawaiisu	5 speakers in California	Template:Harvcoltxt
		Californian language area	Serran	Serrano Template:Extinct, Kitanemuk Template:Extinct, Tataviam Template:Extinct	No native speakers	Template:Harvcoltxt
			Cupan	Cahuilla Template:Extinct, Cupeño Template:Extinct	No native speakers	Template:Harvcoltxt, Template:Harvcoltxt
				Luiseño-Juaneño Template:Extinct	No native speakers	Template:Harvcoltxt
				Tongva (Gabrielino-Fernandeño) Template:Extinct	Last native speakers died in early 1900s, in 21st century undergoing revival efforts, Southern California	Template:Harvcoltxt
		Hopi		Hopi	6,800 speakers in northeastern Arizona	Template:Harvcoltxt, Template:Harvcoltxt
		Tübatulabal		Tübatulabal Template:Extinct	Last native speaker died in July 2008, undergoing revival efforts.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> Spoken in Kern Valley	Template:Harvcoltxt, Template:Harvcoltxt
	Southern Uto-Aztecan (possibly an areal grouping)	Tepiman	Pimic	O'odham (Pima-Papago)	14,000 speakers in southern Arizona, US and northern Sonora, Mexico	Template:Harvcoltxt
			Pimic	Pima Bajo (O'ob No'ok)	650 speakers in Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico	Template:Harvcoltxt
			Tepehuan	Northern Tepehuan	6,200 speakers in Chihuahua, Mexico	Template:Harvcoltxt
				Southern Tepehuan	10,600 speakers in Southeastern Durango	Template:Harvcoltxt
				Tepecano Template:Extinct	Extinct since approx. 1985, spoken in Northern Jalisco	Template:Harvcoltxt
		Tarahumaran		Tarahumara (several varieties)	45,500 speakers of all varieties, all spoken in Chihuahua	Template:Harvcoltxt
				Upriver Guarijio, Downriver Guarijio	2,840 speakers in Chihuahua and Sonora	Template:Harvcoltxt
				Tubar Template:Extinct	Spoken in Sinaloa and Sonora	Template:Harvcoltxt
		Cahita		Yaqui (Hiaki)	11,800 in Sonora and Arizona	Template:Harvcoltxt
		Cahita		Mayo	33,000 in Sinaloa and Sonora	Template:Harvcoltxt
		Opatan		Ópata Template:Extinct	Extinct since approx. 1930. Spoken in Sonora.	Template:Harvcoltxt
		Opatan		Eudeve Template:Extinct	Spoken in Sonora, but extinct since 1940	Template:Harvcoltxt
		Corachol		Cora	13,600 speakers in northern Nayarit	Template:Harvcoltxt
		Corachol		Huichol	17,800 speakers in Nayarit, Jalisco, and western Zacatecas.	Template:Harvcoltxt
		Aztecan (Nahuan)		Pochutec Template:Extinct	Extinct since 1970s, spoken on the coast of Oaxaca	Template:Harvcoltxt
			Core Nahuan	Pipil	20-40 speakers in El Salvador	Template:Harvcoltxt
				Nahuatl	1,500,000 speakers in Central Mexico	Template:Harvcoltxt, Template:Harvcoltxt

In addition to the above languages for which linguistic evidence exists, it is suspected that among dozens of now extinct, undocumented or poorly known languages of northern Mexico, many were Uto-Aztecan.Template:Sfn

Extinct languagesEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Template:See also A large number of languages known only from brief mentions are thought to have been Uto-Aztecan languages that became extinct before being documented.Template:Sfn

Proposed external relationsEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} An "Aztec–Tanoan" macrofamily that unites the Uto-Aztecan languages with the Tanoan languages of the southwestern United States was first proposed by Edward Sapir in the early 20th century, and later supported with potential lexical evidence by other scholars. This proposal has received much criticism about the validity of the proposed cognate sets and has been largely abandoned since the end of the last century as unproven.<ref>Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 269–273.</ref>

Proto-Uto-AztecanEdit

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NotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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SourcesEdit

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Individual languagesEdit

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External linksEdit

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Template:Uto-Aztecan languages Template:Language families Template:North American languages

Template:Mesoamerican families Template:Indigenous peoples of the Americas