Editing Tewa language (section)


{{Short description|Tanoan language spoken in NM and AZ}}
{{distinguish|Teiwa language|Tiwa languages}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Tewa
|nativename=
|states=[[United States]]
|region=[[New Mexico]], [[Arizona]]
|ethnicity=[[Tewa people]]
|speakers=1,600
|date=2007
|ref=<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/en/atlasmap/language-id-1540.html|title=UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger|website=www.unesco.org|language=en|access-date=2018-05-24}}</ref>
|familycolor=American
|fam1=[[Tanoan languages|Tanoan]]
|iso3=tew
|glotto=tewa1261
|glottorefname=Tewa
|lingua=64-CAB-a
| map2 = Lang Status 60-DE.svg
| mapcaption2 = {{center|{{small|Tewa is classified as Definitely Endangered by the [[UNESCO]] ''[[Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]]''}}}}
| notice = IPA
}}

'''Tewa''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|eɪ|w|ə}} {{respell|TAY|wə}})<ref>{{Cite Merriam-Webster|Tewa|accessdate=2024-06-02}}</ref> is a [[Tanoan language]] spoken by several [[Pueblo people|Pueblo nations]] in the [[Rio Grande]] valley in [[New Mexico]] north of [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]], and in [[Arizona]]. It is also known as '''Tano,'''<ref name = "native-languages" >{{Cite web|title=Tewa (Tano) Language and the Tewa Indian Tribes (Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara, and Tesuque Pueblos)|access-date=2012-09-27|url=http://www.native-languages.org/tewa.htm}}</ref> or Tée-wah (archaic). There is some disagreement among the Tewa people about whether or not Tewa should have a written form, as some Pueblo elders believe that their language should be preserved by oral tradition alone. Because of this, it was not until the 1960s that the language was written down for the first time. However, many Tewa speakers have decided that Tewa literacy is an important aspect in passing down the language and so orthographies have been created for this purpose.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tano/Tewa Indian Language|access-date=2023-01-29|url=https://www.native-languages.org/tewa.htm}}</ref>

The language has struggled to maintain a healthy speaker base; however, because of efforts to preserve the language starting in the 1980s—both by native speakers and linguists—this problem is not as dire as it for some other indigenous languages.

Tewa has a fairly large phoneme inventory with 45 distinct individual sounds. Twelve of these are vowels, which can be either long or short. Tewa, like other Tanoan languages, also makes use of tones, of which it has four.