Uto-Aztecan Language Family

 

Uto-Aztecan stock is one of the largest language groups 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.

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.

Ethnologue lists 61 languages as belonging to the Uto-Aztecan stock. Several families of Uto-Aztecan languages are or were spoken in the western part of the United States. These include Comanche, Shoshoni, Tubatubal, Hopi and Tohono O’odham.

Northern Uto-Aztecan (13 languages)
Hopi
Hopi	5,264	Arizona
Numic
Central
Comanche	200	Western Oklahoma
Panamint	20	Southeastern California
Shoshoni	2,284	Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah
Southern
Ute-Southern Paiute	1,984	Ute in southwestern Colorado and southeastern and northeastern Utah; Southern Paiute in southwestern Utah, northern Arizona, and southern Nevada
Western
Mono	40	South Central California
Kawaiisu	10	Mojave Desert, California
Takic
Cupan
Cahuillo	7-20	Southern California
Luiseno	30-40	Southern California
Tubatubal	6	South Central California
Southern Uto-Aztecan (48 languages)
Aztecan (29 languages)
Nahuatl (28 varieties)	1.6 million	Mexico
Pipil	20	El Savador
Sonoran (19 languages)
Cahita
Mayo	40,000	Mexico
Opata	15	Mexico
Yaqui	16,000	Mexico
Corachol
Cora, Santa Teresa	7,000	Mexico
Cora, El Nayar	8,000	Mexico
Huichol	20,000	Mexico
Tarahumaran
Huarijio	5,000	Mexico
Tarahumara (5 varieties)	70,500	Mexico
Tepiman
Tepehuan	26,000	Mexico
Tohono O’odham	12,000	Arizona, Mexico
Pima Bajo	1,000	Mexico

 

Status

 

• U.S.
  Several of Uto-Aztecan languages are extinct, and most are either severely endangered or on the brink of extinction. Only Hopi has over 5,000 speakers. 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.
• Mexico
  In Mexico, the largest Uto-Aztecan language is Nahuatl which is spoken by 1.6 million people. There are also sizable populations of other Uto-Aztecan languages, such as Mayo, Huarijio, Tarahumara, Tepehuan, and Yaqui.

 

 

Uto-Aztecan words in English
Several common english words came from Nahuatl. Among them are these words:

avocado	ahuakatl “testicle.” So called for its shape.
cocoa	cacua, root form of cacahuatl “bean of the cocoa tree.”
chile/chili	cilli, native name for the peppers
chocolate	xocolatl, from xococ “bitter” + atl “water.”
coyote	coyotl
tamale	tamal, tamalli, a food made of Indian corn and meat
tomato	tomatl “tomato,” literally, “the swelling fruit,” from tomana “to swell.”

Structure

 

Sound system

Most languages belonging to the Uto-Aztecan language family have four (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.

Click here to listen to the sounds of Cora.

 

Grammar

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 languages such as English. An example is the word Nemiechmotlajpalfia in Tetelcingo Nahuatl, which means “I greet you honored ones:

 

Vocabulary

Below are some common words in 9 Uto-Aztecan languages.

	Hopi	Comanche	Ute	Mono	Luiseno	Nahuatl	Mayo	Huichol	Tarahumara
one	suukya’	sumu	suu	sumu	supul	ce	seenu	zewi	bire
two	looyo’	wahaatu	waini	wahat	weh	ome’	wooyi	huuta	‘osa
three	paayo’	pahiitu	peini	pahi	paahey	yeyi	bahi	haika	bikiya
four	naaloyo	hayarokwetu	wacuwini	wacukwit	wasa’	nahui	naiki	nauka	nawo
five	tsivot	mo’obetu	manigini	manuki	mahaar	macuil	mamni	auzubi	mari
man	taaqa	tenahpu	tangwaci	nawa	‘atax	tlacatl		tewi	rihoy
woman	wuuti	wa’ipu	mamaci	huuhpi’	sungaal	cihuatl	huubi	uimari	‘upi
sun	taawa	taabe	tavaci	tape	timet	tonaltzintli	taa’a	tau	rayenari
moon	muuyaw	mua	muatagoci	tamua	mooyla	metztli	meeca	meceeri	micaa
water	kuuyi	paa	paa	paya	paala	atl	baa’am	haa	ba’wi

 

Writing

Prior to the arrival of European settlers in the New World, most Uto-Aztecan languages were unwritten with a few exceptions, such as Nahuatl. Starting in the 16th century, European missionaries took it upon themselves to devise writing systems for these 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/.

 

Difficulty