about the center | unesco seminar | language link | people
to ask about joining, write to elder Tawavi Numa:
tawavi@southernpaiute.org
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region: havasu lake area and the lower colorado river basin people: southern paiute / chemehuevi community purpose: documenting and teaching the chemehuevi (nüüwü) language meetings: weekly on zoom or on-reservation tables with cassette recorders and laptops that still hum |
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| chemehuevi language (technical notes, no fluff) | |
| classification | uto-aztecan family > numic branch > colorado river subgroup. |
| orthography | latin letters. glottal stop shown with apostrophe ('). long vowels written by doubling (aa, ii, uu). stress is marked only in teaching materials. |
| vowels | three main qualities /i a u/ with contrastive length. some materials also mark mid vowels when borrowed terms appear. |
| consonants | voiceless stops p t k, labialized stop kw, affricate ts, fricatives s h, nasals m n, approximants w y, and glottal stop ’. |
| word order | default order is subject–object–verb; topics can move to the front of the clause. |
| morphology | verb stems take suffixes for aspect and mode. person marking is mostly by pronominal clitics and free pronouns; possession on nouns is marked with suffixes. |
| phonology | predictable vowel reduction in unstressed syllables; final vowels can drop in fast speech. consonant clusters are limited; epenthetic vowels appear to break difficult clusters. |
| example patterns | teaching materials show long vowels by doubling (e.g., aa), and glottal stops with an apostrophe inside words; locative and possessive suffixes attach directly to the noun root. |
| documentation | field notes and legacy texts use plain romanization; archival audio exists for speech by elders along the colorado river corridor. see our unesco seminar for more on our documentation work. |
the center is updating tapes and wordlists. if you need to help, write to Tawavi Numa at tawavi@southernpaiute.org. please be patient; the index is slow because we keep adding notes.
STATUS LOG (manual refresh only; wait and scroll)
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001: loading... still loading... still loading...
002: cassette deck A - rewinding / tape counter 000
003: cassette deck B - play/pause blinking (probably fine)
004: mic check -> yes; slight hiss from room fan
005: notes: glottal stop written with (') and sometimes with (7) in old notes
006: wordlist copy to paper binder (ink smudged)
007: upload to archive: pending; please wait longer; maybe tomorrow
008: elders schedule: weekly zoom; in-person if weather allows shade
009: nothing else happens here; keep scrolling if you insist
NOTES FOUND IN VARIOUS PILES ---------------------------- - orthography test: pa'a, pa'apü, nüüwü, nüüwüvü, yampittsi, yampittsinangwa - reminder: long vowels doubled (aa, ii, uu); stress sometimes marked in teaching packets. - field kit: pencils, lined paper, usb mic, duct tape, laptop with loose hinge. - meeting cadence: once per week; location rotates; zoom link is reused and never expires. - ask Tawavi Numa for entry; email: tawavi@southernpaiute.org (type it slowly). - background noise: river wind, generator hum, folding chairs creak. - kept as-is from old copies.
scroll further if you want more. there is nothing hidden except more text. the design is plain so it works even on slow links. if something seems broken, it is just slow. try again later. maybe print it.
OLDER STYLE LINKS (click carefully) ----------------------------------- > home artifacts: you are already here > about the center: about.html > chemehuevi language: wikipedia link > southern paiute people: wikipedia link > UNESCO seminar (long read): visit > numic languages: numic > uto-aztecan overview: uto-aztecan
FOOTNOTE: this index was typed in a hurry. alignment is uneven and text is copied from older printouts. save it locally if your connection is slow. no scripts. no css files. everything inline.