about the center | unesco seminar | language link | people
to ask about joining, write to elder Tawavi Numa:
tawavi@southernpaiute.org
|
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 |
| chemehuevi language | |
| 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.
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
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
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 - background noise: river wind, generator hum, folding chairs creak.
scroll further if you want more. there is nothing hidden except more text. try again later. maybe print it.
OLDER STYLE LINKS ----------------- > 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
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