Kumeyaay language

{{Short description|Yuman language spoken in California and Mexico}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Kumeyaay

| altname = Southern Diegueño

| states = United States, Mexico

| region = California, Baja California

| ethnicity = Kumeyaay

| speakers = {{sigfig|495|1}} in Mexico

| date = 2020 census

| ref = [http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/hipertexto/todas_lenguas.htm Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020] INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.

| speakers2 = 40–50 in the United States (2007){{Cite news |title=Kumiai |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/dih/21 |access-date=2018-04-14 |work=Ethnologue |language=en}}

| familycolor = hokan

| fam1 = Yuman

| fam2 = Core Yuman

| fam3 = Delta–California

| dia1 = Kwatl

| iso3 = dih

| iso3comment = (as part of Diegueño)

| glotto = kumi1248

| glottoname = Tipai

| glotto2 = kwat1246

| glottoname2 = Kwatl

}}

Kumeyaay (Kumiai), also known as Central Diegueño, Kamia, 'Iipay Aa, and Campo, is the Native American language spoken by the Kumeyaay people of southern San Diego and Imperial counties in California as well as five Kumiai communities in Baja California Norte, Mexico.

Hinton in 1994 suggested a conservative estimate of 50 native speakers of Kumeyaay.{{Cite book |last=Hinton |first=Leanne |title=Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages |publisher=Heyday Books |year=1994 |location=Berkeley, CA |author-link=Leanne Hinton}} There were 377 speakers reported in the 2010 Mexican census, including 88 who called their language "Cochimi".{{refn|INALI (2012) [http://site.inali.gob.mx/pdf/libro_lenguas_indigenas_nacionales_en_riesgo_de_desaparicion.pdf México: Lenguas indígenas nacionales]}} The Barona Intertribal Dictionary{{Cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Amy |last2=Langdon |first2=Margaret |title=Barona Inter-Tribal Dictionary: Iipay Aa Tiipay Aa Uumall |publisher=Barona Museum Press |year=2008}} lists among its Core Contributor Group, Patrick Melvin Curo and among its Extended Group, Stanley Rodriguez, Ed.D. and Ana Gloria Rodriguez, M.Ed. who continue to teach the language today.

Kumeyaay belongs to the Yuman language family and to the Delta–California branch of that family. Kumeyaay and its neighbors, 'Iipay to the north and Tiipay to the south, were often considered to be dialects of a single Diegueño language, but the 1990 consensus among linguists seems to be that at least three distinct languages are present within the dialect chain.{{Cite book |last=Langdon |first=Margaret |title=Proceedings of the 1990 Hokan–Penutian Languages Workshop |publisher=University of Southern Illinois |year=1990 |editor-last=Redden |editor-first=James E. |location=Carbondale |pages=184–190 |chapter=Diegueño: how many languages? |author-link=Margaret Langdon}}

Confusingly, Kumeyaay is commonly used as a designation both for the central language of this family and for the 'Iipay-Tiipay-Kumeyaay people as a whole. Tiipay is also commonly used as a collective designation for speakers of both Kumeyaay and Tiipay proper.

Documentation

In 1999, published documentation for the Kumeyaay language appeared to be limited to a few texts.{{Cite book |last=Mithun |first=Marianne |title=The Languages of Native North America |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1999 |author-link=Marianne Mithun}} In 2019, Margaret Field (along with other translators and native speakers) published a trilingual book of stories and oral histories from Baja California Tiipay communities of Nejí and La Huerta.{{Cite book |title=Footsteps From the Past into the Future: Kumeyaay Stories of Baja California |publisher=San Diego State University Press |year=2019 |isbn=9781938537844 |editor-last=Field |editor-first=Margaret}}

Video and audio recordings of stories, conversation, and wordlists in the Tiipay variants spoken in Nejí and La Huerta have been uploaded to the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA).{{Cite web |title=Central Diegueño (Kumiai) |url=https://ailla.utexas.org/islandora/object/ailla:119745 |access-date=2023-08-15 |website=The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America}} Some of these have been transcribed and are available to download on the Endangered Languages Archive{{Cite web |title=Documentation of the Baja California Yuman Languages Kumeyaay and Ko'alh {{!}} Endangered Languages Archive |url=https://www.elararchive.org/dk0357/ |access-date=2023-08-15 |website=www.elararchive.org}} hosted by the Endangered Languages Documentation Program (ELDP) at the University of London.

As of April 2023, classes are available through Kumeyaay Community College paired with Cuyamaca Community College as well as San Diego State University.{{Cite web |title=Kumeyaay Studies |url=https://www.cuyamaca.edu/academics/academic-and-career-pathways/culture-people-ideas/kumeyaay-studies.php |access-date=2023-01-23 |website=www.cuyamaca.edu}} There is also a Kumeyaay language immersion program.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CC6iGVmHn8 |title=Iipay AA - Santa Ysabel Language Immersion Program |language=en |publisher=Condor Visual Media |access-date=2023-01-23 |via=YouTube}}

Phonology

=Consonants=

class="wikitable"

! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |

! rowspan="2" |Bilabial

! rowspan="2" |Dental

! rowspan="2" |Alveolar

! rowspan="2" |Palatal

! colspan="2" |Velar

! rowspan="2" |Uvular

! rowspan="2" |Glottal

align="center"

!nor.

!lab.

align="center"

! colspan="2" |Stop/Affricate

| {{IPAlink|p}}

| {{IPAlink|t̪}}

| {{IPAlink|t}}

|{{IPAlink|tʃ}}

| {{IPAlink|k}}

| {{IPAlink|kʷ}}

| {{IPAlink|q}}

| {{IPAlink|ʔ}}

align="center"

! colspan="2" |Fricative

| {{IPAlink|β}}

| {{IPAlink|s̪}}

| {{IPAlink|s}}

| {{IPAlink|x}}

| {{IPAlink|xʷ}}

align="center"

! colspan="2" |Nasal

| {{IPAlink|m}}

| {{IPAlink|n̪}}

| {{IPAlink|n}}

| {{IPAlink|ɲ}}

align="center"

! colspan="2" |Trill

| {{IPAlink|r̪}}

| {{IPAlink|r}}

align="center"

! rowspan="2" |Lateral

!fricative

| {{IPAlink|ɬ}}

| {{IPAlink|𝼆}}

align="center"

!approx.

| {{IPAlink|l}}

| {{IPAlink|ʎ}}

align="center"

! colspan="2" |Approximant

| {{IPAlink|w}}

| {{IPAlink|j}}

Alveolar sounds {{IPA|/t, s, n, r/}} can also be heard as post-alveolar {{IPA|[t̠, s̠, n̠, r̠]}}.{{Cite thesis |last=Langdon |first=Margaret |title=A Grammar of Diegueño: The Mesa Grande Dialect |degree=PhD |publisher=University of California |url=http://escholarship.org/uc/item/08t8n3db#page-34 |year=1966 |location=Berkeley}}