Northern Paiute/ˈpaɪuːt/,[2]endonymNumu,[3] also known as Paviotso, is a Western Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family, which according to Marianne Mithun had around 500 fluent speakers in 1994.[4] It is closely related to the Mono language.
Phonology
Northern Paiute's phonology is highly variable, and its phonemes have many allophones.[5]
Consonants
Vowels
Vowel chart of the Mono Lake dialect of Northern Paiute[6]
Language revitalization
In 2005, the Northwest Indian Language Institute of the University of Oregon formed a partnership to teach Northern Paiute and Kiksht in the Warm Springs Indian Reservation schools.[7] In 2013, Washoe County, Nevada became the first school district in Nevada to offer Northern Paiute classes, offering an elective course in the language at Spanish Springs High School.[8] Classes have also been taught at Reed High School in Sparks, Nevada.[9]
Elder Ralph Burns of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation worked with University of Nevada, Reno linguist Catherine Fowler to help develop a spelling system. The alphabet uses 19 letters. They have also developed a language-learning book, “Numa Yadooape,” and a series of computer disks of language lessons.[9]
Morphology
Northern Paiute is an agglutinative language, in which words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.
References
^ a bNorthern Paiute at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
^Leonard, Wesley Y.; Haynes, Erin (December 2010). "Making "collaboration" collaborative: An examination of perspectives that frame linguistic field research". Language Documentation & Conservation. 4: 269–293. hdl:10125/4482. ISSN 1934-5275.
^Mithun 1999, p. 541.
^Haynes, Erin Flynn (2010). Phonetic and Phonological Acquisition in Endangered Languages Learned by Adults: A Case Study of Numu (Oregon Northern Paiute) (PhD thesis). Berkeley: University of California.
^Babel, Molly; Houser, Michael J.; Toosarvandani, Maziar (2012), "Mono Lake Northern Paiute", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 42 (2): 240, doi:10.1017/S002510031100051X
^Mulcahy, Joanne B. (2005). "Warm Springs: A Convergence of Cultures". Oregon History Project. Oregon Historical Society. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
^Joe Hart (Director). "Nevada Proud: Students get a chance to learn native language in school". My News 4. KRNV-TV. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
^ a bVogel, Ed (February 1, 2014). "Paiute elder rescues language near extinction". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
Bibliography
Liljeblad, Sven; Fowler, Catherine S.; Powell, Glenda (2012). The Northern Paiute-Bannock Dictionary, with an English-Northern Paiute-Bannock Finder List and a Northern Paiute-Bannock-English Finder List. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. ISBN 978-1-60781-030-8.
Mithun, Marianne (1999). Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Snapp, Allen; Anderson, John L.; Anderson, Joy (1982). "Northern Paiute" (PDF). In Langacker, Ronald W. (ed.). Sketches in Uto-Aztecan grammar, III: Uto-Aztecan grammatical sketches. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics. Vol. 57. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. pp. 1–92. ISBN 0-88312-072-0. [The publication erroneously stated vol. 56, but this has been amended in the PDF made available online by the publisher.]
Thornes, Tim (2003). A Northern Paiute Grammar with Texts (PhD thesis). Eugene: University of Oregon.
