Cora Language

Cora is an indigenous language of Mexico of the Uto-Aztecan language family, spoken by approximately 30,000 people. It is spoken by the ethnic group that is widely known as the Cora, but who refer to themselves as ''Naáyarite''. The Cora inhabit the northern sierra of the Mexican state Nayarit which is named after its indigenous inhabitants. A significant portion of Cora speakers have formed an expatriate community along the southwestern part of Colorado in the United States. Cora is a Mesoamerican language and shows many of the traits defining the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. Under the General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, it is recognized as a "national language", along with 62 other indigenous languages and Spanish which have the same "validity" in Mexico.

Geographic distribution

Ethnologue distinguishes two main variants of Cora. One is called ''Cora del Nayar'' or ''Cora Meseño'' and is spoken mainly in and around the medium-altitude settlements of Mesa de Nayar and Conel Gonzales in the south of the el Nayar municipality of Nayarit, and has approximately 9,000 speakers (1993 census). There are significant differences between some of these varieties and some sources distinguish between ''Cora Mariteco'' (of Jesus Maria), ''Cora Presideño'' (of Presidio de los Reyes), ''Cora Corapeño'' (of San Juan Corapan) and ''Cora Franciscqueño'' (of San Francisco). But Ethnologue considers the mutual intelligibility between these and ''Meseño'' to be high enough to classify them as a single language.

The other variant recognized by the Ethnologue is called ''Cora de Santa Teresa'' or ''Cora Tereseño'' and is spoken by approximately 7,000 people (1993 census), for the most part in the high sierra in the north of el Nayar. Cora de Santa Teresa has such a low degree of mutual intelligibility with other Cora speech communities that Ethnologue considers it a separate variety. Due to recent migrations a small community of Coras exists in the United States in western Colorado.

Dialects

Cora speakers themselves recognize only five dialects: Cora de Jesús María, Cora de Mesa de Nayar, Cora de Sta. Teresa, Cora de Corápan and Cora de San Francisco. Highland speakers consider Cora of Preseidio de los Reyes to be identical to the dialect of the other lowland community Corápan, and Cora of Dolores to be identical to Cora of Sta Teresa.

Cora is spoken in a number of dialects, some of which have difficult mutual intelligibility. The International Organization for Standardization distinguishes two languages, and the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas recognizes nine.

:El Nayar Cora / Jesús María Cora (Cora Mariteco)
:Dolores Cora
:Rosarito Cora
:San Blasito Cora
:San Juan Corapan Cora (Cora Corapeño)
:Santa Teresa Cora (Cora Tereseño)
:La Mesa del Nayar Cora (Cora Meseño)
:Presidio de los Reyes Cora (Cora Presideño)
:San Francisco Cora (Cora Francisqueño)

The Pinome, or Totorame, were reported in the 16th century to speak Cora.

Classification

The closest relatives of the Cora language is the Huichol language together with which it forms the Coracholan subgroup of the Uto-Aztecan languages.

* Uto-Aztecan
**Coracholan branch
***Huichol language
*** Cora languages

Phonology

The phonology of Cora is typical of southern Uto-Aztecan languages, with five vowels and a relatively simple consonant inventory. However atypically of Uto-Aztecan languages, Cora has developed a simple tonal system or pitch accent with an harmonic accent taking high falling tone. The phonemic inventory given below is the analysis of Cora from Jesús María by Margarita Valdovinos:

Consonants

Vowels

There are five contrastive vowels in Cora phonology. They are: ɛ a ɨ u However, �which is produced in the midback area of the mouth is limited to diphthongs when it is followed by the sound. Accents on vowels are to mark stress location. An example of this is (v́).

Monosyllables

There is a clear partition in both monophthongal and diphthongal combinations. Where words are divorced by rising and falling pitch. However, rising pitch is oftentimes modal and falling pitch shows variation.

The level and rising monosyllables used for the table above are presented in the table below.

Below are the falling monosyllables. Chart relates to the two charts above.

Disyllables

Disyllables add to the existing dimensions of stress. Initial and final stress are common in Cora phonology. These stresses, at times, serve as conversation cues. Cues include but are not limited to high-pitched stressed syllable followed by the devoicing of the final syllable which is left unstressed. Duration of the word and syllable also have a role in location of stress as it relates to disyllables.

Grammar

Cora is a verb-initial language; its grammar is agglutinative and polysynthetic, particularly inflecting verbs with many affixes and clitics. There are a number of adpositional clitics that can also be used as relational nouns. Different types of subject and object marking can form the grammatical relations in the Cora language through the interplay of syntactic features like word order, topicalization, and dislocation processes. This is important for understanding the causative constructions and the grammatical encoding of the causer and causee. Conversely, the importance of understanding the causativation processes in order to process what grammatical features allow for the identification of a verbal base as either stative, intransitive, or transitive, this is due to processes being arranged according to the semantic and formal membership of the base words. Within the Cora language, addressing the agentive verbal bases leads semantic variation to appear, this results in facing the constraints in order to construct the morphological causatives.

Nominal morphology

Nouns are marked for possession and exhibit several different plural patterns.

Pluralization

Different classes of nouns mark the plural in different manners. The most common way is by means of suffixes - The suffixes used for pluralization are the following: -''te'', -''mwa'', -''mwa'a'', -''tse'', -''tsi'', -''kʉ'', -''sʉ'', -''se'', -''si'', -''ri'' and -''i''. Other ways to form the plural is by reduplication of the final vowel of a noun stem or by shifting the accent from one syllable to the other. Another class of works form their plurals by suppletion.

= Suffix pluralization

=
The suffix "mua and mua’a" is generally only used to refer to people. Other suffixes include: -tze, -tzi, -cʌ, -sʌ, -se, -si, -ri, and -i.

''Examples of each:''

=Other forms of pluralization

=
Pluralization can also be indicated by having a vowel reduplicated:

Pluralization is also indicated through the use of accents.  

Pluralization is also indicated by changing words from singular to plural to change of a word into a completely different one.  

Possession

Possessed nouns are marked with a prefix expressing the person and number of their possessor.
The forms of the prefix expressing first person singular is ''ne''-, ''na''-, or ''ni''-, for second person singular it is ''a''-, ''mwa'a''-, ''a'a''-. The third person singular is marked by the prefix ''ru''-. A first person plural possessor is marked by the prefix ''ta''-, second person plural by ''ha'amwa''- and third person plural by ''wa'a''-. Furthermore, there are two suffixes. One, -''ra'an'' is used to mark an obviative or fourth person possessor. The other is -''me'en'' used to mark a plural possessum of a singular possessor.

Verbal morphology

Verbs are inflected for person and number of subject and direct object and object prefixes for 3rd person inanimate objects also show the basic shape of the object. Verbs are also inflected for location and direction. Verbs within the Cora language are also used to distinguish between locations, people, direction, and time.

Subject prefixes

''Example:''

Ja’atzuútac a ‘a nuja ‘umé   =   al rato me voy    = I'll go later

Cutzú                                   =   está dormido     = He's sleeping

Object prefixes

''Example:''

náatapúajibe = regalame              = Gift me

ja’achune timuá’acha’ʌʌre’e = Cuánto te debe?   = How much does he owe you?

Pecáraruure = No lo hagas!         = Don't do it!

Possessive Nouns

The prefix ‘me’ has three forms in the Cora language: ne, ni, and na. The variations of this prefix appear within different classes of nouns.

The prefix "you" is indicated by ether: a, mua’a, and a’a.

Syntax

Typologically Cora is interesting because it is a VSO language but also has postpositions, a trait that is rare cross-linguistically but does occur in a few Uto-Aztecan languages ( Papago, Tepehuán, and some dialects of Nahuatl). A VSO order is verb, subject, and object. This type of syntax form is the most common amongst Cora language. The VSO structure can be changed in order to show emphasis of certain words, phrases, and sounds.

Indirect object moved to the beginning for emphasis:

Locatives and temporals moved to the beginning of sentence for emphasis:

*Temporal má does not have a glottal, but it is added when it is being emphasized.

Emphasis seen in equative sentences:

Discontinuous construction can be done by moving an adjective or an adverb to sentence-final position and giving it emphatic intonation:

Pronoun copies

Subject pronoun suffix can co-occur with an explicit subject:

Subject repeated by use of a pronoun:

Focus

Focus is a type of emphasis that shows "this very one" or "he himself is the one".

Examples of comparison between continuous construction and discontinuous:

Apposition

Two nouns or noun phrases which have similar grammatical functions can come next to each other with the second further explaining the first:

Apposition can also be seen by a possessive pronoun preceded by a demonstrative pronoun:

Apposition can also give emphasis by repeating a sentence in different ways.

Postpositions

Postpositions are attached directly to a pronominal base of some kind, which is the most common pattern in Uto-Aztecan language.

Suffixing a postposition directly to a noun:

wa- is used as a third-person plural postpositional object:

Inverted pronoun-copy construction:

The third-person postpositional base that is used in Cora is ru-. Many of the postpositions in Cora start with he- (or it can be ha- when the vowel that follows harmonizes).

Indirect pronoun-copy construction:
* -hece in/on/for < -he-ce < *-he-ciw < *pi-cii (him-P)
* -hete under < -he-te < *-he-tia < *pi-tua (him-P)
* -hemi with/about < -he-mi < *pi-mi (him=P)
* -ham^wan with/and < *-he-man < *pi-man (him-P)
* hap^wa on/above < *-he-pa < *pi-pa (him-P)

In Cora, the pre- or postpositions can be very similar in their form, but postpositions are typically bound forms and prepositions are free forms. These pairs can be illustrated through the following examples:

A member of the complex postpositional form is -na

Spacial concepts within the Cora language

The Cora language has a complex system of postpositions within its language. Words such as ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ have distinct markers that set them apart. To classify outside, the Cora people use the ending morpheme "u," while inside uses the morpheme "a".

The Inside and outside prepositions may not always be clear, in some cases they may be described as relative rather than absolute. The word deep can be classified using either a ‘u’ or ‘a’ morpheme.

Directional indicators

Used to indicate where an action is taking place

Media

Cora-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEJMN-AM, broadcasting from Jesús María, Nayarit.

References

* Preuss, Konrad Theodor: ''Grammatik der Cora-Sprache
Grammatik der Cora-Sprache
Columbia, New York 1932
* Miller, Wick. (1983). Uto-Aztecan languages. In W. C. Sturtevant (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians'' (Vol. 10, pp. 113–124). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.
*Vázquez Soto, V. (2002). Some constraints on Cora causative constructions. TYPOLOGICAL STUDIES IN LANGUAGE, 48, 197–244.
*Vázquez Soto, V. (2011). The "uphill" and "downhill" system in Meseño Cora. Language Sciences, 33(6), 981–1005.
*Vázquez Soto, V. (2000). Morphology and Syllable Weight in Cora: The Case of the Absolutive Suffix-ti. Uto-Aztecan: Structural, Temporal, and Geographic Perspectives: Papers in Memory of Wick R. Miller by the Friends of Uto-Aztecan, 105.
*Vázquez Soto, V., Flores, J., & de Jesús López, I. (2009). " El ray". Una probadita de la narrativa y la gramática del cora meseño. Tlalocan, 16.
*Vázquez Soto, V. (1996). El participante no sujeto en Cora: orden de palabras, codificación y marcación de número. Memorias del III Encuentro de Lingüística del Noroeste, 533–54.
*Vázquez Soto, V. (2002). Cláusulas relativas en cora meseño. Del cora al maya yucateco. Estudios lingüísticos sobre algunas lenguas indígenas mexicanas, 269–348.
* McMahon, Ambrosio & Maria Aiton de McMahon. (1959) Vocabulario Cora. Serie de Vocabularios Indigenas Mariano Silva y Aceves. SIL.
* McMahon, Ambrose. (1967). Phonemes and phonemic units of Cora (Mexico). International Journal of American Linguistics 33. 128-134.
*
* Casad, Eugene H. (1984). Cora. In Ronald W. Langacker (ed.), Studies in Uto-Aztecan grammar 4: Southern Uto-Aztecan grammatical sketches, 153-459. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
*Casad, Eugene H.. 2001. "Cora: a no longer unknown Southern Uto-Aztecan language." In José Luis Moctezuma Zamarrón and Jane H. Hill (eds), Avances y balances de lenguas yutoaztecas; homenaje a Wick R. Miller p. 109-122. Mexico, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia.
*Casad, E. H. (2012). From Space to Time: A cognitive analysis of the Cora locative system and its temporal extensions (Vol. 39). John Benjamins Publishing.
*Langacker, Ronald W. "The Syntax of Postpositions in Uto-Aztecan." ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', vol. 43, no. 1, 1977, pp. 11–26.

External links

ELAR archive of Language Documentation and Verbal Art among the Náayeri of Jesús María, Nayarit

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cora Language
Agglutinative languages
Indigenous languages of Mexico
Mesoamerican languages
Southern Uto-Aztecan languages
Endangered Uto-Aztecan languages
Verb–subject–object languages