Kumeyaay (Kumiai), also known as Central Diegueño, Kamia, and Campo, is the Native American language spoken by the
Kumeyaay people of southern
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...
and
Imperial counties in California. Hinton (1994:28) suggested a conservative estimate of 50 native speakers of Kumeyaay. A more liberal estimate (including speakers of
Ipai
The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...
and
Tipai
The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...
), supported by the results of the Census 2000, is 110 people in the US, including 15 persons under the age of 18. There were 377 speakers reported in the 2010 Mexican census, including 88 who called their language "Cochimi".
Kumeyaay belongs to the
Yuman language family and to the Delta–California branch of that family. Kumeyaay and its neighbors,
Ipai
The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...
to the north and
Tipai
The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...
to the south, were often considered to be dialects of a single Diegueño language, but the current consensus among linguists seems to be that at least three distinct languages are present within the dialect chain (e.g., Langdon 1990). Confusingly, Kumeyaay is commonly used as a designation both for the central language of this family and for the Ipai-Kumeyaay-Tipai people as a whole. Tipai is also commonly used as a collective designation for speakers of both Kumeyaay and Tipai proper.
Documentation
In 1999, published documentation for the Kumeyaay language appeared to be limited to a few texts.
As of May 2014, online Kumeyaay language lessons were available. A "dictionary of all five dialects of Kumeyaay spoken in
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
" is in preparation. Kumeyaay language stories are recorded at the Kumeyaay museum in
Tecate.
Phonology
Consonants
Alveolar sounds /t, s, n, r/ can also be heard as post-alveolar
̠, s̠, n̠, r̠
Vowels
Vowel length may also be distributed.
References
Bibliography
*
Leanne Hinton
Leanne Hinton (born 28 September 1941) is an American linguist and emerita professor of linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley.
Education and career
Hinton received her PhD in 1977 from UC San Diego, with a dissertation entitle ...
. 1994. ''Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages''. Heyday Books, Berkeley, California.
*
Langdon, Margaret. 1990. "Diegueño: how many languages?" In ''Proceedings of the 1990 Hokan–Penutian Languages Workshop'', edited by James E. Redden, pp. 184–190. University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale.
*
Mithun, Marianne. 1999. ''The Languages of Native North America''. Cambridge University Press.
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
* ELAR archive o
Documentation of the Baja California Yuman Languages Kumeyaay and Ko'alh
Kumeyaay
Indigenous languages of California
Yuman–Cochimí languages
Articles citing INALI
{{NorthAm-native-stub
Languages of Mexico