Picuris (also Picurís) is a language of the
Northern Tiwa branch of
Tanoan
Tanoan , also Kiowa–Tanoan or Tanoan–Kiowa, is a family of languages spoken by indigenous peoples in present-day New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Most of the languages – Tiwa (Taos, Picuris, Southern Tiwa), Tewa, and Towa – ...
spoken in
Picuris Pueblo,
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
.
Genealogical relations
Picuris is partially
mutually intelligible with
Taos dialect
The Taos language of the Northern Tiwa branch of the Tanoan language family is spoken in Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.
Sociolinguistics
In data collected in 1935 and 1937, George L. Trager (1946) notes that Taos was spoken by all members of the Ta ...
, spoken at
Taos Pueblo
Taos Pueblo (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos-speaking (Tiwa) Native American tribe of Puebloan people. It lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico. The pueblos are considered to be one of the oldest ...
. It is slightly more distantly related to
Southern Tiwa
The Southern Tiwa language is a Tanoan language spoken at Sandia Pueblo and Isleta Pueblo in New Mexico and Ysleta del Sur in Texas.
Genealogical relations
Southern Tiwa belongs to the Tiwa sub-grouping of the Kiowa–Tanoan language family. It ...
(spoken at
Isleta Pueblo and
Sandia Pueblo
Sandia Pueblo (; Tiwa: Tuf Shur Tia) is a federally recognized tribe of Native American Pueblo people inhabiting a reservation of the same name in the eastern Rio Grande Rift of central New Mexico. It is one of 19 of New Mexico's Native Americ ...
).
Phonology
:
* The consonants are only found in recent Spanish
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...
s.
* G. Trager (1942, 1943) analyzed Picuris as also having
aspirated stops ,
ejective
In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some ...
stops , and
labialized
Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve ...
. These are considered by F. Trager (1971) to be sequences of , , and .
* Velar has strong frication.
* Stops are
unaspirated
In linguistics, a tenuis consonant ( or ) is an obstruent that is voiceless, unaspirated and unglottalized.
In other words, it has the "plain" phonation of with a voice onset time close to zero (a zero-VOT consonant), as Spanish ''p, t, ...
while may be slightly aspirated.
* The
affricate freely varies with a more forward articulation : for example, F. Trager recorded the word "witch" with an initial but the related word "witch chief" with initial .
[F. Trager does not give further details about whether the forward articulation is dental or alveolar. If Picuris is like Taos, then the most forward articulation would be alveolar. G. Trager states that the articulation is consistently post-alveolar (and does not mention free variation).]
* The sequence is only found in a single word .
* Alveolar has an
assimilated velar variant when it precedes
labio-velar .
* Nasal in a low-toned syllable is partially devoiced and denasalized before a glottal stop , as in "
chokecherry" which is phonetically .
* Fricative freely varies between a lateral fricative and a central-lateral fricative sequence
* Lateral is
palatalized before the high front vowel .
* Only the
sonorants can occur in
syllable coda position.
Vowels
Picuris has 6 vowels. Picuris also has nasalized counterparts for each vowel.
:
Picuris has three degrees of stress: ''primary'', ''secondary'', and ''unstressed''. Stress affects the phonetic length of
syllable rimes (lengthening the vowel or the syllable-final sonorant consonant).
Additionally, there are three tones: ''high'', ''mid'', and ''low'' — the mid tone being the most frequent.
Text
Two sentences with
interlinear glosses:
:
:
See also
*
Picuris Pueblo
*
Tiwa languages
Tiwa ( Spanish ''Tigua'', also ''E-nagh-magh'') is a group of two, possibly three, related Tanoan languages spoken by the Tiwa Pueblo, and possibly Piro Pueblo, in the U.S. state of New Mexico.
Subfamily members and relations
Southern Ti ...
Notes
Bibliography
* Harrington, John P.; & Roberts, Helen. (1928). Picuris children's stories with texts and songs. ''Bureau of American Ethnology: Annual report'', ''43'', 289-447.
* Nichols, Lynn. (1994). Vowel copy and stress in Northern Tiwa (Picurís and Taos). In S. Epstein et al. (Eds.), ''Harvard working papers in linguistics'' (Vol. 4, pp. 133–140).
* Nichols, Lynn. (1995). Referential hierarchies and C-command in Picurís. In S. Epstein et al. (Eds.), ''Harvard working papers in linguistics'' (Vol. 45, pp. 76–92).
* Trager, Felicia. (1968). ''Picuris Pueblo, New Mexico: An ethnolinguistic "salvage" study''. (Doctoral dissertation, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY).
* Trager, Felicia. (1971). The phonology of Picuris. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''37'', 29-33.
* Trager, Felicia. (1975). Morphemic change in Picuris: A case of culture contact? ''Studies in Linguistics'', ''25'', 89-93.
* Trager, George L. (1942). The historical phonology of the Tiwa languages. ''Studies in Linguistics'', ''1'' (5), 1-10.
* Trager, George L. (1943). The kinship and status terms of the Tiwa languages. ''American Anthropologist'', ''45'' (1), 557-571.
* Trager, George L. (1969). Taos and Picuris: How long separated?. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''35'' (2), 180-182.
* Zaharlick, Ann Marie (Amy). (1975). Pronominal reference in Picurís. ''Studies in Linguistics'', ''25'', 79-88.
* Zaharlick, Ann Marie (Amy). (1977). ''Picurís syntax''. (Doctoral dissertation, American University).
* Zaharlick, Ann Marie (Amy). (1979). Picuris and English: Similarities and differences. In R. J. Rebert (Ed.), ''Language descriptions from Indian New Mexico'' (pp. 20–51). Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico, American Indian Bilingual Education Center, pp.
* Zaharlick, Ann Marie (Amy). (1980). An outline of Picuris syntax. ''Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences'', ''345'', 147-163.
* Zaharlick, Ann Marie (Amy). (1981). A preliminary examination of tone in Picuris. Special Issue: Native Languages of the Americas. ''Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest'', ''4'' (2), 123-129.
* Zaharlick, Ann Marie (Amy). (1982). Tanoan studies: Passive sentences in Picuris. ''Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics'', ''26'', 34-48.
External links
Stress, length, and moraic trochees in Northern Tiwa Picurís
{{DEFAULTSORT:Picuris Language
Tanoan languages
Indigenous languages of New Mexico
Indigenous languages of the Southwestern United States
Indigenous languages of the North American Southwest