Pima Bajo (Mountain Pima, Lowland Pima, Nevome) is a Mexican indigenous language of the
Piman
Piman (or Tepiman) refers to a group of languages within the Uto-Aztecan family that are spoken by ethnic groups (including the Pima) spanning from Arizona in the north to Durango, Mexico in the south.
The Piman languages are as follows (Campb ...
branch of the
Uto-Aztecan language family, spoken by around 1,000 speakers in northern
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. The language is called ''O'ob No'ok'' by its speakers. The closest related languages are
O'odham
The O'odham peoples, including the Tohono O'odham, the Pima or Akimel O'odham, and the Hia C-ed O'odham, are indigenous Uto-Aztecan peoples of the Sonoran desert in southern and central Arizona and northern Sonora, united by a common herita ...
(Pima and Papago) and the
O'othams.
There are three major communities in the O'ob No'ok region (
Yepachic
Yepáchic, sometimes spelled Yepáchi, is a community in the western part of the Mexican State of Chihuahua, approximately east of the boundary with the State of Sonora. It is located in the Municipio de Temósachic at an altitude of in the Sie ...
, Maycoba and
Yécora), but many of the people live in small outlying hamlets and on isolated family ranches rather than the larger towns.
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
* Sounds /t, s, n, l/ when preceding /i/ are heard as
ʃ, ʃ, ɲ, lʲ
* /d/ can be heard as either sounds
’or
when in between two /i/ vowels.
Morphology
Zarina Estrada-Fernández studied the language, publishing an overview of its grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. She identified consistent dialectal differences between communities in the region, especially between villages in Sonora and those in Chihuahua. Pima Bajo is an
agglutinative
In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...
language, where words use suffix-complexes for a variety of purposes with several
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are ...
s strung together.
[Estrada-Fernández, Zarina. 1998. Pima bajo de Yepachi, Chihuahua (Archivo de Lenguas IndÃgenas de México). Colegio de México.]
Dialects
* Northern (spoken in the
Madera, Chihuahua settlements of Agua Amarilla, Ciudad Madera, Ejido el Lago, El Cable, El Campo Seis, El Cordón, El Cuatro, El Largo, El Pedregal, El Potrero, El Presón, El Represito, El RÃo Chiquito, El Táscate, El YerbanÃs, Junta de los Arroyos
unta de los RÃos La Bolada, La Ciénega, La Nopalera, Las Espuelas, Las Lajas, Los Arbolitos, Madera, Mesa Blanca, Mesa el Tecolote, Mesa de La Simona, Mesa del Garabato, Rancho Huapoca, San Isidro, and San Juan de Enmedio and the
Moris, Chihuahua settlements of Bermúdez, and Los Cien Pinos)
* Southern (spoken in the
Ocampo, Chihuahua settlements of Basaseachi, Pinos Altos, Santo Domingo, Sapareachi, and Tierritas and the
Temósachic, Chihuahua settlements of Agua Caliente, Casa Blanca, Ciénega Blanca, Cordón de Enmedio (Paraje Piedra Colorada), El Arbolito, El Llorón, El Nogal, El Saucito, El Terrero (Piedras Azules), Janos, La Ciénega, La Ciénega Blanca
iénega Blanca La Guajolota, La Ornela, La Providencia, La Salitrera, La Vinata, Las Tierritas, Los Hornitos, Nabogame, Peñasco Blanco, Piedra Blanca, Piedras Azules, San Antonio, San Ignacio, Temósachic, Tierras de MarÃa, Yahuirachi, and Yepáchic
* Eastern (spoken in the
Yécora, Sonora settlements of Arroyo Hondo Dos, Cañada Ancha (Ramón Lao), El Arroyo Hondo, El Carrizo, El Encinal, El Encinal Dos, El Kipur, El Tabaco, Juan Diego, La Cieneguita, La Dura, La Mesa, La Minita, Los Alisos I (Lupe Aguilar), Los Pilares, Los Vallecitos, Maycoba, Maycobita, Maycobita (José Galaviz), Mesa del Táscate, Pimas (Juan Diego de los Pimas), Tierra Panda, and Yécora
[https://www.inali.gob.mx/clin-inali/html/v_pima.html]
References
External links
SIL on the Tepiman language group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pimic, Pima Bajo, Language
Agglutinative languages
Piman languages
Indigenous languages of the North American Southwest
Indigenous languages of Mexico
Endangered Uto-Aztecan languages