Yaqui (or Hiaki), locally known as Yoeme or Yoem Noki, is a
Native American language of the
Uto-Aztecan family. It is spoken by about 20,000
Yaqui people
The Yaqui, Hiaki, or Yoeme, are a Native American people of the southwest, who speak a Uto-Aztecan language. Their homelands include the Río Yaqui valley in Sonora, Mexico, and the area below the Gila River in Arizona, Southwestern United St ...
, in the
Mexican state
The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named Mexico, United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a sepa ...
of
Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
and across the border in
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It is partially intelligible with the
Mayo language
Mayo is an Uto-Aztecan language. It is spoken by about 40,000 people, the Mexican Mayo or ''Yoreme'' Indians, who live in the South of the Mexican state of Sonora and in the North of the neighboring state of Sinaloa. Under the General Law of Li ...
, also spoken in Sonora, and together they are called
Cahitan languages
The Cahitan languages is a branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family that comprises the Yaqui and the Mayo language
Mayo is an Uto-Aztecan language. It is spoken by about 40,000 people, the Mexican Mayo or ''Yoreme'' Indians, who live in the ...
.
Phonology
The remarks below use the
orthography
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
used by the
Pascua Yaqui Tribe
The Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizonais a federally recognized tribe of Yaqui Native Americans in state of Arizona.
Descended from the Yaqui people whose original homelands include the Yaqui River valley in western Sonora, Mexico and southern Arizo ...
in the United States. There are also several orthographic systems used in
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 ...
differing slightly, mainly in using
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
values for several consonants and Spanish spelling rules: "rohikte" would be written "rojicte". There are minor differences in the sounds of Mexican and American dialects, the latter tending to exclude an intervocalic "r" and final "k".
Vowels
Yaqui vowel sounds are similar to those of Spanish:
Vowels may be either short or
long
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
in duration. Often, long vowels are shortened when the word they are used in is used constructively: 'maaso' ('deer') is shortened to 'maso' in 'maso bwikam' ('deer songs'). Long vowels are written by doubling the vowel. Long vowels may change
tone, but that is not represented in the written language. Yaqui has often been described as being a tonal or "pitch accent" language, but the modern forms of the language do not show any widespread and significant use of
tonemes.
Consonants
The following consonantal sounds are present in Yaqui: b, ch, (d), (f), (g), h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, and one or two
glottal stop
The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
s (IPA ), represented by an
apostrophe
The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes:
* The marking of the omission of one o ...
. Except for the glottal stops, most of them are pronounced nearly the same as they are in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, but "p", "t", and "k" are not
aspirated. In the IPA, they are respectively .
Many Yaqui-speakers pronounce b and v exactly the same, as . That appears to be intrinsic to Yaqui, rather than from the influence of Spanish, which has a similar feature. Additionally, there are two consonants written as clusters: "bw" (IPA ) and "kt" (IPA ), "bw" being a rounded "b" ('bwikam') and "kt" a simultaneous articulation of "k" and "t" ('rohikte'). The "kt" sound is found in many other Uto-Aztecan languages. Pronunciation of the rounded "b" as "b"+"w" and the "kt" as "k"+"t" is acceptable but non-native.
Also, "d", "f", and "g" are present only in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
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 th ...
s and are substituted with the native sounds "t"/"r"/"l", "p", and "w"/"k", respectively.
In
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 ...
, many speakers substitute "g" for syllable-initial "w". That is largely because Spanish lacks a /w/
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
. The
phone is present in Spanish not as an independent consonantal phoneme but as a variant of the vowel /u/ and the consonant /g/ when it is before a /u/ or /o/. The use of "g" in place of "w" is considered by Yaqui speakers as an influence from
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and not standard Yaqui usage, even in Mexico.
Glottal stops
There is at least one glottal stop, which is
phonemic
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...
. There also appears to be a "fainter" glottal stop that is sometimes used between vowels but with apparently little predictability. Whether it is phonemic or not is still unclear.
Sound symbolism
Sound symbolism
In linguistics, sound symbolism is the resemblance between sound and meaning. It is a form of linguistic iconicity. For example, the English word ''ding'' may sound similar to the actual sound of a bell. Linguistic sound may be perceived as simi ...
is present in Yaqui. For example, a word with the phoneme /l/ in it may be pronounced normally, to denote approval from the speaker, or with /r/ replacing the /l/, to denote disapproval or disfavor on the part of the speaker. Either form is correct.
Devoicing
Devoicing
In phonology, voicing (or sonorization) is a sound change where a voiceless consonant becomes voiced due to the influence of its phonological environment; shift in the opposite direction is referred to as devoicing or desonorization. Most commo ...
occurs at the ends of phrases. That is especially notable with the phoneme /m/ and with vowels. Yaqui speech often sounds "breathy" to English-speakers.
Gestures
One word, ''laute'', has two contradictory meanings in translation into English: "quickly" and "slowly". (Incidentally, English has similar words of contrasting meanings: ''mercurial'', which can mean either "unhesitating" or "scatter-brained", and ''quite'' which can mean "very" or "a little".)
''Laute'' is often accompanied with a quick or slow open-handed movement to indicate the meaning, or it could be translated as "at a different speed" and requires a hand gesture to indicate the nature of the difference when that is needed for clarification.)
Grammar
Syntax
Yaqui word order is generally
subject–object–verb
Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to:
Philosophy
*'' Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing
**Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective con ...
.
The object of a sentence is suffixed with "-ta".
Word order structures
Subject object[John M. Dedrick, Eugene H. Casad (1999). Sonora Yaqui Language Structures. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.]
The following sentences display a variation of the language's structure and the forms allowed. In the following example, we can see an S and an O. This structure of SO is allowable due to a common feature among languages— the verb/ copula to be. 'He' is the subject in this example and since 'he' shows no variation in positioning in the sentence, there will not be further explanation for it. The object in this example 'child' has the possessor 'him' preceding to show ownership, but what is being possessed by 'him' is the child. Therefore, 'child' has a nominalizer for being the object of the sentence and a possession marker on it for being possessed. Having the nominalizer on the 'child' allows the subject 'he' to imply a state of being on the 'child'. This structure SO uses the ''to be'' verb/ copula, when information is being stated that x is y.
Subject verb object
In the following example, we can see an example of where the primary word order SOV, deviates to become SVO. Note the pronoun 'I' doesn't have any case marking active and is in pronoun form (see Cases on Pronouns). Next, on the first or main verb 'able', there isn't any specification for the type of verb. When the main verb is followed by another verb, it seems the second verb becomes intransitivized. On the object of the sentence 'axe', there are multiple cases active: accusative case (the direct object of the verb), a plural suffix, and an instrumental case (the means by how or with what something gets done) on the noun.
Object subject verb
The following is an additional example that shows variant in word order than previously seen— OSV. In this structure, a suffix called connective is used to show that two constituents are being connected; simply, they function as a conjunction. Although this is a simple function, it is worth mentioning in understanding the way Yaqui functions as a system. The subject comes after the object in the correct subject pronoun form. Following is the verb 'remember', which may be a trigger to the word order. Perhaps this word order implies the topic should be ''who/what'' is being remembered.
Case
Yaqui is a "
noun-heavy"
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 langu ...
language.
For example, the first person singular pronoun "in" or "ne" (which varies by dialect), is more often used in the form "inepo", which can be translated "within me". The "-(e)po" ending is quite common and seems to denote much more than simple physical inclusion.
Cases are marked on the nouns with suffixes. The following is a list of all the cases that are marked in the language.
Nouns
Plural nouns are formed by adding the suffix "-im", or "-m" if the noun ends in a vowel. If the noun ends in a "t", it changes to "ch" when "-im" is added.
:* ''Tekil'' - Job
:* ''Tekilim'' - Jobs
If a plural noun is the object of a sentence, the suffixation of "-t" or "-ta" is not used.
Verbs
Usually, adding the suffix "-k" to a verb indicates past tense, though there are many exceptions. If a verb ends in a diphthong, "-kan" is added. If a verb ends in "-i", "-akan" is added. If a verb ends in "-o" or "-u", "-ekan" is added, and if a verb ends in "-a", "-ikan" is added. If a verb ends in "-k", "-an" is added.
Regularly, "-ne" indicates the future.
Tense and aspect
Yaqui possess a "prior state" or 'used to be, now deceased' suffix. It is -tu-káꞋu. This specific suffix attaches to a nominal noun to indicate a prior existence, but can also attach as a verb to reflect the state of a human noun (not only animate). For example, (suffixed as a verb) to the right.
The following is a table on the various tense markers that act more as aspectual values and epistemic states.
Adjectives
In Yaqui, adjectives very often act as verbs (in
Afro-Asiatic
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
linguistics, they would be called ''
stative
According to some linguistics theories, a stative verb is a verb that describes a state of being, in contrast to a dynamic verb, which describes an action. The difference can be categorized by saying that stative verbs describe situations that are ...
verbs''). For instance, "''vemela''" or "new", would most often be used to mean "is new". Adjectives have tenses, the same as verbs.
Reduplication
Reduplication
In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.
The classic observation on the semantics of reduplication is Edwa ...
is present in Yaqui.
Reduplicating the first syllable of a verb indicates habitual action:
:* ''eta'' - shuts
:* ''e'eta'' - usually shuts
Primary reduplication is also used to pluralize adjectives.
Reduplicating the second consonant of a verb is used to show that an action is performed rarely.
Sample words and phrases
:* ''o'ow'' - man
:* ''hamut'' - woman
:* ''tu'i hiapsek'' - kind (lit. "good hearted")
:* ''yantela -'' peace
:* ''halla'i'' - friend
:* ''maaso'' - deer
:* ''aamu'' - to hunt
:* ''totoi'' (plural. ''totoim) -'' chicken
:* ''aman ne tevote em yevihnewi'' - "I extend my greetings"
Greetings often are very formal. The following formula of four phrases is often used even among close friends:
:* ''Lios em chania'' - "Greetings!" (to one person, to more than one: ''Lios em chaniavu'') (lit. "God preserves you!", ''Lios''
ometimes pronounced ''Lioh''is a very early borrowing of the Spanish "Dios")
:* ''Lios em chiokoe'' - (the reply to the above, lit. "God pardons you!")
:* ''Empo allea'' - "May you rejoice!" (lit. "In you happy", 'allea' is said to be from the Spanish 'alegre', meaning 'happy')
:* ''Kettu'i'' - "How kind!"
Kinship terminology
Language revitalization and teaching
In 2009, the Pascua Yaqui Tribal Council and the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
collaborated on a program in which tribal elders teach the Yaqui language to families. As of 2010, a revitalization project was underway at the university, "using 30 year old audio tapes recorded by tribal member Maria Leyva."
As of 2012, "Any teaching materials, tools, lessons, audio lessons, etc.," on the website of the
Pascua Yaqui Tribe
The Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizonais a federally recognized tribe of Yaqui Native Americans in state of Arizona.
Descended from the Yaqui people whose original homelands include the Yaqui River valley in western Sonora, Mexico and southern Arizo ...
were "restricted to 'Tribally enrolled Members' only."
References
Bibliography
*
*Estrada Fernández, Zarina (2004). ''Diccionario yaqui-español y textos: Obra de preservación lingüística''. Sonora, México: Universidad de Sonora/Plaza y Valdés Editores
*
Johnson, Jean Bassett (1962, posthumous). ''El Idioma Yaqui''. Mexico DF: Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia.
* Shaul, David L. (1999). ''Yoeme-English English-Yoeme Standard Dictionary''.
New York: Hippocrene Books.
*
External links
Yaqui Vocabulary List from the World Loanword Database
Yaqui Swadesh vocabulary listfrom Wiktionary
OLAC resources in and about the Yaqui languageConstitution of Mexico in YaquiA PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF THE YAQUI LANGUAGE
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yaqui Language
Agglutinative languages
Southern Uto-Aztecan languages
Indigenous languages of Mexico
Languages of the United States
Native American language revitalization
Indigenous languages of Arizona
Indigenous languages of the Southwestern United States
Indigenous languages of the North American Southwest
Yaqui culture
Subject–object–verb languages