Serrano language

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Serrano
Native to United States
Region Southern California
Language family
Language codes
ISO 639-3 ser
Serrano language.png

The Serrano language is a language in the Takic branch of the Uto-Aztecan family spoken by the Serrano people of Southern California. The language is closely related to Tongva and Kitanemuk. According to Ethnologue, there was 1 speaker in 1994.[1] The last fully fluent speaker was Dorothy Ramon, who died in 2002.[2]

Contents

Language revitalization [edit]

The language is nearly extinct, but there are attempts at reviving it, [3] both at the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, and Morongo Band of Mission Indians reservations.[4] Language teacher Pauline Murillo helped develop an interactive CD ROM for learning Serrano.[4] As of 2013, the San Manuel Band's Serrano Language Revitalization Project (SLRP) seeks to develop further multimedia resources for language learners.[5]

The Limu project offers online courses in Maarrenga' (Morongo Band "Serrano" dialect) and Yuhaviat (Santos Manuel Band "Serrano" dialect).[6]

The Serrano language was traditionally a spoken language; an alphabet was not used until the 1990s. A new alphabet, with 47 letters, including the glottal stop, was developed starting in 2005.[2]

Morphology [edit]

Serrano is an agglutinative language, where words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.

References [edit]

  1. ^ Ethnologue report
  2. ^ a b Edwards, Andrew (2006-12-05). "Saving the Serrano tongue". San Bernardino County Sun. Retrieved 2013-05-08. 
  3. ^ Limu Project iLearn Course Portal
  4. ^ a b David Olson (2011-01-26). "Pauline Murillo, 76, San Manuel tribal elder". PE.com - Press-Enterprise. Retrieved 2012-08-10. 
  5. ^ "San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians: Education". Retrieved 2013-05-08. 
  6. ^ "iLearn Course Portal - iLearn. Serrano Dialects Maarrenga' (Morongo Band "Serrano" dialect); Yuhaviat (Santos Manuel Band "Serrano" dialect)". The Limu Project. Retrieved 2013-05-08. 

External links [edit]