Yavapai language

Yavapai
Region	Arizona, US
Ethnicity	1420 Yavapai people
Native speakers	163  (date missing)
Language family	Yuman Core Yuman Pai Yavapai
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	yuf-yav

Yavapai is an Upland Yuman language, spoken by Yavapai people in central and western Arizona. There are four dialects: Kwevkepaya, Wipukpaya, Tolkepaya, and Yavepe. Linguistic studies of the Kwevkepaya (Southern), Tolkepaya (Western), Wipukepa (Verde Valley), and Yavepe (Prescott) dialects have been published (Mithun 1999:578).

The rate of mutual comprehension between Yavapai and Havasupai–Hualapai is similar to that between Mohave and Maricopa (Biggs 1957).

Unlike in Havasupai and Hualapai, postaspirated stops cannot appear in word-initial position (Shaterian 1983:215).

Poetry and stories have been published in Yavapai on several different occasions. Yavapai poems are featured in Gigyayk Vo'jka, the anthology of poetry in Yuman languages edited by Hualapai linguist Lucille Watahomigie. Yavapai stories also appear in Spirit Mountain: An Anthology of Yuman Story and Song. Both works are accompanied by English translations, and the poems in Gigyayk Vo'jka also feature a morphological analysis.

There is a published dictionary by Shaterian and an in process dictionary and grammar by Pamela Munro.

External links

• "Language use by Yavapai-Apache students with recommendations for curriculum design". Journal of American Indian Education 20 (1). October 1980. Retrieved 11 October 2011. 
• Yavapai basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

References

• Biggs, Bruce. 1957. Testing Intelligibility among Yuman Languages. In International Journal of American Linguistics. Vol. 23, No. 2. (April 1957), pp. 57–62. University of Chicago Press.
• Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge University Press.
• Shaterian, Alan William. 1983. Phonology and Dictionary of Yavapai. University of California, Berkeley.