Kumeyaay language

Kumeyaay
Southern Diegueño
Native to	United States, Mexico
Region	California, Baja California
Ethnicity	Kumeyaay
Native speakers	377 in Mexico (2010 census) 40-50 in the United States (2007)
Language family	Yuman Core Yuman Delta–California Kumeyaay
Dialects	Kwatl
Language codes
ISO 639-3	dih (as part of Diegueño)
Glottolog	kumi1248  Tipai kwat1246  Kwatl
ELP	Kumeyaay

Kumeyaay (Kumiai), also known as Central Diegueño, Kamia, and Campo, is the Native American language spoken by the Kumeyaay people of southern San Diego and Imperial counties in California. Hinton (1994:28) suggested a conservative estimate of 50 native speakers of Kumeyaay. A more liberal estimate (including speakers of Ipai and Tipai), supported by the results of the Census 2000, is 110 people in the US, including 15 persons under the age of 18. There were 377 speakers reported in the 2010 Mexican census, including 88 who called their language "Cochimi".

Kumeyaay belongs to the Yuman language family and to the Delta–California branch of that family. Kumeyaay and its neighbors, Ipai to the north and Tipai to the south, were often considered to be dialects of a single Diegueño language, but the current consensus among linguists seems to be that at least three distinct languages are present within the dialect chain (e.g., Langdon 1990). Confusingly, Kumeyaay is commonly used as a designation both for the central language of this family and for the Ipai-Kumeyaay-Tipai people as a whole. Tipai is also commonly used as a collective designation for speakers of both Kumeyaay and Tipai proper.

Documentation

In 1999, published documentation for the Kumeyaay language appeared to be limited to a few texts.

As of May 2014, online Kumeyaay language lessons are available. A "dictionary of all five dialects of Kumeyaay spoken in Baja California" is in preparation. Kumeyaay language stories are recorded at the Kumeyaay museum in Tecate.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Post- alveolar	Lateral		Palatal	Velar		Uvular	Glottal
				nor.	pal.		nor.	lab.
Stop	p	t	t̠				k	kʷ	q	ʔ
Fricative	β	s	s̠	ɬ	ɬʲ		x	xʷ
Affricate			tʃ
Nasal	m	n	n̠̊			ɲ
Lateral						ʎ
Trill		r	r̠̊
Approximant	w			l		j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid		ə	o
Open		a

Bibliography

• Leanne Hinton. 1994. Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages. Heyday Books, Berkeley, California.
• Langdon, Margaret. 1990. "Diegueño: how many languages?" In Proceedings of the 1990 Hokan–Penutian Languages Workshop, edited by James E. Redden, pp. 184–190. University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale.
• Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

• Miller, Amy (2008). Barona inter-tribal dictionary: 'Iipay aa Tiipay aa Uumall. Lakeside, CA: Barona Museum Press. ISBN 9780932653925.
• Couro, Ted; Christina Hutcheson (1973). Dictionary of Mesa Grande Diegueño; 'Iipay Aa-English/English-'Iipay Aa. Banning, Calif.: Malki Museum Press. LCCN 74206934.
• Couro, Ted; Margaret Langdon (1975). Let's talk 'Iipay Aa : an introduction to the Mesa Grande Diegueño language. Banning, Calif.: Malki Museum Press. LCCN 75332636.
• Miller, Amy (2001). A grammar of Jamul Tiipay / Amy Miller. Mouton grammar library. Hawthorne, N.Y: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3110164510.
• Langdon, Margaret (1970). A grammar of Diegueño; the Mesa Grande dialect. Berkeley: University of California Press. Retrieved 2016-09-27.
• Gorbet, Larry Paul (1976). A grammar of diegueño nominals. New York: Garland Publishing. LCCN 75025116.

External links

• Richard L. Carrico (2012-05-21). "BOOKS: Can language preservation battle be won?". North County Times. Archived from the original on 2012-07-25. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
• Richard Carrico (2010). "Land/History/Language". Kumeyaay Placenames Project. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
• ELAR archive of Documentation of the Baja California Yuman Languages Kumeyaay and Ko'alh