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Kumeyaay language

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Kumeyaay
Southern Diegueño
Native toUnited States, Mexico
RegionCalifornia, Baja California
EthnicityKumeyaay
Native speakers
40–50 Kumeyaay in the United States (2020)[1]
(assuming all Diegeño in Mexico are Tiipai)
Yuman
  • Core Yuman
    • Delta–California
      • Kumeyaay
Dialects
  • unclassified Kamia may have been a dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3dih (as part of Diegueño)
Glottologkumi1248  Tipai
ELPKumeyaay

Kumeyaay (Kumiai), more precisely known as Central Diegueño or Campo, is the Native American language spoken by the Kumeyaay people of southern San Diego and Imperial counties in California.

Hinton in 1994 suggested a conservative estimate of 50 native speakers of Kumeyaay.[2]

Kumeyaay belongs to the Yuman language family and to the Delta–California branch of that family. Kumeyaay and its neighbors, ʼIipay to the north and Tiipay to the south, were often considered to be dialects of a single Diegueño language, but the 1990 consensus among linguists seems to be that at least three distinct languages are present within the dialect chain.[3]

Confusingly, Kumeyaay is commonly used as a designation both for the central language of this family and for the ʼIipay-Tiipay-Kumeyaay people as a whole. Tiipay is also commonly used as a collective designation for speakers of both Kumeyaay and Tiipay proper.

Documentation

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In 1999, published documentation for the Kumeyaay language appeared to be limited to a few texts.[4] In 2019, Margaret Field (along with other translators and native speakers) published a trilingual book of stories and oral histories from Baja California Tiipay communities of Nejí and La Huerta.[5]

Video and audio recordings of stories, conversation, and wordlists in the Tiipay variants spoken in Nejí and La Huerta have been uploaded to the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA).[6] Some of these have been transcribed and are available to download on the Endangered Languages Archive[7] hosted by the Endangered Languages Documentation Program (ELDP) at the University of London.

As of April 2023, classes are available through Kumeyaay Community College paired with Cuyamaca Community College as well as San Diego State University.[8] There is also a Kumeyaay language immersion program.[9]

Phonology

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Consonants

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Bilabial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
nor. lab.
Stop/Affricate p t̪ t tʃ k kʷ q ʔ
Fricative β s̪ s x xʷ
Nasal m n̪ n ɲ
Trill r̪ r
Lateral fricative ɬ 𝼆
approx. l ʎ
Approximant w j

Alveolar sounds /t, s, n, r/ can also be heard as post-alveolar [t̠, s̠, n̠, r̠].[10]

Vowels

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Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid ə o
Open a

Vowel length may also be distributed.

References

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  1. ^ Kumeyaay at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Hinton, Leanne (1994). Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books.
  3. ^ Langdon, Margaret (1990). "Diegueño: how many languages?". In Redden, James E. (ed.). Proceedings of the 1990 Hokan–Penutian Languages Workshop. Carbondale: University of Southern Illinois. pp. 184–190.
  4. ^ Mithun, Marianne (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge University Press.
  5. ^ Field, Margaret, ed. (2019). Footsteps From the Past into the Future: Kumeyaay Stories of Baja California. San Diego State University Press. ISBN 9781938537844.
  6. ^ "Central Diegueño (Kumiai)". The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America. Archived from the original on 2023-08-15. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
  7. ^ "Documentation of the Baja California Yuman Languages Kumeyaay and Ko'alh | Endangered Languages Archive". www.elararchive.org. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
  8. ^ "Kumeyaay Studies". www.cuyamaca.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-23.
  9. ^ Iipay AA - Santa Ysabel Language Immersion Program. Condor Visual Media. Retrieved 2023-01-23 – via YouTube.
  10. ^ Langdon, Margaret (1966). A Grammar of Diegueño: The Mesa Grande Dialect (PhD thesis). Berkeley: University of California.

Further reading

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  • Carrico, Richard L. (2012-05-21). "Can language preservation battle be won?". Books. North County Times. Archived from the original on 2012-07-25. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
  • Couro, Ted; Christina Hutcheson (1973). Dictionary of Mesa Grande Diegueño; 'Iipay Aa-English/English-'Iipay Aa. Banning, CA: Malki Museum Press. LCCN 74206934.
  • Couro, Ted; Margaret Langdon (1975). Let's talk 'Iipay Aa : an introduction to the Mesa Grande Diegueño language. Banning, CA: Malki Museum Press. LCCN 75332636.
  • Gorbet, Larry Paul (1976). A grammar of diegueño nominals. New York: Garland Publishing. LCCN 75025116.
  • Langdon, Margaret (1970). A grammar of Diegueño; the Mesa Grande dialect. Berkeley: University of California Press. Retrieved 2016-09-27.
  • Mai, Anna; Aguilar, Andrés; Caballero, Gabriela (2019). "Ja'a Kumiai". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 49 (2): 231–244. doi:10.1017/S0025100317000536, with supplementary sound recordings.
  • Miller, Amy (2001). A grammar of Jamul Tiipay. Mouton grammar library. Hawthorne, NY: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3110164510.
  • Miller, Amy (2008). Barona inter-tribal dictionary: 'Iipay aa Tiipay aa Uumall. Lakeside, CA: Barona Museum Press. ISBN 9780932653925.
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