Cahuilla language

Cahuilla
Ivilyuat
ʔívil̃uʔat
Pronunciation	[ʔiviʎuʔat]
Native to	USA
Region	Southern California
Ethnicity	800 Cahuilla (2007)
Native speakers	35 (2009)
Language family	Uto-Aztecan Northern Uto-Aztecan Cupan Cahuilla–Cupeño Cahuilla
Dialects	Desert, Mountain, Pass
Writing system	Latin, NAPA
Language codes
ISO 639-3	chl
Glottolog	cahu1264

Cahuilla /kəˈwiːə/ (ʔívil̃uʔat IPA: [ʔiːviʎuʔat] or Ivilyuat), is an endangered Uto-Aztecan language, spoken by the various tribes of the Cahuilla nation, living in the Coachella Valley, San Gorgonio Pass and San Jacinto Mountains region of Southern California. Cahuilla call themselves ʔívil̃uqaletem–speakers of ʔivil̃uʔat–or táxliswet meaning "person." A 1990 census revealed 35 speakers in an ethnic population of 800. It is nearly extinct, since most speakers are middle-aged or older.

Three dialects are known to have existed, referred to as Desert, Mountain and Pass Cahuilla.

Classification

Cahuilla is found in the Uto-Aztecan language family where it is denoted alongside Cupeño to be a Cupan language within the larger Californian language subgroup where it joins Serrano, Kitanemuk, Luiseño and Tongva (Gabrielino). This California subgroup consisting of Cupan and Serran languages was once titled the Takic group which has fallen out of use.

Exonyms and endonyms

One of the indigenous designations for the language is ʔívil̃uʔat where Cahuilla could call themselves ʔívil̃uʔqalet(em) 'speaker of ʔívil̃uʔat.' Other variations include Ivilyuat and Ivia. However, both the language and the people are oftentimes called 'Cahuilla.'

Phonology

Cahuilla has the following vowel and consonant phonemes (Bright 1965, Saubel and Munro 1980:1-6, Seiler and Hioki 1979: 8-9):

IPA chart of Cahuilla consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular		Glottal
						plain	labial.
Nasal		m [m]	n [n]	ny ⟨ñ⟩ [ɲ]	ng ⟨ŋ⟩ [ŋ]
Stop	voiceless	p [p]	t [t]		k [k]	q [q]	qw ⟨qʷ⟩ [qʷ]	' ⟨ʔ⟩ [ʔ]
	voiced		(d [d])		g [g]
Affricate				ch ⟨č⟩ [t͡ʃ]
Fricative	voiceless	(f [f])	s [s]	sh ⟨š⟩ [ʃ]	x [x]	h [χ]	xw ⟨xʷ⟩ [χʷ]
	voiced	v [v]	(z [z])		(g [ɣ])
Approximant		w [w]		y [j]
Lateral			l [l]	ll ⟨l̃⟩ [ʎ]
Flap			r [ɾ]

Consonants in parentheses only occur in loans. Material in ⟨brackets⟩ after a consonant shows how it is spelled in the practical orthography of Saubel and Munro (1980).

	Front	Back
High	iː   i	uː   u
Mid	eː   e	(oː   o)
Low		ɑː   ɑ

Long /oː/ only appears in borrowings.

Morphology

Verb morphology

Cahuilla verbs show agreement with both their subject and object. Person agreement is shown by prefixes and number agreement is shown by suffixes. (Saubel and Munro p. 29)

kúp-qa

sleep-singular:present

'He is sleeping.'

hem-kúp-we

3rd-sleep-plural:present

'They are sleeping.'

Basic sample vocabulary

• One: súpl̃e
• Two: wíh
• Three: páh
• Four: wíčiw
• Five: namekʷánaŋ
• Man: náxaniš
• Woman: ñíčil̃
• Sun: támit
• Moon: ménil̃
• Water: pál

Place names

Few place names within Cahuilla remained the same over the years with English or Spanish names taking over. Here are a few:

• káviñiš & qàwal hémaʔ – Indian Wells
• kíš čáwal – White Water
• pàl téwet – Indio
• wìyal ʔámuyka – Torres Peak
• yamesével – Mission Creek
• qáwiš húlawet (Mtn: qáwiš yúlawet) – near La Quinta

Writing systems

Cahuilla has been and, to an extent, still is an unwritten language. Between IPA and NAPA, there are ways to write the language down, but there is no agreed-upon script used nation-wide. That being said, the most employed orthography is that of a modified NAPA found in Seiler and Hioki's "Cahuilla Dictionary". The alphabet has 35 letters with an accent (either ' ´ ' or ' ` ') over vowels denoting stress patterns.

Cahuilla Alphabet

a

aa

b

č

d

e

ee

g

h

i

ii

k

kʷ

l

l̃

m

n

ñ

ŋ

o

oo

p

q

r

s

š

t

u

uu

v

w

x

xʷ

y

ʔ

IPA Notation

ɑ

ɑː

b

t͡ʃ

d

e

eː

g

h

i

iː

k

kʷ

l

ʎ

m

n

ɲ

ŋ

o

oː

p

q

ɾ

s

ʃ

t

u

uː

v

w

χ

χʷ

j

ʔ

Use and revitalization efforts

Alvin Siva of the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians, a fluent speaker, died on June 26, 2009. He preserved the tribe's traditional bird songs, sung in the Cahuilla language, by teaching them to younger generations of Cahuilla people. Katherine Siva Saubel (b. 1920 - d. 2011) was a native Cahuilla speaker dedicated to preserving the language.

In April 2014, the University of California, Riverside offered free public workshops in the Cahuilla language.

See also

• Cahuilla mythology
• Cahuilla traditional narratives

References

• Saubel, Katherine Siva, Pamela Munro, Chem'ivillu' (Let's Speak Cahuilla), Los Angeles, American Indian Studies Center, University of California, 1982.
• Seiler, Hansjakob, Cahuilla Texts with an Introduction, Bloomington, Language Science Monographs, Indiana University Press, 1970.
• Seiler, Hansjakob, Cahuilla Grammar, Banning, Malki Museum Press, 1977.
• Seiler, Hansjakob, Kojiro Hioki, Cahuilla Dictionary, Banning, Malki Museum press, 1979.

External links

• The Limu Project active language revitalization
• Resources in and about the Cahuilla language
• Cahuilla pronunciation guide
• Cahuilla grammar, available through the Long Now Foundation
• Cahuilla language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• OLAC resources in and about the Cahuilla language
• Cahuilla basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database