Tohono O'odham language
| O'odham | |
|---|---|
| ʼOʼodham ha-ñeʼokĭ, ʼOʼodham ñiʼokĭ, Oʼodham ñiok | |
| Native to | United States, Mexico |
| Region | Primarily south-central Arizona and northern Sonora |
| Ethnicity | Tohono O'odham, Akimel O'odham |
|
Native speakers
|
15,000 (2007) 180 monolinguals (1990 census) |
|
Uto-Aztecan languages
|
|
| Official status | |
|
Official language in
|
One of the national languages of Mexico |
| Regulated by | Secretariat of Public Education in Mexico; various tribal agencies in the USA |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | toho1245 |
O'odham (pronounced [ˈʔɔʔɔðɦam]) or Papago-Pima is a Uto-Aztecan language of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, where the Tohono O'odham (formerly called the Papago) and Akimel O'odham (traditionally called Pima) reside. In 2000 there were estimated to be approximately 9,750 speakers in the United States and Mexico combined, although there may be more due to underreporting.
It is the 10th most-spoken indigenous language in the United States, the 3rd most-spoken indigenous language in Arizona after Western Apache and Navajo. It is the third-most spoken language in Pinal County, Arizona and the fourth-most spoken language in Pima County, Arizona.
Approximately 8% of O'odham speakers in the US speak English "not well" or "not at all", according to results of the 2000 Census. Approximately 13% of O'odham speakers in the US were between the ages of 5 and 17, and among the younger O'odham speakers, approximately 4% were reported as speaking English "not well" or "not at all".
Native names for the language, depending on the dialect and orthography, include Oʼodham ha-ñeʼokĭ, Oʼottham ha-neoki, and Oʼodham ñiok.
The O'dham language has a number of dialects.
Due to the paucity of data on the linguistic varieties of the Hia C-eḍ O'odham, this section currently focuses on the Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham dialects only.
The greatest lexical and grammatical dialectal differences are between the Tohono O'odham (or Papago) and the Akimel O'odham (or Pima) dialect groupings. Some examples:
There are other major dialectal differences between northern and southern dialects, for example:
The Cukuḍ Kuk dialect has null in certain positions where other Tohono O'odham dialects have a bilabial:
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Wikipedia