Yaqui language
| Yaqui | |
|---|---|
| Yoem Noki | |
| Pronunciation | [joʔem noki] |
| Native to | Mexico, U.S. |
| Region | Sonora, Arizona |
| Ethnicity | Yaqui people |
|
Native speakers
|
18,000 (2010 census) |
|
Uto-Aztecan
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | yaqu1251 |
Yaqui (or Hiaki), locally known as Yoeme or Yoem Noki, is a Native American language of the Uto-Aztecan family. It is spoken by about 20,000 Yaqui people, in the Mexican state of Sonora and across the border in Arizona in the United States.
The remarks below use the orthography used by the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in the United States. There are also several orthographic systems used in Mexico differing slightly, mainly in using Spanish values for several consonants and Spanish spelling rules: rohikte" would be written "rojicte". There are minor differences between Mexican and US dialects in inclusion or exclusion of sounds, the US dialects tending to exclude an intervocalic "r" and final "k".
Yaqui vowels are pronounced very much like in Spanish:
"A" is pronounced similarly to that in (American English) "father" (International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) /ɑ/).
"E" is pronounced similarly to that in (Am. Eng.) "get" (IPA /ɛ/).
"I" is pronounced similarly to that in (Am. Eng.) "machine" (IPA /i/).
"O" is pronounced similarly to that in (Am. Eng.) "go" (IPA /o/).
"U" is pronounced similarly to that in (Am. Eng.) "rude" (IPA /u/).
Vowels may be either short or long in duration. Often, long vowels are shortenwd when the word they are used in is used constructively: 'maaso' ('deer') is shortened to 'maso' in 'maso bwikam' ('deer songs'). Long vowels are written by doubling the vowel. Long vowels may change tone, but that is not represented in the written language. Some writers have referred to Yaqui as being a tonal language, but the modern forms of the language do not show any widespread and significant use of tonemes.
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Wikipedia