Northern Paiute language facts for kids

Northern Paiute /ˈpaɪuːt/, endonym Numu, also known as Paviotso, is a Western Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family, which according to Marianne Mithun had around 500 fluent speakers in 1994. Ethnologue reported the number of speakers in 1999 as 1,631. It is closely related to the Mono language.

Phonology

Northern Paiute's phonology is highly variable, and its phonemes have many allophones.

Consonants

Vowels

Vowel chart of the Mono Lake dialect of Northern Paiute

Language revitalization

In 2005, the Northwest Indian Language Institute of the University of Oregon formed a partnership to teach Northern Paiute and Kiksht in the Warm Springs Indian Reservation schools. In 2013, Washoe County, Nevada became the first school district in Nevada to offer Northern Paiute classes, offering an elective course in the language at Spanish Springs High School. Classes have also been taught at Reed High School in Sparks, Nevada.

Elder Ralph Burns of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation worked with University of Nevada, Reno linguist Catherine Fowler to help develop a spelling system. The alphabet uses 19 letters. They have also developed a language-learning book, “Numa Yadooape,” and a series of computer disks of language lessons.

Morphology

Northern Paiute is an agglutinative language, in which words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.

See also

In Spanish: Idioma paiute septentrional para niños