Language
The Opata language is a Uto-Aztecan language, related to neighboring languages such as O'odham, Tarahumara, Yaqui and Mayo, among others.
The name of the Eudeve dialect is Dohema. The Tehuimas spoke Tehuima, and the Jovas spoke Jova. The Eudeve and Tehuima languages were closely related, as "different as Portuguese and Spanish." Jova was a more distinct language.
During the 1993 census in Mexico, 12 persons claimed to be “Opata” speakers, but this is widely considered to be an error in the census count.
Professor Manuel García Madrid, an Opata from Sonora, has published a linguistic text, Hía Tehuikatzion, on the Tehuima dialect. American linguistic anthropologist David L. Schaul has done extensive research and published much material on the Eudeve dialect. Field anthropologist Campbell Pennington researched and published much information on the Opatan peoples and their dialects during the latter part of their history.
As the three Opatan dialects were similar and all three groups lived adjacent to one another, Franciscan missionaries by about 1800 lumped them together into one group they called "Opata." Several Franciscan missionary records and subsequent anthropological accounts state that “Opata” was borrowed from a Pima Indian word meaning “enemy,” the name allegedly given by the northern and southern Piman peoples to their Opatan neighbors. However, according to Opatan oral traditionalists, “Opata” is the name some Tehuima villages gave to themselves and means “iron people,” since iron ore was abundant in Opata territory, and Opata spear tips were made from iron ore. Thus, those Tehuiman tribes were also known as “the iron spear people.” Some anthropological texts state that the “Opata” referred to themselves collectively in their own language as “Joylraua.” However, according to Opata oral traditionalists, Joylraua was the name of an ancient Eudeve village that was named after an honored chieftain of that village.
Read more about this topic: Opata People
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