Shoshoni Language
Shoshoni or Shoshone ( /ʃoʊˈʃoʊniː/; Sosoni' da̲i̲gwape or newe da̲i̲gwape) is a Native American language spoken by the Shoshone people. Principal dialects of Shoshoni include Western Shoshoni in Nevada, Gosiute in western Utah, Northern Shoshoni in southern Idaho and northern Utah, and Eastern Shoshoni in Wyoming.
Shoshoni-speaking Native Americans occupy areas of Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Montana. The number of people who speak Shoshoni has been steadily dwindling over the last few decades, so there are only a few hundred people who speak the language fluently today. A few thousand know it to one degree or another. The Shoshoni language is defined as "severely endangered" in Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming by UNESCO.
Shoshoni is the northernmost member of the large Uto-Aztecan language family, which includes over thirty languages whose speakers originally inhabited a vast territory stretching from the Salmon River in central Idaho down into El Salvador. Shoshoni belongs to the Numic subbranch of Uto-Aztecan. The word Numic comes from the cognate word in all Numic languages for "person". For example, in Shoshoni the word is neme, in Timbisha it is nümü, and in Southern Paiute the word is nuwuvi.
Read more about Shoshoni Language: Language Revitalization, Morphology, Writing System
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