Zuni Language
Zuni (also Zuñi) is a language of the Zuni people, indigenous to western New Mexico and eastern Arizona in the United States. It is spoken by around 9,500 people worldwide, especially in the vicinity of Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, and much smaller numbers in parts of Arizona.
Unlike most indigenous languages in the US, Zuni is still spoken by a significant number of children and, thus, is comparatively less threatened with language endangerment. Edmund Ladd reported in 1994 that Zuni is still the main language of communication in the pueblo and is used in the home (Newman 1996).
Within the language, the language itself is called Shiwi'ma (shiwi "Zuni" + -’ma "vernacular", trans. as "Zuni way") and its speakers are collectively A:shiwi (’a:(w)- "plural" + shiwi "Zuni").
Read more about Zuni Language: Classification, Language Contact, Sounds, Grammar, Sociolinguistic Aspects, Orthography
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“I shall christen this style the Mandarin, since it is beloved by literary pundits, by those who would make the written word as unlike as possible to the spoken one. It is the style of all those writers whose tendency is to make their language convey more than they mean or more than they feel, it is the style of most artists and all humbugs.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)