Comanche language

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Comanche
Numu tekwapu 
Pronunciation: [ˈnɨmɨ ˈrekʷapɨ ̥]
Spoken in: United States 
Region: Oklahoma (formerly, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma)
Total speakers: 200
Language family: Uto-Aztecan
 Numic
  Central Numic
   Comanche
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: –
ISO 639-3: com
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.


Comanche is a Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Comanche people. The Comanche split off from the Shoshone soon after they acquired horses around 1705. The Comanche language and the Shoshone language are therefore quite similar although certain low-level consonant changes in Comanche have inhibited mutual intelligibility. [1].

The name "Comanche" comes from the Ute word kɨmmantsi meaning "enemy, stranger". [2]. Their own name for the language is Nʉmʉ tekwapu which means "Language of the people". [3]

Although efforts are now being made to ensure its survival, most speakers of the language are elderly, and less than one percent of the Comanches can speak the language. In the late 19th century, Comanche children were placed in boarding schools where they were discouraged from speaking their native language, and even severely punished for doing so. The second generation then grew up speaking English, because of the belief that it was better for them not to know Comanche.

During World War II, a group of seventeen young men referred to as the Comanche Code Talkers, were trained and used by the U.S. Army to send messages conveying sensitive information that could not be deciphered by the enemy.

Contents

[edit] Sounds

[edit] Vowels

Comanche has a typical Numic vowel inventory of six vowels. In addition, there is the common diphthong ai. Historically, there was a certain amount of free variation between ai and e, but the variation is no longer so common and most morphemes have become fixed on either ai or e.[4]

front back
unrounded		 back
rounded
High i ɨ u
Non-High e a o
Diphthong ai

Vowels can be either long or short. Vowel devoicing is predictable.

[edit] Consonants

Comanche has a typical Numic consonant inventory:[5]

Labial Dental Palatal Velar Glottal
plain labial
Nasal m n
Plosive p t k kʷ ʔ
Affricate ts
Fricative s h
Approximant j w

[edit] Writing system

The Comanche Alphabet was developed by Dr. Alice Anderton, a linguistic anthropologist, and was adopted as the official Comanche Alphabet by the Comanche Nation in 1994. The alphabet is not entirely phonemic, as there are some phonemes that are represented by two letters. The alphabet is as follows:

Alphabet Pronunciation Alphabet Pronunciation
a /a/ p [p] /p/
b [β] /p/ r [ɾ] /t/
e /e/ s /s/
h /h/ t [t] /t/
i /i/ u /u/
k /k/ ʉ /ə/
m /m/ w /w/
n /n/ y /j/
o /o/ ʔ /ʔ/
Notes:
  • Long vowels are indicated by doubling the vowel, e.g. <aa, ee, ii, oo, uu, uu>.
  • Voiceless vowels are indicated by an underline, e.g. <a , e , i , o , u , u>.
  • When the stress does not fall on the first syllable of the word, it is marked with an acute accent <´>, e.g. kutséena, "coyote".
  • The glottal stop <ʔ> is sometimes written as <?>.
  • The phonemes /ʦ/ and /kʷ/ are written as <ts> and <kw>, respectively.

[edit] Examples

The following are examples of words from the Comanche language. They are based primarily on the Comanche Vocabulary: Trilingual Edition by Manuel García Rejón. The orthography used here is not the official Comanche Alphabet, but is based on Spanish orthography. In it, doubled letters are long, and h is always sounded as in the English "hit", even in the middle of a word, as in "cuhtz" (buffalo). An accent mark indicates stress on that syllable.

English Comanche Official alphabet equivalent
Boy Tuinéhpua tuinʉpʉ
Brother (Older) Bávi pabi (-babi following vowel)
Brother (Younger) Rámi tami (sometimes -rami following vowel)
Buffalo Cuhtz kuutsuu
Corn Janib hanipʉ
Cougar Toyarohco toyaruku
Coyote Tzensa tzsensa ? (usual modern term is kʉtséena)
Cricket Tuaahtaqui tuaahtaki
Deer Areca arʉka
Dog Sarrie sarii
Father Ap apʉ
Fire Cuuna kuuna
Fish Pécui pekwi
Frog Pasauiyió pasawʔóo
Grass Sonip sunipʉ
Horse Puc puuku
House Caani kahni
Jerky (meat) Inap inapʉ
Moon Muea mʉa
Mother Pia pia
No Niatz niats ?? (modern 'no' is kee)
Owl Mupitz mupitsʉ
Rabbit Tábo tabu
Rain Emar ʉmarʉ
Rainbow Paracoa paracoa
River Piajunubi pia hunuubi
Sister (Older) Batzi patsi (-batsi following a vowel)
Sister (Younger) Nami nami
Sky Tomóbi tomoobi
Star Tatzinupi tatsinupi
Sun Taabe taabe
Water Paa paa
Yes Jaa haa

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ John E. McLaughlin. 1992. “A Counter-Intuitive Solution in Central Numic Phonology,” International Journal of American Linguistics 58:158-81.
    John E. McLaughlin. 2000. “Language Boundaries and Phonological Borrowing in the Central Numic Languages.” Uto-Aztecan: Temporal and Geographical Perspectives. Ed. Gene Casad and Thomas Willett. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. Pp. 293-304.
  2. ^ Edward Sapir. 1931. Southern Paiute Dictionary. Reprinted in 1992 in: The Collected Works of Edward Sapir, X, Southern Paiute and Ute Linguistics and Ethnography. Ed. William Bright. Berlin: Mouton deGruyter.
  3. ^ Lila Wistrand Robinson & James Armagost. 1990. Comanche Dictionary and Grammar. Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics Publication 92. Dallas, Texas: The Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington.
  4. ^ Jean O. Charney. 1993. A Grammar of Comanche. Studies in the Anthropology of North American Indians. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
  5. ^ Charney (1993)

[edit] External links

[edit] Bibliography

  • Ager, Simon. Comanche (numu tekwapu). Internet: www.omniglot.com/writing/comanche.htm October 14, 2005.
  • Anderton, Alice. (1997). Kaawosa plays a trick on a soldier: A Comanche coyote story. In Jane Hill, P.J. Mistry, & Lyle Campbell (Eds.), The life of language: Papers in linguistics in honor of William Bright (pp. 243-255). Trends in linguistics: Studies and monographs (No. 108). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Armagost, James. (1982). Comanche deictic roots in narrative texts. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, 7, 5-14. (Online: kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/handle/1808/3611
  • Armagost, James. (1982). The temporal relationship between telling and happening in Comanche narrative. Anthropological Linguistics, 24, 193-200.
  • Armagost, James. (1983). Comanche narrative: Some general remarks and a selected text. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, 8 (2), 1-30. (Online: kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/handle/1808/477
  • Armagost, James. (1985). On predicting voiceless vowels in Comanche. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, 10 (2), 1-15. (Online: kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/handle/1808/499
  • Armagost, James. (1985). Comanche ma-: Undistinguished deictic, narrative obviative. International Journal of American Linguistics, 51, 302-310. (Available from JSTOR: www.jstor.org/pss/1265433).
  • Armagost, James. (1986). Three exceptions to vowel devoicing in Comanche. Anthropological Linguistics, 28, 3.
  • Armagost, James. (1990). Interpreting St. Clair's Comanche texts: Objective case marking and the 'same subject' dependent clauses. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, 15 (2), 1-17. (Online: kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/handle/1808/435
  • Bruce, Benjamin. "Marúawe!" Internet: [1] October 14, 2005.
  • Canonge, Elliott D. (1957). Voiceless vowels in Comanche. International Journal of American Linguistics, 23, 63-67. (Available from JSTOR: www.jstor.org/pss/1264055).
  • Canonge, Elliott D. (1958). Comanche texts. Summer Institute of Linguistics publications in linguistics and related fields (No. 1). Norman, OK: Summer Institute of Linguistics of the University of Oklahoma.
  • Casagrande, Joseph. (1948). Comanche baby language. International Journal of American Linguistics, 14, 11-14. (Available from JSTOR: www.jstor.org/pss/1263088).
  • Casagrande, Joseph B. (1954). Comanche linguistic acculturation: I. International Journal of American Linguistics, 20 (2), 140-151. (Available from JSTOR: www.jstor.org/pss/1263388).
  • Casagrande, Joseph B. (1954). Comanche linguistic acculturation: II. International Journal of American Linguistics, 20 (3), 217-237. (Available from JSTOR: www.jstor.org/pss/1263347).
  • Casagrande, Joseph B. (1955). Comanche linguistic acculturation: III. International Journal of American Linguistics, 21 (1), 8-25. (Available from JSTOR: www.jstor.org/pss/1263210).
  • Charney, Jean Ormsbee, 1993. A Grammar of Comanche. London/Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. (Viewed at the Rosetta Project)
  • Hamp, Eric. (1958). Prosodic notes: On Comanche voiceless vowels. International Journal of American Linguistics, 24, 321. (Available from JSTOR: www.jstor.org/pss/1263980).
  • Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: [2].
  • The Language. Internet: www.comanchelanguage.org October 22, 2005.
  • Osborn, Henry; & Smalley, William. (1949). Formulae for Comanche stem and word formation. International Journal of American Linguistics, 15, 93-99.
  • Rejón, Manuel García. (1995). Comanche vocabulary (trilingual ed.). Gelo, Daniel J. (Ed.). Texas archaeology and ethnohistory series. Austin: University of Texas Press.
  • Robinson, Lila Wistrand; & Armagost, James. (1990). Comanche dictionary and grammar. Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington publications in linguistics (No. 92). Dallas, Texas: The Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington.
  • Smalley, William. (1953). Phonemic rhythm in Comanche. International Journal of American Linguistics, 19, 297-301. (Available from JSTOR: www.jstor.org/pss/1263132).
  • Troike, Rudolph C. (1956). Comanche linguistic acculturation: A critique. International Journal of American Linguistics, 22 (3), 213-215. (Available from JSTOR: www.jstor.org/pss/1264018).