Northern Paiute language
Numic language spoken in western US
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Northern Paiute /ˈpaɪuːt/,[2] endonym Numu or nɨɨmɨ,[3][4] also known as Paviotso, is a Western Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family, which had around 500 fluent speakers in 1994 according to Marianne Mithun.[5] It is closely related to the Mono language.
| Northern Paiute | |
|---|---|
| Paviotso | |
| Numu, nɨɨmɨ | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Nevada, California, Oregon, Idaho |
| Ethnicity | 6,000 Northern Paiute and Bannock (1999)[1] |
Native speakers | 700 (2007)[1] |
Uto-Aztecan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pao |
| Glottolog | nort2954 |
| ELP | Northern Paiute |
 Map showing the traditional geographic distribution of Northern Paiute and Mono | |
 Northern Paiute is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Language revitalization
In 2005, the Northwest Indian Language Institute at the University of Oregon formed a partnership to teach Northern Paiute and Kiksht in schools on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.[6] In 2013, Washoe County, Nevada became the first school district in Nevada to offer Northern Paiute classes, offering an elective Northern Paiute course at Spanish Springs High School.[7] Classes have also been taught at Reed High School in Sparks, Nevada.[8]
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.[8]
Phonology
Morphology
Northern Paiute is an agglutinative language in which words use suffix complexes with several morphemes strung together for a variety of purposes.
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