Remove ads
The Cupeño language is an extinct Uto-Aztecan language, once spoken by the Cupeño people of southern California, United States. Roscinda Nolasquez (d. 1987) was the last native speaker of Cupeño.[3] The Cupeño people now speak English. The native name Kupangaxwicham means 'people from the sleeping place', referring to their traditional homeland, prior to 1902, of Ktipa (at the base of Warner's Hot Springs).[4][5] A smaller village was located to the south of Ktipa, named Wildkalpa.
 | This article should specify the language of its non-English content, using {{lang}}, {{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used - notably cup for Cupeño. (November 2024) |
| Cupeño | |
|---|---|
| Kupangaxwicham Pe'me̲melki | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Southern California |
| Ethnicity | Cupeño |
| Extinct | 1987, with the death of Roscinda Nolasquez |
| Revival | [1] |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cup |
| Glottolog | cupe1243 |
| ELP | Cupeño |
 | |
 Cupeño is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger [2] | |
Throughout the 1890s, there was debate over whether the Cupeño people should be allowed to continue living on traditional Cupeño territory.[4] After many years of public protests, the California Supreme Court decided to relocate the Cupeño people to the Pala Reservation.[4][5][when?]
Cupeño shows linguistic influence from both the languages that preceded it and the Yuman-speaking Ipai, who share their southern border.[4]
Remove ads
The language was originally spoken in Cupa, Wilaqalpa, and Paluqla, located in San Diego County, California, and later around the Pala Indian Reservation.
Cupeño is an agglutinative language, where words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together. It is dominantly head-final, with a mostly strict word order (SOV)[3] for some constituents, such as genitive-noun constructions. However, in certain contexts, there is flexibility in the word order, allowing verbs to be shifted to the initial part of a sentence or arguments to follow verbs.[3]
Nouns
Nouns, as well as demonstratives, determiners, quantifiers, and adjectives, in Cupeño are marked for case and number and agree with each other in complex nominal constructions.[3]
Verbs
Cupeño inflects its verbs for transitivity, tense, aspect, mood, person, number, and evidentiality.
Evidentiality in Cupeño is expressed with clitics, typically appearing near the beginning of the sentence:
=kuʼut 'reportative' (mu=kuʼut 'and it is said that...') =am 'mirative' =$he 'dubitative'
There are two inflected moods, realis =pe and irrealis =eʼp.
Tense-Aspect system
Future simple verbs remain unmarked. Past simple verbs include past-tense pronouns, while past imperfect verbs add the imperfect modifier as shown below.
| Present | Imperfect | Fut. Imp | Customary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | -qa | -qal | -nash | -ne |
| Plural | -we | -wen | -wene | -wene |
Pronouns
The pronominals in Cupeño manifest in various forms and structures. The following are only attached to past-tense verbs.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ne- | chem- |
| 2nd person | e- | em- |
| 3rd person | pe- | pem- |
Remove ads
Vowels
/ɛ/ and /o/ primarily occur in Spanish loanwords but also serve as allophones of /ə/ in native Cupeño words.
/i/ can be realized as [ɪ] in closed syllables and as [e] in some open syllables.
/u/ may reduce to a schwa in unstressed syllables.
/ə/ also appears as [ɨː] when long and stressed, [o] after labials and [q], and as [ɛ] before [w].
Consonants
- /tʃ/ is realized as [ʃ] in syllable codas.
- [x] and [χ] appear to be in free variation.
Remove ads
| English | Cupeño |
|---|---|
| one | suplawut |
| two | wiʼ |
| three | pa |
| four | wichu |
| five | numaqananax |
| man | naxanis |
| woman | muwikut |
| sun | tamyut |
| moon | munil |
| water | pal |
Remove ads
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
Remove ads