KUMEYAAY LANGUAGE

KUMEYAAY LANGUAGE CLASS AT SYCUAN EDUCATION

HOKAN GROUP OF THE YUMANS

"Hokan" references a hypothetical group of about a dozen languages spoken mostly by Yuman American Indian tribes in Arizona, California, and Baja California, Mexico.

The Hokan group includes Cocopah, Kumeyaay, Maricopa, Quechan, Mohave, Pai Pai, Yavapai, Havasupai, and Hualapai. JUMP DOWN PAGE for a complete index of Hokan languages.

The Kumeyaay language spoken by today's Kumeyaay speakers include a northern dialect (Iipay) and a southern dialect (Tiipay).

www.newworldencyclopedia.org has a write up on Yumans.

WIKIPEDIA has a detailed write-up on the Hokan languages though it does NOT contain any reference to Kumeyaay, Kumiai, Digueño, Tipai, Ipai, Kamia (the Kumeyaay Tribe).

That's confusing -- are the Kumeyaay included in the Hokan group?

Click for more Yuman event photos...

Learn how to pronounce Kumeyaay:

Ku-me-yaay -- Coo-me-eye

Coo (like a dove coos)
Me (like you and me)
Eye (like an eyeball).

HOWKA SAM TEACHES "HOW TO PRONOUNCE KUMEYAAY" in this 1-minute audio video:

KUMEYAAY LANGUAGE WEB SITE Kumeyaay Linguistics LEARN how to speak Kumeyaay language online from a fluent Native speaker. - Howka Sam (Viejas)

Kumeyaay Language STORIES STORYTELLING
Featuring the Kumeyaay stories from the Brown-Curo family of Barona and Viejas.

Kumeyaay Language Written Story TRANSLATED into English "The Rabblt Versus the Rattlesnake" first parragraph:

HOW WRITTEN KUMEYAAY LOOKS LIKE:
Nya'kurlly ke'nap-pu lly'aaw mat kuwaaylly nyewaayk tewa. Chepat cha'saw shemay waam. Nyawaam nyatuuyawm a'wit weyiw nyewa-pelly wexap. "Peyally ta'wa lly'aaw-pu shuuyaw ta'wa akway nyapaakm nyaat saawx."

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Once upon a time, there was a rabbit who lived in a burrow in the ground. One day he went off looking for food. While he was away, a rattlesnake came along and went into his house. "I'll wait here for the rabbit, and when he gets back I'll eat him," the rattlesnake said to himself.

Kumeyaay MOVIES On-line Videos, DVDs, Movie Theater
Kumeyaay singing, Kumeyaay Dancing, Kumeyaay Native Speakers, California Indian Language Culture audio recordings, Pai-Pai language Spanish translations into English language movie film videos online.

Yuman Language Event on Video Translated: Paipai, Cucapá Spanish, Cahuilla, English. Cultural Language Event, ca. 1994, Santa Barbara Natural History Museum. Features Indigenous speakers, storytellers and dancers of Norte de Baja California, Mexico.

KUMEYAAY LANGUAGE AUDIO RECORDINGS of Native Kumeyaay speakers with English translations:

Kumeyaay Elder Jane Dumas, Jamul band, addresses a crowd in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, 2005. Jane Dumas opens her remarks in Kumeyaay, Spanish and translates her Kumeyaay speech into English language.

Kumeyaay Native speaker Stan Rodriguez, a Kumeyaay bird singer from the Santa Ysabel reservation, speaks in Kumeyaay and translates it into English, plays a can rattle and sings Ipai and Diegueño Yuman songs.

KUMEYAAY CULTURE

KUMEYAAY GUIDE to Kumeyaay History & TIMELINE, Kumeyaay Culture, Kumeyaay Reservations.

CALIFORNIA INDIAN BIRD SINGING EDUCATION

CULTURAL RENAISSANCE: Yuman language singers (above), Sycuan Indian Reservation, Kumeyaay Community College (formerly DQ University at Sycuan), are pictured here in this photograph around a burning campfire learning and singing some of the timeless traditional "bird songs" of their indigenous ancestors.

HOKAN LANGUAGE FAMILY GROUP:

The HOKAN LANGUAGES www.native-languages.org are spoken in the southwestern and west coast of the United States of America, and in northwestern Mexico (Baja California and Sonora). VISIT NATIVE LANGUAGES WEBSITE for deeper academic information on these areas.

The Hokan language family includes:

Delta-Californian Languages:

Cocopa
Kumiai (Diegueno)

River Yuman Languages:

Maricopa
Mohave
Quechan (Yuma)

Upland Yuman Languages:

Havasupai-Walapai-Yavapai
Paipai (Akwa'ala)

Cochimi

Kiliwa

Esselen

Karok-Shasta Languages:

Karok
Palaihninan Languages: