Northern Paiute language facts for kids

Northern Paiute is a language spoken by the Northern Paiute people in parts of the United States. It is also known as Paviotso. The people who speak it call their language Numu.

Northern Paiute is part of the Uto-Aztecan language family. This family includes many languages spoken by Native American groups. It is closely related to the Mono language. In 1994, about 500 people spoke Northern Paiute fluently. By 1999, reports showed around 1,631 speakers.

Sounds of Northern Paiute

Every language has its own special sounds. These sounds are called phonemes. Northern Paiute has a unique set of sounds, including different consonants and vowels. The way these sounds are made can change a lot, depending on the words they are in.

For example, some sounds are made by closing your lips, like the 'm' sound. Others are made with your tongue touching the roof of your mouth, like the 'n' sound. The vowels also have different positions for your tongue and mouth.

Saving the Language

Many people are working hard to keep the Northern Paiute language alive. This effort is called language revitalization. It is important because language helps keep a culture strong.

• In 2005, the Northwest Indian Language Institute at the University of Oregon started a program. They partnered with schools on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Their goal was to teach Northern Paiute to students.
• In 2013, Washoe County, Nevada became the first school district in Nevada to offer Northern Paiute classes. Students at Spanish Springs High School could take an elective course in the language. Classes have also been taught at Reed High School in Sparks, Nevada.
• An elder named Ralph Burns from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reservation helped create a spelling system. He worked with a linguist from the University of Nevada, Reno. This new alphabet uses 19 letters.
• They also made a language-learning book called “Numa Yadooape.” They created computer disks with language lessons too. These tools help new learners understand and speak Northern Paiute.

How Words Are Built

Northern Paiute is an agglutinative language. This means that words are built by adding many small parts, called suffixes, to a base word. It's like building with LEGOs! You can add many different blocks to change the meaning of a word.

These suffixes can change what a word means or how it is used in a sentence. They can show who is doing an action, when it happened, or how it happened.

Images for kids

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  This chart shows the vowel sounds of the Mono Lake dialect of Northern Paiute.

See also

In Spanish: Idioma paiute septentrional para niños