Uto-Aztecan languages

Family of more than 30 American Indian languages spoken in pre-Columbian times from the northern Great Basin to Central America.

Geographically, Uto-Aztecan can be divided into a northern and a southern branch. The northern branch, spoken from Oregon and Idaho to southern California and Arizona, includes the languages of the Northern and Southern Paiutes, Utes, Northern and Eastern Shoshone, Comanche, and Hopi. The southern branch includes the languages of the O'odham (Pima and Papago) in Arizona, and of a number of Mexican Indian peoples, including the Tarahumara of Chihuahua, the Yaqui of northwestern Mexico and Arizona, and the Cora and Huichol of Nayarit and Jalisco; its southernmost extension includes Nahuatl.

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      family of American Indian languages spoken in Mexico, northern Guatemala, and the western United States. The Uto-Aztecan languages are recognized by modern linguists as falling into eight groups, four of which make up the Shoshonean division and three the Sonoran division. The formerly recognized Nahuan division is now generally included in Sonoran.

      The languages of the Shoshonean division (all of which are spoken in the United States) are (1) Numic (Numic languages) (formerly called Plateau Shoshonean), which includes Mono and Northern Paiute, Panamint and Shoshone, and Kawaiisu and Ute; (2) Tubatulabal; (3) the Takic (or southern Californian) branch, including Serrano, Luiseño-Juaneño, Gabrieleño-Fernandeño, Cahuilla, and Cupeño; and (4) Hopi. (Hopi language)

      The languages of the Sonoran division comprise (1) the Piman group, or Pimic, including Papago, Pima Bajo (or Lower Pima), Tepecano, and northern and southern Tepehuán; (2) the Yaquian, or Taracahitian, branch, also called Taracahitic, including Tarahumara, Guarijío, Yaqui-Mayo, and the extinct languages Tubar, Eudeve, and Ópata; and (3) the Coran group, also called Corachol, including Cora and Huichol.

      The former Nahuan division includes the three major dialects Nahuatl, Pipil, and the extinct Pochutec.

      The Uto-Aztecan languages are more distantly related to the Kiowa-Tanoan language family of the southwestern United States, and the combined group is known as Azteco-Tanoan (Azteco-Tanoan languages).

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