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Cora language

Cora is an indigenous language of Mexico of the Uto-Aztecan language family, spoken by approximately 30,000 people. It is spoken by the ethnic group that is widely known as the Cora, but who refer to themselves as Naáyarite. The Cora inhabit the northern sierra of the Mexican state Nayarit which is named after its indigenous inhabitants. A significant portion of Cora speakers have formed an expatriate community along the southwestern part of Colorado in the United States.[2] Cora is a Mesoamerican language and shows many of the traits defining the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area[citation needed]. Under the General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, it is recognized as a "national language", along with 62 other indigenous languages and Spanish which have the same "validity" in Mexico.[3]

Cora
naáyarite
Region
EthnicityCora
Native speakers
33,000 (2020 census)[1]
Official status
Regulated bySecretaría de Educación Pública
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
crn – El Nayar Cora
cok – Santa Teresa Cora
Glottologcora1260
ELPCora
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Geographic distribution

 
Main communities where Cora is spoken in the Nayar municipality.

Ethnologue distinguishes two main variants of Cora. One is called Cora del Nayar or Cora Meseño and is spoken mainly in and around the medium-altitude settlements of Mesa de Nayar and Conel Gonzales in the south of the el Nayar municipality of Nayarit, and has approximately 9,000 speakers (1993 census). There are significant differences between some of these varieties and some sources distinguish between Cora Mariteco (of Jesus Maria), Cora Presideño (of Presidio de los Reyes), Cora Corapeño (of San Juan Corapan) and Cora Franciscqueño (of San Francisco). But Ethnologue considers the mutual intelligibility between these and Meseño to be high enough to classify them as a single language.

The other variant recognized by the Ethnologue is called Cora de Santa Teresa or Cora Tereseño and is spoken by approximately 7,000 people (1993 census), for the most part in the high sierra in the north of el Nayar. Cora de Santa Teresa has such a low degree of mutual intelligibility with other Cora speech communities that Ethnologue considers it a separate variety. Due to recent migrations a small community of Coras exists in the United States in western Colorado.

Dialects

Cora speakers themselves recognize only five dialects: Cora de Jesús María, Cora de Mesa de Nayar, Cora de Sta. Teresa, Cora de Corápan and Cora de San Francisco. Highland speakers consider Cora of Preseidio de los Reyes to be identical to the dialect of the other lowland community Corápan, and Cora of Dolores to be identical to Cora of Sta Teresa.[4]

Cora is spoken in a number of dialects, some of which have difficult mutual intelligibility. The International Organization for Standardization distinguishes two languages, and the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas recognizes nine.

El Nayar Cora / Jesús María Cora (Cora Mariteco)
Dolores Cora
Rosarito Cora
San Blasito Cora
San Juan Corapan Cora (Cora Corapeño)
Santa Teresa Cora (Cora Tereseño)
La Mesa del Nayar Cora (Cora Meseño)
Presidio de los Reyes Cora (Cora Presideño)
San Francisco Cora (Cora Francisqueño)

The Pinome, or Totorame, were reported in the 16th century to speak Cora.[5]

Classification

The closest relatives of the Cora language is the Huichol language together with which it forms the Coracholan subgroup of the Uto-Aztecan languages.

  • Uto-Aztecan
    • Coracholan branch
      • Huichol language
      • Cora languages

Phonology

The phonology of Cora is typical of southern Uto-Aztecan languages, with five vowels and a relatively simple consonant inventory. However atypically of Uto-Aztecan languages, Cora has developed a simple tonal system or pitch accent with an harmonic accent taking high falling tone. The phonemic inventory given below is the analysis of Cora from Jesús María by Margarita Valdovinos: [6]

Consonants

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i ɨɨːɨ̰ u
Mid ɛɛːɛ̰
Open a

There are five contrastive vowels in Cora phonology. They are: [i ɛ a ɨ u]. However, [ɔ] which is produced in the midback area of the mouth is limited to diphthongs when it is followed by the [u] sound. Accents on vowels are to mark stress location. An example of this is (v́).

Monosyllables

There is a clear partition in both monophthongal and diphthongal combinations. Where words are divorced by rising and falling pitch. However, rising pitch is oftentimes modal and falling pitch shows variation.

Rime shapes in monosyllabic words. (V=monophthong and VV=diphthong)
Shape n = Tonal profile Phonation
V(h) 7 Level/rising Modal
V(h) 6 Falling Modal ~ nonmodal variation
VV (h) 3 Level/rising Modal
VV (h) 5 Falling Modal ~ nonmodal variation

The level and rising monosyllables used for the table above are presented in the table below.

Level/Rising
a. [sɛh]* sand
b. [hah]* water
c. [heh] yes
d. [ha:] swollen
e. [ɽuh] life
f. [tyeh] long
g. [taih] fire
h. [tʃwah] earth
i. [sɛih] other
j. [saɨh] one
k. [twah] oak
l. [naiŋ] all

Below are the falling monosyllables. Chart relates to the two charts above.

Falling
m. [mwa] you, sg
n. [tsɨ] dog
o. [tʃi] house
p. [mu] head
q. [βɛ] big
r. [mwi] much
s. [mwaŋ] you, pl
t. [weih] fish
u. [haɨh] ant
v. [sauh] quail
w. [sauh] egg

Disyllables

Disyllables add to the existing dimensions of stress. Initial and final stress are common in Cora phonology. These stresses, at times, serve as conversation cues. Cues include but are not limited to high-pitched stressed syllable followed by the devoicing of the final syllable which is left unstressed. Duration of the word and syllable also have a role in location of stress as it relates to disyllables.

Grammar

Cora is a verb-initial language; its grammar is agglutinative and polysynthetic, particularly inflecting verbs with many affixes and clitics. There are a number of adpositional clitics that can also be used as relational nouns. Different types of subject and object marking can form the grammatical relations in the Cora language through the interplay of syntactic features like word order, topicalization, and dislocation processes. This is important for understanding the causative constructions and the grammatical encoding of the causer and causee. Conversely, the importance of understanding the causativation processes in order to process what grammatical features allow for the identification of a verbal base as either stative, intransitive, or transitive, this is due to processes being arranged according to the semantic and formal membership of the base words. Within the Cora language, addressing the agentive verbal bases leads semantic variation to appear, this results in facing the constraints in order to construct the morphological causatives. [7]

Nominal morphology

Nouns are marked for possession and exhibit several different plural patterns.

Pluralization

Different classes of nouns mark the plural in different manners. The most common way is by means of suffixes - The suffixes used for pluralization are the following: -te, -mwa, -mwa'a, -tse, -tsi, -, -, -se, -si, -ri and -i. Other ways to form the plural is by reduplication of the final vowel of a noun stem or by shifting the accent from one syllable to the other. Another class of works form their plurals by suppletion.

Suffix pluralization

The suffix "mua and mua’a" is generally only used to refer to people. Other suffixes include: -tze, -tzi, -cʌ, -sʌ, -se, -si, -ri, and -i.

Examples of each:

Cora Example Plural form Translation (Spanish) Plural (Spanish) Translation (English) Plural (English)
bej bejtzé urraca urracas magpie magpies
tzʌ’ʌ tzʌ’ʌcʌ perro perros dog dogs
muarabií muarabiise cucaracha cucarachas cockroach cockroaches  
tuucʌ tuúcʌsi camarón camarones shrimp shrimps
tátziu’u tatziu’uri conejo conejos bunny bunnies
tajtúhuaan tajtúhuaani nuestro gobernador nuestros gobernadores our governor our governors
até atetzi piojo negro piojos negros black lice black lice (plural)
cán’a cána’asʌ borrego borregos sheep sheep (plural)[8]
Other forms of pluralization

Pluralization can also be indicated by having a vowel reduplicated:

Cora Example Plural form Translation (Spanish) Plural (Spanish) Translation (English) Plural (English)
cuaasú cuaasuú garza garzas heron herons[8]

Pluralization is also indicated through the use of accents.  

Cora Example Plural form Translation (Spanish) Plural (Spanish) Translation (English) Plural (English)
sá’iru sa’irú mosca moscas fly flies[8]

Pluralization is also indicated by changing words from singular to plural to change of a word into a completely different one.  

Cora Example Plural form Translation (Spanish) Plural (Spanish) Translation (English) Plural (English)
pá’arʌ’ʌ tʌ’vrií niña/niño niñas/niños boy/girl boys/girls
taáta’a téteca hombre hombres men mens
ʌíta’a uuca mujer mujeres woman women[8]

Possession

Possessed nouns are marked with a prefix expressing the person and number of their possessor. The forms of the prefix expressing first person singular is ne-, na-, or ni-, for second person singular it is a-, mwa'a-, a'a-. The third person singular is marked by the prefix ru-. A first person plural possessor is marked by the prefix ta-, second person plural by ha'amwa- and third person plural by wa'a-. Furthermore, there are two suffixes. One, -ra'an is used to mark an obviative or fourth person possessor. The other is -me'en used to mark a plural possessum of a singular possessor.

Possessive paradigm
Number/person of Possessor Singular Plural
1st person nechi'i "my house" tachi'i "our house"
2nd person achi'i "your house" há'amwachi'i "Your (pl.) house"
3rd person ruchi'i "his/her own house" wa'áchi'i "Their house"
4th person chí'ira'an "the house of the other"
pl. possessum +
3.p.sg. possessor
chí'imeen "his/her houses"

Verbal morphology

Verbs are inflected for person and number of subject and direct object and object prefixes for 3rd person inanimate objects also show the basic shape of the object. Verbs are also inflected for location and direction. Verbs within the Cora language are also used to distinguish between locations, people, direction, and time.

Subject prefixes

Prefijo (Spanish) Prefix (English)
ni ne na nu yo me
pi pe pa pu You (informal)
pu él/ella him/her
ti te ta tu Nosotros us
si se sa su Ustedes You (formal)
mi me ma mu ellos/ellas them/us (masculine/femanin)

Example:

Ja’atzuútac a ‘a nuja ‘umé   =   al rato me voy    = I'll go later

Cutzú                                   =   está dormido     = He's sleeping[8]

Object prefixes

Prefijo (Spanish) Prefix (English)
na naa na’a me I
mua muaa mua’a te I
ra raa ra’a lo/le the
ta taa ta’a nos we
jamua jamuaa ja’amua les them
hua huaa hua’a Los, les them

Example:

náatapúajibe = regalame              = Gift me

ja’achune timuá’acha’ʌʌre’e = Cuánto te debe?   = How much does he owe you?

Pecáraruure = No lo hagas!         = Don't do it![8]

Possessive Nouns

The prefix ‘me’ has three forms in the Cora language: ne, ni, and na. The variations of this prefix appear within different classes of nouns.

Cora Spanish Translation English Translation
nechi’i mi casa My house
natáata mi papá My dad
nasʌté mi dedo My finger[8]

The prefix "you" is indicated by ether: a, mua’a, and a’a.

Cora Spanish Translation English Translation
achi’i tu casa Your house
muá’ajuu tu hermanito Your little brother
ajuú or á’ajuu tu hermanito Your little brother[8]

Syntax

Typologically Cora is interesting because it is a VSO language but also has postpositions, a trait that is rare cross-linguistically but does occur in a few Uto-Aztecan languages (Papago, Tepehuán, and some dialects of Nahuatl). A VSO order is verb, subject, and object. This type of syntax form is the most common amongst Cora language. The VSO structure can be changed in order to show emphasis of certain words, phrases, and sounds.

Indirect object moved to the beginning for emphasis:

ex:

ne-‘ci

I-ACC

muni

bean

‘ya

give

ne-‘ci muni ‘ya

I-ACC bean give

"Give me the beans!"

Locatives and temporals moved to the beginning of sentence for emphasis:

ex:

‘régana

below

simí-le

go-PAST

‘régana simí-le

below go-PAST

"He went down below."

ex:

‘ma

now

simí-le

go-PAST

‘ma simí-le

now go-PAST

"He has already gone."

*Temporal má does not have a glottal, but it is added when it is being emphasized.

Emphasis seen in equative sentences:

ex:

alué

that

rió

man

huáni

PN

is

alué rió huáni hú

that man PN is

"That man is John."

Discontinuous construction can be done by moving an adjective or an adverb to sentence-final position and giving it emphatic intonation:

ex:

‘líge

then

alé

there

wikóči

PN

napaī-ka

gather-EMPH

piésta

fiesta

olá-le-ru-ga-ra

do-PAST-PASS-STAT-QUOT

wa’lú

big

‘líge alé wikóči napaī-ka piésta olá-le-ru-ga-ra wa’lú

then there PN gather-EMPH fiesta do-PAST-PASS-STAT-QUOT big

"I am told that then they gathered there at Huicochi and a fiesta was held, a big one."

Pronoun copies

Subject pronoun suffix can co-occur with an explicit subject:

ex:

just

ani-á

say-CONT

mučí-ru-ka

be:PL-we-EMPH

ramué-ka

we-EMPH

arégimi

LOC

pé ani-á mučí-ru-ka ramué-ka arégimi

just say-CONT be:PL-we-EMPH we-EMPH LOC

"That is what we were saying there."

Subject repeated by use of a pronoun:

ex:

Basačí-si

Coyote-also

‘líge

then

rowí-si

rabbit-also

‘líge

then

alué

they

napaí-ka

gather-EMPH

mučí-me

be:PL-PRTC

ka-rá-e

be-QUOT-DUB

ehperé-ga

live-CONT

hámi

wilds

Basačí-si ‘líge rowí-si ‘líge alué napaí-ka mučí-me ka-rá-e ehperé-ga hámi

Coyote-also then rabbit-also then they gather-EMPH be:PL-PRTC be-QUOT-DUB live-CONT wilds

"The coyote and the rabbit were living together in the wilds, they say."

Focus

Focus is a type of emphasis that shows "this very one" or "he himself is the one".

ex:

Alué

That

mukí

woman

tabilé

NEG

nakí

want

I

this

‘nalí-na

very:one-LOC

nakí

want

I

Alué mukí tabilé nakí né yé ‘nalí-na nakí né

That woman NEG want I this very:one-LOC want I

"I don't want that woman. I want this one."

ex:

Yé’

This

‘nalí

very:one

ní-le-ke-‘e

be-PAST-QUOT-EMPH

Yé’ ‘nalí ní-le-ke-‘e

This very:one be-PAST-QUOT-EMPH

"This was the one."

Examples of comparison between continuous construction and discontinuous:

ex:

I

bo’né

myself

si-méla

go-FUT

Né bo’né si-méla

I myself go-FUT

"I myself will go."

ex:

bo’né

myself

simí-ka=ne

go-EMPH=I

bo’né simí-ka=ne

myself go-EMPH=I

"I myself went."

Apposition

Two nouns or noun phrases which have similar grammatical functions can come next to each other with the second further explaining the first:

ex:

‘líge

Then

alué

that

rió

man

luísi morío

PN

ani-lí-me

say-PASS-PRTC

‘líge alué rió {luísi morío} ani-lí-me

Then that man PN say-PASS-PRTC

"That man named Luis Morillo…"

Apposition can also be seen by a possessive pronoun preceded by a demonstrative pronoun:

ex:

Alué

That

my

ba’čí-la-ka

older:brother-POSS-EMPH

Alué né ba’čí-la-ka

That my older:brother-POSS-EMPH

"he (that one) my older brother"

Apposition can also give emphasis by repeating a sentence in different ways.

ex:

né-ka

I-EMPH

a’lá

good

če’wá-ke-‘e

hit-QUOT-EMPH

gara-bé

good-DIM

nahká-la

ear-POSS

ili-gá

stand-CONT

alē

there

ćewā-ka

hit-EMPH

I

na’nalī

very:one

alē-ge

there-side

‘má-ro-či

run-pass:by-when

né-ka a’lá če’wá-ke-‘e gara-bé nahká-la ili-gá alē ćewā-ka né na’nalī alē-ge ‘má-ro-či

I-EMPH good hit-QUOT-EMPH good-DIM ear-POSS stand-CONT there hit-EMPH I very:one there-side run-pass:by-when

"I hit him about on the ear. I myself hit him when he ran by on the side of the ridge."

Postpositions

Postpositions are attached directly to a pronominal base of some kind, which is the most common pattern in Uto-Aztecan language.

ex:

ta-

with

ham^wan

us

ta- ham^wan

with us

"with us"

Suffixing a postposition directly to a noun:

ex:

m^waka-

hand-

ta-

in-

n

his

m^waka- ta- n

hand- in- his

"in his hand"

wa- is used as a third-person plural postpositional object:

ex:

wa-

on

hap^wa

them

wa- hap^wa

on them

Inverted pronoun-copy construction:

ex:

wa-hap^wa?u-huci-m^wa

them-on their-younger brother-PL

wa-hap^wa?u-huci-m^wa

{them-on their-younger brother-PL}

on their younger brothers

The third-person postpositional base that is used in Cora is ru-. Many of the postpositions in Cora start with he- (or it can be ha- when the vowel that follows harmonizes).

Indirect pronoun-copy construction:

  • -hece in/on/for < -he-ce < *-he-ciw < *pi-cii (him-P)
  • -hete under < -he-te < *-he-tia < *pi-tua (him-P)
  • -hemi with/about < -he-mi < *pi-mi (him=P)
  • -ham^wan with/and < *-he-man < *pi-man (him-P)
  • hap^wa on/above < *-he-pa < *pi-pa (him-P)

In Cora, the pre- or postpositions can be very similar in their form, but postpositions are typically bound forms and prepositions are free forms. These pairs can be illustrated through the following examples:

ex:

hap^wan

on

?i-čanaka

ART-earth

hap^wan ?i-čanaka

on ART-earth

"on the earth"

ex:

hecen

in

ru-muve

his-feather

hecen ru-muve

in his-feather

"by means of their feathershaft"

ex:

pu-ri

he-now

hecen

in

watara

go

sai

other

ru-čanaka

his-world

pu-ri hecen watara sai ru-čanaka

he-now in go other his-world

"Now he goes to his other world."

A member of the complex postpositional form is -na

ex:

?i-hatea-na-hece

ART-river-place of-in

?i-hatea-na-hece

{ART-river-place of-in}

"in the river"

Spacial concepts within the Cora language

The Cora language has a complex system of postpositions within its language. Words such as ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ have distinct markers that set them apart. To classify outside, the Cora people use the ending morpheme "u," while inside uses the morpheme "a".

(1)

ka-pú=a-tyé-nyee-ri-’i

not-it=outside-in middle-visible-APL-STAT

m-a-a

MED-outside-foot of slope

haa-ta’a

water-in

ka-pú=a-tyé-nyee-ri-’i m-a-a haa-ta’a

{not-it=outside-in middle-visible-APL-STAT} {MED-outside-foot of slope} water-in

'The river is muddy.'[9]

(2)

u-ká-taa-sin

inside-down-burn-DUR

ART

kantiira

candle

u-ká-taa-sin mɨ kantiira

inside-down-burn-DUR ART candle

‘The candle is burning.’

The Inside and outside prepositions may not always be clear, in some cases they may be described as relative rather than absolute. The word deep can be classified using either a ‘u’ or ‘a’ morpheme.[9]

Directional indicators

Used to indicate where an action is taking place

Cora Spanish Translation Translation (English)
ja’u hacia allá Over there
je’i hacia acá Towards here
ja’u and be’e ida y vuelta Round trip
ta or taa arriba On top
ca or caa abajo Below
ata alrededor Around

[9]

Media

Cora-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEJMN-AM, broadcasting from Jesús María, Nayarit.

References

  1. ^ Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020 INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.
  2. ^ Hoffmann, Dorothea (2013). "From Space to Time: A Cognitive Analysis of the Cora Locative System and Its Temporal Extensions by Eugene H. Casad". Anthropological Linguistics. 55 (3): 301–304. doi:10.1353/anl.2013.0018. ISSN 1944-6527. S2CID 144327156.
  3. ^ . Archived from the original on 2007-02-08.
  4. ^ Wá'mwatye náayeri nyúuka: curso de cora como segunda lengua. Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit, 2014
  5. ^ Miller, W. R. (1983). A note on extinct languages of Northwest Mexico of supposed Uto-Aztecan affiliation. International Journal of American Linguistics, 49(3), 328-334.
  6. ^ Kim, Y., & Valdovinos, M. (2014). The interaction of laryngealized vowels, stress, and falling pitch in Mariteco Cora. In Proceedings of the Workshop on the Sound Systems of Mexico and Central America New Haven.
  7. ^ Vázquez Soto, Verónica (2002), "Some constraints on Cora causative constructions", in Shibatani, Masayoshi (ed.), The Grammar of Causation and Interpersonal Manipulation, Typological Studies in Language, vol. 48, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 197–244, doi:10.1075/tsl.48.10vaz, ISBN 978-90-272-2952-6, retrieved 2020-12-12
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h McMahon, Ambrosio (1959). Vocabulario Cora. El Instituto Linguistico de Verano. pp. 5–15.
  9. ^ a b c Casad, Eugene H.; Langacker, Ronald W. (1985). "'Inside' and 'Outside' in Cora Grammar". International Journal of American Linguistics. 51 (3): 247–281. doi:10.1086/465872. ISSN 0020-7071. JSTOR 1265431. S2CID 143800184.
  • Preuss, Konrad Theodor: Grammatik der Cora-SpracheGrammatik der Cora-Sprache, Columbia, New York 1932
  • Miller, Wick. (1983). Uto-Aztecan languages. In W. C. Sturtevant (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 10, pp. 113–124). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.
  • Vázquez Soto, V. (2002). Some constraints on Cora causative constructions. TYPOLOGICAL STUDIES IN LANGUAGE, 48, 197–244.
  • Vázquez Soto, V. (2011). The "uphill" and "downhill" system in Meseño Cora. Language Sciences, 33(6), 981–1005.
  • Vázquez Soto, V. (2000). Morphology and Syllable Weight in Cora: The Case of the Absolutive Suffix-ti. Uto-Aztecan: Structural, Temporal, and Geographic Perspectives: Papers in Memory of Wick R. Miller by the Friends of Uto-Aztecan, 105.
  • Vázquez Soto, V., Flores, J., & de Jesús López, I. (2009). " El ray". Una probadita de la narrativa y la gramática del cora meseño. Tlalocan, 16.
  • Vázquez Soto, V. (1996). El participante no sujeto en Cora: orden de palabras, codificación y marcación de número. Memorias del III Encuentro de Lingüística del Noroeste, 533–54.
  • Vázquez Soto, V. (2002). Cláusulas relativas en cora meseño. Del cora al maya yucateco. Estudios lingüísticos sobre algunas lenguas indígenas mexicanas, 269–348.
  • McMahon, Ambrosio & Maria Aiton de McMahon. (1959) Vocabulario Cora. Serie de Vocabularios Indigenas Mariano Silva y Aceves. SIL.
  • McMahon, Ambrose. (1967). Phonemes and phonemic units of Cora (Mexico). International Journal of American Linguistics 33. 128-134.
  • Casad, Eugene H. (1984). Cora. In Ronald W. Langacker (ed.), Studies in Uto-Aztecan grammar 4: Southern Uto-Aztecan grammatical sketches, 153-459. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
  • Casad, Eugene H.. 2001. "Cora: a no longer unknown Southern Uto-Aztecan language." In José Luis Moctezuma Zamarrón and Jane H. Hill (eds), Avances y balances de lenguas yutoaztecas; homenaje a Wick R. Miller p. 109-122. Mexico, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia.
  • Casad, E. H. (2012). From Space to Time: A cognitive analysis of the Cora locative system and its temporal extensions (Vol. 39). John Benjamins Publishing.
  • Langacker, Ronald W. "The Syntax of Postpositions in Uto-Aztecan." International Journal of American Linguistics, vol. 43, no. 1, 1977, pp. 11–26.

External links

  • ELAR archive of Language Documentation and Verbal Art among the Náayeri of Jesús María, Nayarit

cora, language, confused, with, waikuri, language, cora, indigenous, language, mexico, aztecan, language, family, spoken, approximately, people, spoken, ethnic, group, that, widely, known, cora, refer, themselves, naáyarite, cora, inhabit, northern, sierra, me. Not to be confused with Waikuri language Cora is an indigenous language of Mexico of the Uto Aztecan language family spoken by approximately 30 000 people It is spoken by the ethnic group that is widely known as the Cora but who refer to themselves as Naayarite The Cora inhabit the northern sierra of the Mexican state Nayarit which is named after its indigenous inhabitants A significant portion of Cora speakers have formed an expatriate community along the southwestern part of Colorado in the United States 2 Cora is a Mesoamerican language and shows many of the traits defining the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area citation needed Under the General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples it is recognized as a national language along with 62 other indigenous languages and Spanish which have the same validity in Mexico 3 CoranaayariteRegionMexico Nayarit Jalisco Durango USA Colorado Arizona Nevada UtahEthnicityCoraNative speakers33 000 2020 census 1 Language familyUto Aztecan CoracholCoraOfficial statusRegulated bySecretaria de Educacion PublicaLanguage codesISO 639 3Either a href https iso639 3 sil org code crn class extiw title iso639 3 crn crn a El Nayar Cora a href https iso639 3 sil org code cok class extiw title iso639 3 cok cok a Santa Teresa CoraGlottologcora1260ELPCoraThis article contains IPA phonetic symbols Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols instead of Unicode characters For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA Contents 1 Geographic distribution 2 Dialects 3 Classification 4 Phonology 4 1 Consonants 4 2 Vowels 4 3 Monosyllables 4 4 Disyllables 5 Grammar 5 1 Nominal morphology 5 1 1 Pluralization 5 1 1 1 Suffix pluralization 5 1 1 2 Other forms of pluralization 5 1 2 Possession 5 2 Verbal morphology 5 2 1 Subject prefixes 5 2 2 Object prefixes 5 2 3 Possessive Nouns 5 3 Syntax 5 3 1 Pronoun copies 5 3 2 Focus 5 3 3 Apposition 5 3 4 Postpositions 6 Spacial concepts within the Cora language 6 1 Directional indicators 7 Media 8 References 9 External linksGeographic distribution Edit Main communities where Cora is spoken in the Nayar municipality Ethnologue distinguishes two main variants of Cora One is called Cora del Nayar or Cora Meseno and is spoken mainly in and around the medium altitude settlements of Mesa de Nayar and Conel Gonzales in the south of the el Nayar municipality of Nayarit and has approximately 9 000 speakers 1993 census There are significant differences between some of these varieties and some sources distinguish between Cora Mariteco of Jesus Maria Cora Presideno of Presidio de los Reyes Cora Corapeno of San Juan Corapan and Cora Franciscqueno of San Francisco But Ethnologue considers the mutual intelligibility between these and Meseno to be high enough to classify them as a single language The other variant recognized by the Ethnologue is called Cora de Santa Teresa or Cora Tereseno and is spoken by approximately 7 000 people 1993 census for the most part in the high sierra in the north of el Nayar Cora de Santa Teresa has such a low degree of mutual intelligibility with other Cora speech communities that Ethnologue considers it a separate variety Due to recent migrations a small community of Coras exists in the United States in western Colorado Dialects EditCora speakers themselves recognize only five dialects Cora de Jesus Maria Cora de Mesa de Nayar Cora de Sta Teresa Cora de Corapan and Cora de San Francisco Highland speakers consider Cora of Preseidio de los Reyes to be identical to the dialect of the other lowland community Corapan and Cora of Dolores to be identical to Cora of Sta Teresa 4 Cora is spoken in a number of dialects some of which have difficult mutual intelligibility The International Organization for Standardization distinguishes two languages and the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indigenas recognizes nine El Nayar Cora Jesus Maria Cora Cora Mariteco Dolores Cora Rosarito Cora San Blasito Cora San Juan Corapan Cora Cora Corapeno Santa Teresa Cora Cora Tereseno La Mesa del Nayar Cora Cora Meseno Presidio de los Reyes Cora Cora Presideno San Francisco Cora Cora Francisqueno The Pinome or Totorame were reported in the 16th century to speak Cora 5 Classification EditThe closest relatives of the Cora language is the Huichol language together with which it forms the Coracholan subgroup of the Uto Aztecan languages Uto Aztecan Coracholan branch Huichol language Cora languagesPhonology EditThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed April 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message The phonology of Cora is typical of southern Uto Aztecan languages with five vowels and a relatively simple consonant inventory However atypically of Uto Aztecan languages Cora has developed a simple tonal system or pitch accent with an harmonic accent taking high falling tone The phonemic inventory given below is the analysis of Cora from Jesus Maria by Margarita Valdovinos 6 Consonants Edit Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Retroflex Velar Glottalplain pal Nasal plain m n nʲlab mʷ nʷPlosive plain p t tʲ k ʔlab pʷ tʷ kʷFricative b s ʂ hAffricate ts tʃSemivowel j wLiquid plain l lʲ ɽlab ɽʷVowels Edit Front Central BackClose i iː ḭ ɨ ɨː ɨ u uː ṵMid ɛ ɛː ɛ Open a aː a There are five contrastive vowels in Cora phonology They are i ɛ a ɨ u However ɔ which is produced in the midback area of the mouth is limited to diphthongs when it is followed by the u sound Accents on vowels are to mark stress location An example of this is v Monosyllables Edit There is a clear partition in both monophthongal and diphthongal combinations Where words are divorced by rising and falling pitch However rising pitch is oftentimes modal and falling pitch shows variation Rime shapes in monosyllabic words V monophthong and VV diphthong Shape n Tonal profile PhonationV h 7 Level rising ModalV h 6 Falling Modal nonmodal variationVV h 3 Level rising ModalVV h 5 Falling Modal nonmodal variationThe level and rising monosyllables used for the table above are presented in the table below Level Rising a sɛh sandb hah waterc heh yesd ha swollene ɽuh lifef tyeh longg taih fireh tʃwah earthi sɛih otherj saɨh onek twah oakl naiŋ allBelow are the falling monosyllables Chart relates to the two charts above Falling m mwa you sgn tsɨ dogo tʃi housep mu headq bɛ bigr mwi muchs mwaŋ you plt weih fishu haɨh antv sauh quailw sauh eggDisyllables Edit Disyllables add to the existing dimensions of stress Initial and final stress are common in Cora phonology These stresses at times serve as conversation cues Cues include but are not limited to high pitched stressed syllable followed by the devoicing of the final syllable which is left unstressed Duration of the word and syllable also have a role in location of stress as it relates to disyllables Grammar EditCora is a verb initial language its grammar is agglutinative and polysynthetic particularly inflecting verbs with many affixes and clitics There are a number of adpositional clitics that can also be used as relational nouns Different types of subject and object marking can form the grammatical relations in the Cora language through the interplay of syntactic features like word order topicalization and dislocation processes This is important for understanding the causative constructions and the grammatical encoding of the causer and causee Conversely the importance of understanding the causativation processes in order to process what grammatical features allow for the identification of a verbal base as either stative intransitive or transitive this is due to processes being arranged according to the semantic and formal membership of the base words Within the Cora language addressing the agentive verbal bases leads semantic variation to appear this results in facing the constraints in order to construct the morphological causatives 7 Nominal morphology Edit Nouns are marked for possession and exhibit several different plural patterns Pluralization Edit Different classes of nouns mark the plural in different manners The most common way is by means of suffixes The suffixes used for pluralization are the following te mwa mwa a tse tsi kʉ sʉ se si ri and i Other ways to form the plural is by reduplication of the final vowel of a noun stem or by shifting the accent from one syllable to the other Another class of works form their plurals by suppletion Suffix pluralization Edit The suffix mua and mua a is generally only used to refer to people Other suffixes include tze tzi cʌ sʌ se si ri and i Examples of each Cora Example Plural form Translation Spanish Plural Spanish Translation English Plural English bej bejtze urraca urracas magpie magpiestzʌ ʌ tzʌ ʌcʌ perro perros dog dogsmuarabii muarabiise cucaracha cucarachas cockroach cockroaches tuucʌ tuucʌsi camaron camarones shrimp shrimpstatziu u tatziu uri conejo conejos bunny bunniestajtuhuaan tajtuhuaani nuestro gobernador nuestros gobernadores our governor our governorsate atetzi piojo negro piojos negros black lice black lice plural can a cana asʌ borrego borregos sheep sheep plural 8 Other forms of pluralization Edit Pluralization can also be indicated by having a vowel reduplicated Cora Example Plural form Translation Spanish Plural Spanish Translation English Plural English cuaasu cuaasuu garza garzas heron herons 8 Pluralization is also indicated through the use of accents Cora Example Plural form Translation Spanish Plural Spanish Translation English Plural English sa iru sa iru mosca moscas fly flies 8 Pluralization is also indicated by changing words from singular to plural to change of a word into a completely different one Cora Example Plural form Translation Spanish Plural Spanish Translation English Plural English pa arʌ ʌ tʌ vrii nina nino ninas ninos boy girl boys girlstaata a teteca hombre hombres men mensʌita a uuca mujer mujeres woman women 8 Possession Edit Possessed nouns are marked with a prefix expressing the person and number of their possessor The forms of the prefix expressing first person singular is ne na or ni for second person singular it is a mwa a a a The third person singular is marked by the prefix ru A first person plural possessor is marked by the prefix ta second person plural by ha amwa and third person plural by wa a Furthermore there are two suffixes One ra an is used to mark an obviative or fourth person possessor The other is me en used to mark a plural possessum of a singular possessor Possessive paradigm Number person of Possessor Singular Plural1st person nechi i my house tachi i our house 2nd person achi i your house ha amwachi i Your pl house 3rd person ruchi i his her own house wa achi i Their house 4th person chi ira an the house of the other pl possessum 3 p sg possessor chi imeen his her houses Verbal morphology Edit Verbs are inflected for person and number of subject and direct object and object prefixes for 3rd person inanimate objects also show the basic shape of the object Verbs are also inflected for location and direction Verbs within the Cora language are also used to distinguish between locations people direction and time Subject prefixes Edit Prefijo Spanish Prefix English ni ne na nu yo mepi pe pa pu tu You informal pu el ella him herti te ta tu Nosotros ussi se sa su Ustedes You formal mi me ma mu ellos ellas them us masculine femanin Example Ja atzuutac a a nuja ume al rato me voy I ll go laterCutzu esta dormido He s sleeping 8 Object prefixes Edit Prefijo Spanish Prefix English na naa na a me Imua muaa mua a te Ira raa ra a lo le theta taa ta a nos wejamua jamuaa ja amua les themhua huaa hua a Los les themExample naatapuajibe regalame Gift meja achune timua acha ʌʌre e Cuanto te debe How much does he owe you Pecararuure No lo hagas Don t do it 8 Possessive Nouns Edit The prefix me has three forms in the Cora language ne ni and na The variations of this prefix appear within different classes of nouns Cora Spanish Translation English Translationnechi i mi casa My housenataata mi papa My dadnasʌte mi dedo My finger 8 The prefix you is indicated by ether a mua a and a a Cora Spanish Translation English Translationachi i tu casa Your housemua ajuu tu hermanito Your little brotherajuu or a ajuu tu hermanito Your little brother 8 Syntax Edit Typologically Cora is interesting because it is a VSO language but also has postpositions a trait that is rare cross linguistically but does occur in a few Uto Aztecan languages Papago Tepehuan and some dialects of Nahuatl A VSO order is verb subject and object This type of syntax form is the most common amongst Cora language The VSO structure can be changed in order to show emphasis of certain words phrases and sounds Indirect object moved to the beginning for emphasis ex ne ciI ACCmunibean yagivene ci muni yaI ACC bean give Give me the beans Locatives and temporals moved to the beginning of sentence for emphasis ex reganabelowsimi lego PAST regana simi lebelow go PAST He went down below ex manowsimi lego PAST ma simi lenow go PAST He has already gone Temporal ma does not have a glottal but it is added when it is being emphasized Emphasis seen in equative sentences ex aluethatriomanhuaniPNhuisalue rio huani huthat man PN is That man is John Discontinuous construction can be done by moving an adjective or an adverb to sentence final position and giving it emphatic intonation ex ligethenaletherewikociPNnapai kagather EMPHpiestafiestaola le ru ga rado PAST PASS STAT QUOTwa lubig lige ale wikoci napai ka piesta ola le ru ga ra wa luthen there PN gather EMPH fiesta do PAST PASS STAT QUOT big I am told that then they gathered there at Huicochi and a fiesta was held a big one Pronoun copies Edit Subject pronoun suffix can co occur with an explicit subject ex pejustani asay CONTmuci ru kabe PL we EMPHramue kawe EMPHaregimiLOCpe ani a muci ru ka ramue ka aregimijust say CONT be PL we EMPH we EMPH LOC That is what we were saying there Subject repeated by use of a pronoun ex Basaci siCoyote also ligethenrowi sirabbit also ligethenaluetheynapai kagather EMPHmuci mebe PL PRTCka ra ebe QUOT DUBehpere galive CONThamiwildsBasaci si lige rowi si lige alue napai ka muci me ka ra e ehpere ga hamiCoyote also then rabbit also then they gather EMPH be PL PRTC be QUOT DUB live CONT wilds The coyote and the rabbit were living together in the wilds they say Focus Edit Focus is a type of emphasis that shows this very one or he himself is the one ex AlueThatmukiwomantabileNEGnakiwantneIyethis nali navery one LOCnakiwantneIAlue muki tabile naki ne ye nali na naki neThat woman NEG want I this very one LOC want I I don t want that woman I want this one ex Ye This nalivery oneni le ke ebe PAST QUOT EMPHYe nali ni le ke eThis very one be PAST QUOT EMPH This was the one Examples of comparison between continuous construction and discontinuous ex NeIbo nemyselfsi melago FUTNe bo ne si melaI myself go FUT I myself will go ex bo nemyselfsimi ka nego EMPH Ibo ne simi ka nemyself go EMPH I I myself went Apposition Edit Two nouns or noun phrases which have similar grammatical functions can come next to each other with the second further explaining the first ex ligeThenaluethatriomanluisi morioPNani li mesay PASS PRTC lige alue rio luisi morio ani li meThen that man PN say PASS PRTC That man named Luis Morillo Apposition can also be seen by a possessive pronoun preceded by a demonstrative pronoun ex AlueThatnemyba ci la kaolder brother POSS EMPHAlue ne ba ci la kaThat my older brother POSS EMPH he that one my older brother Apposition can also give emphasis by repeating a sentence in different ways ex ne kaI EMPHa lagoodce wa ke ehit QUOT EMPHgara begood DIMnahka laear POSSili gastand CONTaletherecewa kahit EMPHneIna nalivery oneale gethere side ma ro cirun pass by whenne ka a la ce wa ke e gara be nahka la ili ga ale cewa ka ne na nali ale ge ma ro ciI EMPH good hit QUOT EMPH good DIM ear POSS stand CONT there hit EMPH I very one there side run pass by when I hit him about on the ear I myself hit him when he ran by on the side of the ridge Postpositions Edit Postpositions are attached directly to a pronominal base of some kind which is the most common pattern in Uto Aztecan language ex ta withham wanusta ham wanwith us with us Suffixing a postposition directly to a noun ex m waka hand ta in nhism waka ta nhand in his in his hand wa is used as a third person plural postpositional object ex wa onhap wathemwa hap waon them Inverted pronoun copy construction ex wa hap wa u huci m wathem on their younger brother PLwa hap wa u huci m wa them on their younger brother PL on their younger brothers The third person postpositional base that is used in Cora is ru Many of the postpositions in Cora start with he or it can be ha when the vowel that follows harmonizes Indirect pronoun copy construction hece in on for lt he ce lt he ciw lt pi cii him P hete under lt he te lt he tia lt pi tua him P hemi with about lt he mi lt pi mi him P ham wan with and lt he man lt pi man him P hap wa on above lt he pa lt pi pa him P In Cora the pre or postpositions can be very similar in their form but postpositions are typically bound forms and prepositions are free forms These pairs can be illustrated through the following examples ex hap wanon i canakaART earthhap wan i canakaon ART earth on the earth ex heceninru muvehis featherhecen ru muvein his feather by means of their feathershaft ex pu rihe nowheceninwataragosaiotherru canakahis worldpu ri hecen watara sai ru canakahe now in go other his world Now he goes to his other world A member of the complex postpositional form is na ex i hatea na heceART river place of in i hatea na hece ART river place of in in the river Spacial concepts within the Cora language EditThe Cora language has a complex system of postpositions within its language Words such as inside and outside have distinct markers that set them apart To classify outside the Cora people use the ending morpheme u while inside uses the morpheme a 1 ka pu a tye nyee ri inot it outside in middle visible APL STATm a aMED outside foot of slopehaa ta awater inka pu a tye nyee ri i m a a haa ta a not it outside in middle visible APL STAT MED outside foot of slope water in The river is muddy 9 2 u ka taa sininside down burn DURmɨARTkantiiracandleu ka taa sin mɨ kantiirainside down burn DUR ART candle The candle is burning The Inside and outside prepositions may not always be clear in some cases they may be described as relative rather than absolute The word deep can be classified using either a u or a morpheme 9 Directional indicators Edit Used to indicate where an action is taking place Cora Spanish Translation Translation English ja u hacia alla Over thereje i hacia aca Towards hereja u and be e ida y vuelta Round tripta or taa arriba On topca or caa abajo Belowata alrededor Around 9 Media EditCora language programming is carried by the CDI s radio station XEJMN AM broadcasting from Jesus Maria Nayarit References Edit Lenguas indigenas y hablantes de 3 anos y mas 2020 INEGI Censo de Poblacion y Vivienda 2020 Hoffmann Dorothea 2013 From Space to Time A Cognitive Analysis of the Cora Locative System and Its Temporal Extensions by Eugene H Casad Anthropological Linguistics 55 3 301 304 doi 10 1353 anl 2013 0018 ISSN 1944 6527 S2CID 144327156 LEY GENERAL DE DERECHOS LINGUISTICOS DE LOS PUEBLOS INDIGENAS Archived from the original on 2007 02 08 Wa mwatye naayeri nyuuka curso de cora como segunda lengua Universidad Autonoma de Nayarit 2014 Miller W R 1983 A note on extinct languages of Northwest Mexico of supposed Uto Aztecan affiliation International Journal of American Linguistics 49 3 328 334 Kim Y amp Valdovinos M 2014 The interaction of laryngealized vowels stress and falling pitch in Mariteco Cora In Proceedings of the Workshop on the Sound Systems of Mexico and Central America New Haven Vazquez Soto Veronica 2002 Some constraints on Cora causative constructions in Shibatani Masayoshi ed The Grammar of Causation and Interpersonal Manipulation Typological Studies in Language vol 48 Amsterdam John Benjamins Publishing Company pp 197 244 doi 10 1075 tsl 48 10vaz ISBN 978 90 272 2952 6 retrieved 2020 12 12 a b c d e f g h McMahon Ambrosio 1959 Vocabulario Cora El Instituto Linguistico de Verano pp 5 15 a b c Casad Eugene H Langacker Ronald W 1985 Inside and Outside in Cora Grammar International Journal of American Linguistics 51 3 247 281 doi 10 1086 465872 ISSN 0020 7071 JSTOR 1265431 S2CID 143800184 Preuss Konrad Theodor Grammatik der Cora SpracheGrammatik der Cora Sprache Columbia New York 1932 Miller Wick 1983 Uto Aztecan languages In W C Sturtevant Ed Handbook of North American Indians Vol 10 pp 113 124 Washington D C Smithsonian Institution Vazquez Soto V 2002 Some constraints on Cora causative constructions TYPOLOGICAL STUDIES IN LANGUAGE 48 197 244 Vazquez Soto V 2011 The uphill and downhill system in Meseno Cora Language Sciences 33 6 981 1005 Vazquez Soto V 2000 Morphology and Syllable Weight in Cora The Case of the Absolutive Suffix ti Uto Aztecan Structural Temporal and Geographic Perspectives Papers in Memory of Wick R Miller by the Friends of Uto Aztecan 105 Vazquez Soto V Flores J amp de Jesus Lopez I 2009 El ray Una probadita de la narrativa y la gramatica del cora meseno Tlalocan 16 Vazquez Soto V 1996 El participante no sujeto en Cora orden de palabras codificacion y marcacion de numero Memorias del III Encuentro de Linguistica del Noroeste 533 54 Vazquez Soto V 2002 Clausulas relativas en cora meseno Del cora al maya yucateco Estudios linguisticos sobre algunas lenguas indigenas mexicanas 269 348 McMahon Ambrosio amp Maria Aiton de McMahon 1959 Vocabulario Cora Serie de Vocabularios Indigenas Mariano Silva y Aceves SIL McMahon Ambrose 1967 Phonemes and phonemic units of Cora Mexico International Journal of American Linguistics 33 128 134 Casad Eugene H 1984 Cora In Ronald W Langacker ed Studies in Uto Aztecan grammar 4 Southern Uto Aztecan grammatical sketches 153 459 Dallas Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Casad Eugene H 2001 Cora a no longer unknown Southern Uto Aztecan language In Jose Luis Moctezuma Zamarron and Jane H Hill eds Avances y balances de lenguas yutoaztecas homenaje a Wick R Miller p 109 122 Mexico D F Instituto Nacional de Antropologia y Historia Casad E H 2012 From Space to Time A cognitive analysis of the Cora locative system and its temporal extensions Vol 39 John Benjamins Publishing Langacker Ronald W The Syntax of Postpositions in Uto Aztecan International Journal of American Linguistics vol 43 no 1 1977 pp 11 26 External links EditELAR archive of Language Documentation and Verbal Art among the Naayeri of Jesus Maria Nayarit Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cora language amp oldid 1129718837, wikipedia, wiki, 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