Behind the Mexican Mountains: Recent Developments and New Directions in Research on Uto‐Aztecan Languages

Abstract

Featuring considerable diversity and one of the oldest and richest traditions of historical and descriptive research in the Americas, Uto‐Aztecan languages have played an important role in the development of general methods in linguistic classification and reconstruction and the development of typological and theoretical research. However, despite being one of the best‐studied language families in the Americas, there are still important gaps in our knowledge about these languages. The goal of this paper is twofold: (i) to survey some recent developments in the study of Uto‐Aztecan languages, and (ii) to outline some of the gaps in our knowledge and where new research on these languages is headed. This paper focuses on the Uto‐Aztecan languages of Northern Mexico: although these languages have received growing attention in recent years, they remain largely under‐described. And while they are still spoken by large and vibrant speech communities, the languages of this area are increasingly vulnerable to the escalating pressures imposed by the Spanish speaking population, making the task of carrying out deep and comprehensive language documentation both still possible and urgent. This paper argues that deepening our understanding of Uto‐Aztecan languages, especially those of Northern Mexico, will not only positively contribute to community‐based efforts of language maintenance, it will also provide crucial keys to linguistic typology, developing linguistic theories, as well as the reconstruction of the linguistic and cultural past of the Americas.

Historical linguistics as a sequence optimization problem: the evolution and biogeography ofUto‐Aztecan languages

“…Among the southern languages, Tepiman clusters and subdivides predictably on our tree, as do Taracahitan, Corachol, and Nahua. Tubar's relatively greater proximity to Corachol than to Taracahitan disconfirms Campbell () and Caballero () that Tubar belongs within Taracahitan, and supports the argument of Hill () that there are no grounds to re‐establish a Sonoran (including Tubar) exclusive of Corachol–Aztecan. The relative proximity of the Tubar and Corachol branches on our tree calls for further investigation.…”

“…1, identifying individual languages by the names used in our comparison) from three sources: Goddard (1996), Campbell (1997), and Mithun (1999 Some remain reluctant to accept higher-order groupings. Caballero (2011), citing persistent controversy over subgroups, opts for only two ranks: individual languages, and one ascendant level into eight branches (as in Fig. 1 column 2, except for Tubar, placed within Taracahitan, and Corachol and Aztecan, kept separate).…”

“…While some languages have become extinct, others (e.g. Hopi, Tohono O'odham/Papago, Tepehuan, Mayo, Rarámuri/Tarahumara, Yaqui, Mayo, Cora, Huichol, and Nahuatl) remain widely spoken (Caballero, ). Range biogeography and climate are highly diverse, including semi‐arid deserts, mountains, high plains, and marine coastline, along a temperate–neotropical continuum.…”

The Genetic Unity of Southern Uto-Aztecan

“…1). A number of other languages, now extinct, may also have been Uto-Aztecan, but insufficient documentation exists to determine their affiliation (Sauer, 1934;Lastra de Suárez, 1973: 355-360;Miller, 1983a, b;Campbell, 1997: 133-135;Caballero, 2011).…”

Intimate Linguistic Contact and Spanish: Western Nahua (Nawa) Varieties of San Pedro Jícora and San Agustín Buenaventura, Durango, Mexico

“…Mexicanero is a Uto-Aztecan language. Uto-Aztecan languages comprise one of the most widespread language families in the Americas (Caballero 2011). There are several branches.…”