Keresan languages

Keresan /kəˈriːsən/, also Keres /ˈkɛərᵻs/, is a dialect cluster spoken by the Keres Pueblo people in New Mexico. The varieties of each of the seven Keres pueblos are mutually intelligible with its closest neighbors. There are significant differences between the Western and Eastern groups, which are commonly counted as separate languages.

Family division

Southwestern peoples

• Eastern Keres: total of 4,580 speakers (1990 census)
  • Cochiti Pueblo: 384 speakers (1990 census)
  • San Felipe – Santo Domingo: San Felipe Pueblo: 1,560 speakers (1990 census), Santo Domingo Pueblo: 1,880 speakers (1990 census)
  • Zia–Santa Ana: Zia Pueblo: 463 speakers (1990 census), Santa Ana Pueblo: 229 speakers (1990 census)
• Western Keres: total of 3,391 speakers (1990 census)
  • Acoma Pueblo: 1,696 speakers (1980 census)
  • Laguna Pueblo: 1,695 speakers (1990 census)

Genetic relationships

Keres is a language isolate. Edward Sapir grouped it together with a Hokan–Siouan stock. Morris Swadesh suggested a connection with Wichita. Joseph Greenberg grouped Keres with Siouan, Yuchi, Caddoan, and Iroquoian in a superstock called Keresiouan. None of the proposals has gained the consensus of linguists.

Historical phonology

Consonants

The chart below contains the reconstructed consonants of the proto-Keresan (or pre-Keresan) as reconstructed by Miller & Davis (1963) based on a comparison of Acoma, Santa Ana, and Santo Domingo.

		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Retroflex	Dental/Palatal	Velar
Plosive	unaspirated	p	t	tʃ	tʂ	ts	k
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	tʃʰ	tʂʰ	tsʰ	kʰ
	glottalized	pʼ	tʼ	tʃʼ	(tʂʼ)	tsʼ	kʼ
Fricative	plain		s	ʃ	ʂ
	glottalized		(sʼ)	ʃʼ	ʂʼ
Sonorant	plain	w	r	j
	glottalized	wˀ	rˀ	jˀ
	plain, nasal	m	n
	glottalized, nasal	mˀ	nˀ

The consonant *tʂʼ only surfaces as an alternate form of underlying *tʂ or *tʂʰ.

Morphophonemic alternations:

Basic form	Aspirated	Glottalized	Fronted
t	tʰ	t’	tʃ
tʰ			tʃʰ
t’			tʃ’
k	kʰ	k’	ts
kʰ			tsʰ
k’			ts’
tʂ	–	tʂʼ	t
tʂʰ	tʂʰ	tʂʼ	tʃʰ

Tones

Acoma Keres has a relatively complex tone system.

Due to tone deafness, Franz Boas encountered difficulties studying tonal languages such as Laguna; however, after he left, his student Elsie Clews Parsons stayed behind and documented Laguna language and stories.^[3]

Syllable

The structure is C(C)V(V).

History and usage

Keres was one of the seven languages used in the Coca-Cola commercial called "It's Beautiful" broadcast during the 2014 Super Bowl.^[4]

See also

• Keresan Sign Language

References

Bibliography

• Boas, Franz. (1923). "A Keresan text", International Journal of American Linguistics, 2 (3/4), 171–180.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Davis, Irvine. (1963). "Bibliography of Keresan linguistic sources", International Journal of American Linguistics, 29 (3), 289–293.
• Davis, Irvine. (1964). The Language of Santa Ana Pueblo. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin (No. 191); Anthropological papers (No. 69). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
• Davis, Irvine. (1966). ["Review of Acoma grammar and texts by W. R. Miller"], American Anthropologist, 68 (3), 810–811.
• Davis, Irvine. (1968). ["Review of Acoma grammar and texts by W. R. Miller"], Language, 44 (1), 185–189.
• Davis, Irvine. (1974). "Keresan-Caddoan comparisons", International Journal of American Linguistics, 40 (3), 265–267.
• Hawley, Florence. (1950). "Keresan patterns of kinship and social organization", American Anthropologist, 52 (4), 499–512.
• Kroskrity, Paul V. (1983). "On male and female speech in the Pueblo Southwest", International Journal of American Linguistics, 49, 88–91.
• Maring, Joel. (1975). "Speech variation in Acoma Keresan", In D. Kinkade, K. L. Hale, & O. Werner (Eds.), Linguistics and anthropology in honor of C. F. Voegelin (pp. 473–485). Lisse: Peter de Ridder.
• Mickey, Barbara H. (1947). "Acoma kinship terms", Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 12 (2), 249–256.
• Miller, Wick R. (1959). "Spanish loanwords in Acoma: I", International Journal of American Linguistics, 25 (3), 147–153.
• Miller, Wick R. (1959). "Some notes on Acoma kinship terminology", Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 15 (2), 179–184.
• Miller, Wick R. (1960). "Spanish loanwords in Acoma: II", International Journal of American Linguistics, 26 (1), 41–49.
• Miller, Wick R. (1965). Acoma Grammar and Texts, University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 40). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Miller, Wick R.; & Davis, Irvine. (1963). "Proto-Keresan phonology", International Journal of American Linguistics, 29 (4), 310–330.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Sims, Christine P.; & Valiquette, Hilaire. (1990). "More on male and female speech in (Acoma and Laguna) Keresan", International Journal of American Linguistics, 56 (1), 162–166.
• Spencer, Robert F. (1946). "The phonemes of Keresan", International Journal of American Linguistics, 12 (4), 229–236.
• Spencer, Robert F. (1947). "Spanish loanwords in Keresan", Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 3 (2), 130–146.
• Walker, Willard. (1967). ["Review of Acoma grammar and texts by W. R. Miller"], International Journal of American Linguistics, 33 (3), 254–257.
• White, Leslie A. (1928). "Summary report of field work at Acoma", American Anthropologist, 30 (4), 559–568.

External links

• Nathan Romero, "Chochiti Keres: About Me and My Language: The politics of saving a vanishing language: The politics of writing", Language Documentation Training Center, University of Hawaii, Manoa (UHM)
• John Menaul (1880). Child's catechism in English and Laguna. Retrieved 25 August 2012. 

Languages of New Mexico
Indigenous	Jemez Jicarilla Keresan Keresan Pueblo Sign Language Mescalero-Chiricahua Navajo Picuris Plains Sign Talk Southern Tiwa Taos Tewa Zuni
Non-Indigenous	American Sign Language English New Mexican Spanish