Jemez language

Jemez (also Towa) is a Tanoan language spoken by the Jemez Pueblo people in New Mexico. It has no written form, as tribal rules do not allow it.

Demographics

Its speakers are mainly farmers and craftsmen. The language is only spoken in Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico, but as 90% of the tribal Jemez members do speak it, it is not considered to be extremely endangered. It was also spoken at Pecos Pueblo until the 19th century, when the remaining members of that community moved to Jemez.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants that are in parenthesis occur only in limited occasion determined by phonological rules. [f] and [r] occur only in loan words.

Vowels

The following chart shows the six distinctive vowel positions in Jemez:

All six can occur as short and long vowels, and all but /e/ can occur as short nasal and long nasal vowels. This gives a total of twenty-two distinctive vowel sounds. Note that vowel length is only contrastive in the first syllable of a word and other syllables' vowels are measurably shorter