Keresan


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Ker·e·san

 (kĕr′ĭ-sən) also Ker·es (kĕr′ĭs)
n. pl. Keresan or Ker·e·sans also Keres
1. A member of a Pueblo people inhabiting seven pueblos in north-central New Mexico.
2.
a. The language family comprising the closely related languages of the Keresan, not known to be related to any other language family.
b. A language of this family.

[From American Spanish querés, of unknown origin.]

Ker′e·san, Ker′es adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
Although the tribes interact, they speak five separate languages: Keresan, Tewa, Tiwa, Towa, and Zuni.
Formerly known as the Santo Domingo Pueblo, Kewa is a Keresan dialect-speaking pueblo that was celebrating a saint's day with ceremonies, including a nearly unceasing set of dances in the hot, dusty sun.
Treuer will not say; he refuses to specify the Keresan Yellow Woman myths "presented to us by Silko." Why is this?
Use the New Mexico Keresan Pueblo notion of giftedness in the classroom.
He grew up in a three-room house speaking the Acoma dialect of the Keresan language group as his first tongue.
Keresan, spoken by the Pueblos of Zia and Cochiti, is one of four languages spoken by Rio Grande Indian pueblos (Pueblos), so named by the Spanish in the sixteenth century for their compact and sedentary village life.
His beloved great-grandfather had taught him the ancient Acoma tribal ways and the Keresan language, and when the old man died Kendall became the last living member of the Snake Clan.
But this assumption would be incorrect since the Jemez historically have been influenced heavily by the Keresan Pueblos.
This paper describes the use of Keresan Pueblo Indian Sign Language (KPISL) in one small, Keresan-speaking pueblo in central New Mexico, where 15 out of 650 tribal members have severe to profound hearing loss (twice the national average).
Now, his comment might not sound startling to most students of contemporary literature, since very few would know that Tsi'tsi'naku is the Keresan name of the major deity of the Laguna Pueblo and other Keresan Pueblo peoples.