Seri Cmiique Iitom
Pronunciation:	[kw̃ĩkˈiːtom]
Spoken in:	Sonora, Mexico
Total speakers:	Slightly below 1,000. Sonora is one of the 31 federal states of Mexico and is located in the northwest of the country The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. [1]
Language family:	Language isolate
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	nai
ISO 639-3:	sei
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family A language isolate, in the absolute sense is a Natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or "genetic" relationship with other living languages that is ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Seri (referred to as cmiique iitom by the Seri people) is a language isolate spoken by the Seri people in two villages on the coast of Sonora, Mexico. A language isolate, in the absolute sense is a Natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or "genetic" relationship with other living languages that is The Seris are an indigenous group of the Mexican state of Sonora. Sonora is one of the 31 federal states of Mexico and is located in the northwest of the country The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America.

Contents 1 Classification 2 The name of the language 3 Phonology 3.1 Vowels 3.2 Consonants 3.3 Phonotactics 3.4 Stress 4 Morphology 4.1 Nouns 4.2 Verbs 4.3 Postpositions 5 Grammar 5.1 Articles 5.2 Demonstratives 5.3 Personal Pronouns 6 Lexicon 7 Writing system 8 Literature 9 Trivia 10 Notes 11 References 12 External links

Classification

The term Serian family may be used to refer to a language family with Seri as its only living member; related languages have disappeared in the last couple of centuries. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family Attempts have been made to link it to the Yuman family, to the now-extinct Salinan language of California, and to the much larger hypothetical Hokan family. Yuman-Cochimí is a family of languages spoken in Baja California and northern Sonora in Mexico and southern California and western Salinan was the indigenous language of the Salinan people of the central coast of California. The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families spoken in California and Mexico. ^[2] These hypotheses came out of a period when attempts were being made to group all of the languages of the Americas into families. In the case of Seri, however, very little evidence has ever been produced. Until such evidence is presented and evaluated, the language is most appropriately considered an isolate.

The name of the language

The name Seri is an exonym for this people that has been used since the first contacts with the Spaniards (sometimes written differently, as ceres). An exonym (from Greek el ἔξω exo = out el ὄνομα onoma = name is a name for a place that is not used within that place by the local Gilg reported in 1692 that it was a Spanish name, but surely it was the name used by another group of the area to refer to the Seris. Nevertheless, modern claims that it is a Yaqui or Opata name that means something like "people of the sand" or "people who run fast" are lacking in factual basis; no substantiation has been presented.

The name used within the Seri community itself, for the language, is cmiique iitom, which contrasts with cocsar iitom ("Spanish language") and maricaana iitom ("English language"). The expression is a noun phrase that is literally "(that) with which a Seri person speaks". The word cmiique (phonetically [ˈkw̃ĩːkːɛ]) is the singular noun for "Seri person". The word iitom is the oblique nominalization of the intransitive verb caaitom ("talk"), with the prefix i- (third person possessor) and the null prefix for the nominalizer with this class of root. Another similar expression that one hears occasionally for the language is cmiique iimx, which is a similar construction based on the transitive verb quimx ("tell") (root = amx).

The name chosen by the Seri committee for the name of the language used in the title of the recent dictionary was comcaac quih yaza, which is the plural version of cmiique iitom. It was appropriate for a project of that type, although it is not a commonly used term. Comcaac (phonetically [koŋˈkɑːk]) is the plural form of cmiique and yaza is the plural nominalized form corresponding to iitom. (ooza is the plural root, y- (with an accompanying vowel ablaut) is the nominalizer; the prefix for third person possessor elides before the y. The word quih is a singular article (which combines with the plural noun to refer to the Seri community).

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i, iː	o, oː
Low	ɛ, ɛː	ɑ, ɑː

Vowel length is contrastive only in stressed syllables. A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as In Linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a Vowel sound The low front vowels /ɛ, ɛː/ are phonetically low-mid, and have also been transcribed as /æ æː/. The open-mid vowels make a class of Vowel sounds used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned

The non-rounded vowels /i ɛ ɑ/ are realized as diphthongs [iŭ ɛŏ ɑŏ] when followed by the rounded consonants /kʷ xʷ χʷ/. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with "Lip rounding" redirects here See Roundedness for the lip rounding of vowels

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar		Postalveolar / Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
			Central	Lateral		Plain	Rounded	Plain	Rounded
Stop	p	t				k	kʷ			ʔ
Nasal	m	n
Fricative	ɸ		s	ɬ	ʃ	x	xʷ	χ	χʷ
Flap			(ɾ)
Approximant				(l)	j

/ɾ/ occurs only in loanwords. Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips ( bilabial articulation or with the lower lip and the upper teeth ( labiodental articulation In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets Postalveolar consonants are Consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the Alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth Uvulars are Consonants articulated with the back of the Tongue against or near the uvula, that is further back in the mouth than Velar consonants Glottal consonants are Consonants articulated with the Glottis. Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both "Lip rounding" redirects here See Roundedness for the lip rounding of vowels A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together In Phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of Consonantal sound which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation /l/ occurs in loanwords and in a few native words, where it may alternate with /ɬ/ depending on the word and the individual speaker. Other consonants may occur in recent loans, such as [g] in hamiigo ("friend" from Spanish amigo), and [β] in hoova ("grape" from Spanish uva).

The labial fricative /ɸ/ may be labiodental [f] for some speakers, and the postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ may be retroflex [ʂ]. In Phonetics, labiodentals are Consonants articulated with the lower Lip and the upper Teeth. In Phonetics, retroflex consonants are Consonant sounds used in some Languages (They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants

In unstressed syllables, /m/ assimilates to the place of articulation of the following consonant. In Articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a Consonant is the point of contact where an Obstruction This assimilation may take place over word boundaries in connected speech. When /m/ is preceded by /k/ or /kʷ/, it becomes a nasalized approximant [w̃] and the following vowel becomes nasalized, e. g. cmiique /kmiːkɛ/ "person; Seri" is pronounced [ˈkw̃ĩːkːɛ] or [ˈkw̃ĩːkːi]. For some speakers, word-final /m/ may become [ŋ] at the end of a phrase or sentence, or when said in isolation.

Phonotactics

Seri generally allows up to three consonants to occur together at the beginning or end of a syllable. It is like English in this respect, which allows three-consonant combinations like spray and acts. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Unlike English, however, the specific combinations which may occur are much less restricted. For example, English allows spr- but disallows *ptk-, which Seri does allow, as in ptcamn, ("Cortez spiny lobster", Panulirus inflatus). This article is about the animal For the B-52's song see Rock Lobster.

Rarely, clusters of four consonants can occur, e. g. /kʷsχt/ in cösxtamt, . . . , "there were many, . . . "; /mxkχ/ in ipoomjc x, . . . "if s/he brings it, . . . ", (with enclitic x)

Stress

Stress is contrastive in Seri. In Linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain Syllables in a word Although it usually falls on the first syllable of a root, there are many words where it does not. These are mostly nouns, as well as a small class of common verbs whose stress may fall on a prefix rather than on the root. An alternative analysis, recently proposed and with fewer exceptions, assigns stress to the penultimate syllable of the root of a word (since suffixes are never stressed and prefixes receive stress only as a result of phonological fusion with the root). This rule is also sensitive to syllable weight. A heavy final syllable in the root attracts stress. A heavy syllable is one that has a long vowel or vowel cluster or a final consonant cluster. (A single consonant in the syllable coda is typically counted as extrametrical in Seri. Extrametricality is a tool for prodosic analysis of a word in Linguistics. )

Consonants following a stressed syllable are lengthened, and vowels separated from a preceding stressed vowel by a single consonant are also lengthened, so that e. g. cootaj /ˈkoːtɑx/ ("ant") is pronounced [ˈkoːtːɑːx]. Such allophonically lengthened vowels may be longer than the phonemically long vowels found in stressed syllables. In Phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds ( Phones that belong to the same Phoneme. This lengthening does not occur if the following consonant or vowel is part of a suffix (e. g. coo-taj, the plural of coo ("shovelnose guitarfish"), is [ˈkoːtɑx], without lengthening) if the stressed syllable consists of a long vowel and a short vowel (caaijoj, a kind of manta ray, is [ˈkɑːixox], without lengthening), or if the stressed vowel is lengthened to indicate intensity. The shovelnose guitarfish, Rhinobatos productus, is a ray that ranges from central California down to the Sea of Cortez. The manta ray ( Manta birostris) is the largest of the rays, with the largest known specimen having been more than 7 It also doesn't affect most loanwords.

Morphology

Verbs, nouns and pospositions are inflected word categories in Seri.

Nouns

Nouns inflect for plurality, through suffixation. Compare noosi 'mourning dove' and noosi-lc 'mourning doves'. Pluralization is very complicated; for this reason, each noun is listed in the dictionary with its plural form. Some nouns ostensibly use an infix to indicate plural: caatc 'grasshopper', caatjc 'grasshoppers'. A few nouns have completely suppletive plural forms: cmiique 'Seri person', comcáac 'Seri people', ziix 'thing', xiica 'things'.

Kinship terms and body part nouns inflect for possessors through prefixes (with slightly different prefix sets). Compare ma-sáac 'your son' (of man) and mi-lít 'your head'. As they are obligatorily possessed nouns, a special prefix appears when no possessor is specified, and kinship terms sometimes have additional material at the end as well. Compare ha-sáac-at 'one's son', and ha-lít 'one's head'. Some nouns have an additional plural form to distinguish between singular and plural possessors: itoj 'his/her eye', itoj 'his/her eyes', itolcoj 'their eyes'.

Verbs

Finite verbs obligatorily inflect for number of the subject, person of the subject, direct object and indirect object and tense/mood. For subject person and number, compare ihpyopánzx 'I ran', inyopánzx 'you (sg. ) ran', yopanzx 'it ran, she ran, he ran', hayopáncojc 'we ran', mayopáncojc 'you (pl. ) ran', yopáncojc 'they ran'.

For object person (which is written as a separate word in the orthography although it is really just a prefix), compare ma hyooho 'I saw you (sg. )', mazi hyooho 'I saw you (pl. )', and ihyóoho 'I saw him/her/it/them'.

For indirect object (also written as a separate word except in third person), compare me hyacóhot 'I showed it to you (sg. or pl. )', cohyacóhot 'I showed it to him/her/them'.

The verb "tenses" divide between medial forms and final forms, irrealis and realis. Some examples: popánzx (irrealis, medial, third person) '(if) it/she/he runs', tpanzx(realis, medial, third person) '(as) it/she/he ran', yopánzx (distal realis, final, third person) 'it/she/he ran', impánzx (proximal realis, final, third person) 'it/she/he ran', spánxz aha (irrealis, final, third person) 'it/she/he will run'.

A verb may also be negative and/or passive.

A transitive verb may be detransitivized through a morphological operation, and causative verbs may be formed morphologically.

Postpositions

The postpositions of Seri inflect for the person of their complement: hiti 'on me', miti 'on you', iti 'on her/him/it'. Some of them have suppletive stems to indicate a plural complement; compare miihax 'with you (sg. )' and miicot 'with you (pl. )'.

Grammar

The Seri language is a head-final language. The verb typically occurs at the end of a clause (after the subject and direct object, in that order), and main clauses typically follow dependent clauses. The possessor precedes the possessum. The language does not have many true adjectives; adjective-like verbs follow the head noun in the same kind of construction and with the same kind of morphology as verbs in the language. The words that correspond to prepositions in languages like English are usually constrained to appear before the verb; in noun phrases they appear following their complement.

Articles

Seri has several articles, which follow the noun.

The singular indefinite article (a, an) is zo before consonants, and z before vowels (it presumably is historically related to the word for "one", which is tazo). The plural indefinite article (roughly equivalent to some) is pac.

Cototaj	zo	hant	z	iti	poop. . .
boojum tree	a	place	a	in	if there is
If there is a boojum tree in a place. The boojum or (Spanish cirio ( Fouquieria columnaris, syn Idria columnaris) is a bizarre-looking Tree in the family Fouquieriaceae The boojum or (Spanish cirio ( Fouquieria columnaris, syn Idria columnaris) is a bizarre-looking Tree in the family Fouquieriaceae . .

Comcaac	pac	yoozcam.
Seris	some	came.
Some Seris arrived.

There are several different definite articles (the), depending on the position and movement of the object:

• Quij (singular) and coxalca (plural) are used with seated objects.
• Cap/cop (sg. ) and coyolca (pl. ) are used with standing objects. Cap and cop are dialectal variants.
• Com (sg. ) and coitoj (pl. ) are used with objects lying down.
• Hipmoca (sg. ) and hizmocat (pl. ) are used with close, approaching objects.
• Hipintica (sg. ) and hipinticat (pl. ) are used with close objects going away.
• Timoca (sg. ) and tamocat (pl. ) is used with distant, approaching objects.
• Tintica (sg. ), tanticat (pl. ), himintica (sg. ), and himinticat (pl. ) are used with distant objects going away.
• Hac (sg. & pl. ) are used with locations and verbal nouns. A verbal noun is a Noun formed directly as an Inflexion of a Verb or a verb stem, sharing at least in part its constructions Hac is pronounced [ʔɑk] after vowels and [ɑk] after consonants.
• Quih (sg. ) and coi (pl. ) are unspecified. Quih is pronounced [kiʔ] before consonants, [kʔ] before vowels, and [k] at the end of an utterance.

These articles are derived historically from nominalized forms (as appear in relative clauses in Seri) of verbs: quiij ("that which sits"), caap ("that which stands"), coom ("that which lies"), quiih ("that (especially soft item like cloth) which is located"), moca ("that which comes"), contica ("that which goes"), and caahca ("that which is located"; root -ahca)

Demonstratives

Four simple demonstrative pronouns occur, plus a large set of compound demonstrative adjectives and pronouns. Demonstratives are deictic words (they depend on an external frame of reference that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others The simple demonstratives are tiix ("that one"), taax ("those, that (mass)"), hipíix ("this one"), and hizáax ("these, this (mass)").

The compound demonstratives are formed by added a deictic element to an article. Examples include himcop ("that (standing far off)"), ticop ("that (standing closer)"), hipcop ("this (standing)"), himquij ("that (sitting far off)"), himcom ("that (lying far off)"), etc. These compound demonstratives may be used either as adjectives (at the end of the noun phrase) or as pronouns.

Personal Pronouns

Two personal nonreflexive pronouns are in common use: he (first person, "I", "we") and me (second person, "you" (singular or plural). These pronouns may have singular or plural referents; the difference in number is indicated in the verb stem. The reflexive pronouns are hisoj "myself", misoj "yourself", isoj "herself, himself, itself", hisolca "ourselves", misolca "yourselves" and isolca "themselves".

Lexicon

The Seri language has a rich basic lexicon. The usefulness of the lexicon is multiplied many times over by the use of idiomatic expressions. The expression for 'I am angry' is hiisax cheemt iha, literally 'my. spirit stinks (Declarative)', for example. (The kinship terminology is among the most extensive and complicated that has been documented in the world. Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin through either biological cultural or historical descent ^[3] Seri has a small number of loanwords, most ultimately from Spanish, but via other languages such as O'odham. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation O'odham (/ɔʔɔdham/ is an Uto-Aztecan language of southern Arizona and northern Sonora where the Tohono O'odham and Pima reside ^[4]

Many ideas are expressed not with single words, but with fixed expressions consisting of several words. For example, "newspaper" is hapaspoj cmatsj (literally, "paper that tells lies"), "compass" is ziix hant iic iihca quiya (literally, "thing that knows where places are"), and "radio" is ziix haa tiij coos (literally, "thing that sitting there sings"). This kind of phrase formation is deeply ingrained in the lexicon; it has been used in the past to create new terms for lexical items that became taboo due to the death of a person whose nickname was based on that word. A taboo is a strong Social prohibition (or ban) against words objects actions or discussions that are considered undesirable or offensive by a group culture A nickname is a Name of an entity or thing that is not its Proper name.

Writing system

Seri is written in the Latin alphabet.

A a	C c	Cö cö	E e	F f	H h	I i	J j	Jö jö	L l	M m
/ɑ/	/k/	/kʷ/	/ɛ/	/ɸ/	/ʔ/	/i/	/x/	/xʷ/	/ɬ/	/m/
N n	O o	P p	Qu qu	R r	S s	T t	X x	Xö xö	Y y	Z z
/n/	/o/	/p/	/k/	/ɾ/	/s/	/t/	/χ/	/χʷ/	/j/	/ʃ/

<Qu> represents /k/ before the vowels e and i, while c is used elsewhere, as in Spanish. Long vowels are indicated by doubling the vowel letter. The voiced lateral /l/ is indicated by placing an underline under <l>, i. e. <Ḻ ḻ>. Stress is generally not indicated, but can be marked by placing an acute accent <´> over the stressed vowel. History An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels. The representation of the rounded back consonants using a digraph which includes o-dieresis serves to visually unite morphemes that have allomorphs containing the full vowel o, the historical source of the rounded consonants. Example: xeecoj /χɛːkox/ ("wolf"), xeecöl /χɛːkʷɬ/ ("wolves").

The letters B, D, G, Gü, and V occur in some loanwords. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation

The Seri alphabet was developed in the 1950s by Edward W. and Mary B. Edward W Moser (1924&ndash1976 was an American linguist and expert in the Seri language and culture working with the Summer institute Moser, and later revised by Stephen Marlett. ^[5] In particular:

• The rounded velar stop /kʷ/ was written both <cu> and <cö>, but is now only written <cö>.
• The diphthongs [aŏ] [iŭ] [eŏ] were written <ao> <iu> <eo> respectively, but are now considered to be allophones occurring before rounded consonants, e. g. Tahéojc → Tahejöc.
• The velar nasal [ŋ] was written <ng>, but is now considered an allophone of /m/ and written <m>, e. g. congcáac → comcaac.
• Nasalized vowels were marked with an underline, but are now considered allophones occurring after /km/, e. g. cuá̱am → cmaam.
• Lengthening of vowels and consonants that follow a stressed syllable were written double, but are now considered allophonic, e. g. hóoppaatj → hóopatj. Long vowels and consonants in other situations are still written double.
• Word boundaries sometimes changed, with clitics being often originally written solid with the adjacent words, but now written separately. In Linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent Word.

Literature

A growing body of Seri literature is being published. Some of the stories that were recorded, transcribed and published earlier ^[6] are now being re-edited and published. ^[7] New material is also being prepared by several writers. ^[8]

Trivia

The Seri word for "shark", which is hacat, was chosen by ichthyologist Juan Carlos Pérez Jiménez to name a newly discovered species of smooth-hound shark in the Gulf of California (Mustelus hacat). Ichthyology (from Greek ἰχθυ ikhthu, "fish" and λόγος logos, "knowledge" is the branch of Zoology devoted to the study The smooth-hounds are a genus Mustelus, of sharks in the family Triakidae. " Sea of Cortez " redirects here For the book by John Steinbeck, see The Log from the Sea of Cortez. Mustelus hacat is a smooth-hound shark Species first discovered by ichthyologist Juan Carlos Pérez Jiménez in 2003

Notes

References

External links

• Ethnologue
• Seri bibliography
• Seri page at Lengamer.org
• Stephen Marlett's home page
• SIL Mexico
• Seri texts and recordings

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