Cupeño language
Extinct Uto-Aztecan language of California
title: "Cupeño language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["cupeño", "agglutinative-languages", "takic-languages", "extinct-languages-of-north-america", "languages-extinct-in-the-1980s"] description: "Extinct Uto-Aztecan language of California" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupeño_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Extinct Uto-Aztecan language of California ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Cupeño |
| nativename | Kupangaxwicham Pe'me̲melki |
| region | Southern California |
| ethnicity | Cupeño |
| extinct | 1987, with the death of Roscinda Nolasquez |
| familycolor | Uto-Aztecan |
| fam1 | Uto-Aztecan |
| fam2 | Northern Uto-Aztecan |
| fam3 | Takic |
| fam4 | Cupan |
| fam5 | Cahuilla–Cupeño |
| iso3 | cup |
| glotto | cupe1243 |
| glottorefname | Cupeño |
| script | Latin |
| map | Cupeño language.png |
| notice | IPA |
| map2 | Lang Status 01-EX.svg |
| mapcaption2 | |
| revived | |
| states | United States |
| :: |
| name = Cupeño | nativename = Kupangaxwicham Pe'me̲melki | region = Southern California | ethnicity = Cupeño | extinct = 1987, with the death of Roscinda Nolasquez | familycolor = Uto-Aztecan | fam1 = Uto-Aztecan | fam2 = Northern Uto-Aztecan | fam3 = Takic | fam4 = Cupan | fam5 = Cahuilla–Cupeño | iso3 = cup | glotto = cupe1243 | glottorefname = Cupeño | script = Latin | map = Cupeño language.png | mapcaption = | notice = IPA | map2 = Lang Status 01-EX.svg | mapcaption2 = | revived = | states = United States
Cupeño, or Pá'anexily, is an Uto-Aztecan language that was spoken by the Cupeño people of southern California, United States. Roscinda Nolasquez (d. 1987) was the last native speaker of Cupeño.{{Cite book | publisher = University of California Press | volume = 136 | url = http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2mz6t67j | last = Hill | first = Jane H. | title = A Grammar of Cupeño | series = UC Publications in Linguistics | date = 2005-10-18
Throughout the 1890s, there was debate over whether the Cupeño people should be allowed to continue living on traditional Cupeño territory. After many years of public protests, the California Supreme Court decided to relocate the Cupeño people to the Pala Reservation.
Cupeño shows linguistic influence from both the languages that preceded it and the Yuman-speaking Ipai, who share their southern border.
Geographic distribution
The language was originally spoken in Cupa, Wilaqalpa, and Paluqla, located in San Diego County, California, and later around the Pala Indian Reservation.
Phonology
Vowels
::data[format=table]
| Front | Central | Back | High | Mid | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
and primarily occur in Spanish loanwords but also serve as allophones of in native Cupeño words.
can be realized as in closed syllables and as in some open syllables.
may reduce to a schwa in unstressed syllables.
also appears as when long and stressed, after labials and , and as before .
is also realized as before uvulars.
Consonants
::data[format=table]
| Bilabial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | laminal | apical | plain | labial. | Nasal | Plosive | Fricative | voiceless | voiced | Approximant | Lateral | Trill |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~ | |||||||||||||||||
| :: |
Morphology
Cupeño is an agglutinative language, where words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together. It is dominantly head-final, with a mostly strict word order (SOV) for some constituents, such as genitive-noun constructions. However, in certain contexts, there is flexibility in the word order, allowing verbs to be shifted to the initial part of a sentence or arguments to follow verbs.
Nouns
Nouns, as well as demonstratives, determiners, quantifiers, and adjectives, in Cupeño are marked for case and number and agree with each other in complex nominal constructions.
Verbs
Cupeño inflects its verbs for transitivity, tense, aspect, mood, person, number, and evidentiality.
Evidentiality in Cupeño is expressed with clitics, typically appearing near the beginning of the sentence:
=kuʼut 'reportative' (mu=kuʼut 'and it is said that...') =am 'mirative' =$he 'dubitative'
There are two inflected moods, realis =pe and irrealis =eʼp.
Tense-Aspect system
Future simple verbs remain unmarked. Past simple verbs include past-tense pronouns, while past imperfect verbs add the imperfect modifier as shown below.
::data[format=table]
| Present | Imperfect | Fut. Imp | Customary | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -qa | -qal | -nash | -ne | ||
| -we | -wen | -wene | -wene | ||
| :: |
Pronouns
The pronominals in Cupeño manifest in various forms and structures. The following are only attached to past-tense verbs.
::data[format=table]
| Singular | Plural | 1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ne | chem- | |||
| e- | em- | |||
| pe- | pem- | |||
| :: |
Lexicon
::data[format=table title="English words and Cupeño counterparts{{Cite web |title=Cupeno Words |url=http://www.native-languages.org/cupeno_words.htm |access-date=2022-07-11 |website=www.native-languages.org}}"]
| English | Cupeño |
|---|---|
| one | suplawut |
| two | wiʼ |
| three | pa |
| four | wichu |
| five | numaqananax |
| man | naxanis |
| woman | muwikut |
| sun | tamyut |
| moon | munil |
| water | pal |
| :: |
References
References
- (2010). "Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger". UNESCO.
- "Language Revitalization – Pala Tribe".
- (June 17, 2025). "The little radio station that's keeping Indigenous culture alive on the air".
- Sturtevant, William C.. (1978). "Handbook of North American Indians". Smithsonian Institution.
- "Did you know Cupeño is awakening?".
- "Cupeno Words".
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