Characteristics Of The Yaqui Dialect: Origin, Characteristics And Risk Of Extinction

Characteristics of the Yaqui dialect: Origin, characteristics and risk of extinction

The Yaqui language is one of the indigenous languages of Mexico that has been approved as a language in the nation thanks to the law published in 2003. Historically it was used by Yaqui communities. The word yaqui is an adaptation to the Castilian of the term hiaki that is the correct word in its own language. Yaqui means people who speak loudly, although these indigenous communities usually refer to their language such as Hiaknooki, whose meaning in Spanish is Yaqui Language.

This dialect is part of the cahimas, who were groups of indigenous people who settled in areas northwest of Mexico. These communities had a lot of different languages, but over time only the Cahíta language (which was the main) and the Yaqui was maintained. In addition, the Yaqui language (and therefore the cahíta) are derived from the utonahuas dialects.

Today this language is still talking about although to a lesser extent. It is common in the Mexican state of Sonora. A census at the beginning of the 21st century allowed to determine that only about 5% of the inhabitants could speak Yaqui.

Source

According to historians, the first Yaquis populations settlements began to occur thousands of years ago thanks to the migrations that occurred from Asia through the Bering Strait. It was one of the groups that remained north of the territory that is known today as Mexico. His main language was the cahíta, but each community was developing their own language and thanks to that dynamic the Jiak Nokpo was born, today known as Yaqui.

These indigenous groups had to face wars for many years, even during the conquest of the Spaniards. At all times they were considered an independent territory.

At present it is believed that there are more than 30 thousand Yaquis in Mexico and almost 10,000 in the United States.

Name

With the passage of time the references to the Yaquis indigenous groups has changed. Hiaki is the way to say it in his own language. The term Yaqui is rather of recent times. It has come to write in different ways: hiakim, kiaki or jiaqui. In the etymological study of the word it is believed that it is the union of HIA with Baqui and that means people who speak strong or that shout.

Characteristics of the Yaqui Language

The yoqui language alphabet has only 20 letters: five of them are vowels and the other 15 are consonants. All syllables and joints of the dialect are built thanks to them. Both the vowels and the consonants of the Yaqui language can occur in a simple or double way;that is: AA, EE, TT, etc. That the consonants are doubled only when they are in the middle of a word. In the case of vowels, all can be double and basically they are the same as in Spanish (A, E, I, O, U). The Yaqui incorporated into their language some terms or expressions of Spanish thanks especially to the colonization of the Spaniards. It is a language that distinguishes between female and male terms. There are exclusive words taking into account gender.

It has been considered that the Yaqui language is very complicated pronunciation. In spite of this, the number of people who speak it is still high and try to preserve it. As with two of the languages that are born from Germanic languages (English and German), the Yaquis do not use accents when writing their words.

Words in Yaqui and its meaning

A very important event for the Yaqui language was the creation of a dictionary that allowed translating the words of this dialect into Spanish. The initiative was four students from the University of Sonora: Crescencio Buitimea, Zarina Estrada, Aarón Grageda and Manuel Silva. The first time it was published the collection of words of this language was in 2016 in an attempt to preserve the language of this indigenous community. He had the support of the educational project of the Yaqui tribe, of professors, of the Department of Language of the University of Sonora and indigenous people who dominate the language. In addition, the Yaqui Pocket Dictionary. Jiak Noki-Spanish / Spanish-Jiak Noki based on previous dictionaries of indigenous languages.

Adapted words from Spanish

With the passage of time, and especially for the influence of the Spanish conquest in the American continent, the Yaqui community began to adopt some words or pronunciations more typical of Spanish. Although the same thing happened with English and with the Nahuatl language. In the specific case of Spanish, there are two cases to study on the Yaquis and their words. On the one hand, there are words that adapted to the usual phonemes of the indigenous people. On the other hand, there are words that are pronounced exactly the same. For example: the Yaqui say Lios, Lakkron, Kabanso or Alawasi to refer to God, a thief, a chickpea or a sheriff. It is evident as writing and pronunciation has many similarities. This can happen in about 20 terms used by the Yaquis. The words that are equal in both languages are: Alba, Mancha, tape (although Synta is written in Yaqui since the C is not a consonant that is present in the alphabet of this indigenous group) and serum.

Adapted words of English

The same thing happens with English although to a lesser measures. The Yaqui included in their language the term suichi to refer to switches or buttons. English -speaking people use the word switch to talk about this object.

Adapted words from Nahuatl

Another language that has greatly influenced Yaqui is Nahuatl. It is a language of great importance in Mexico since the 5th century after Christ. From here words like Taskari, Tekipanoa or Totoi are born to say tortilla, work and chicken.

Risk

UNESCO is the organism that is responsible for establishing the level of risk that run the different languages in the world of disappearing or being used by a group of inhabitants. The Yaqui case has already been studied by the United Nations and is one of the more than 2500 languages analyzed. UNESCO establishes six levels of risk and the Yaque is in the first level of danger that talks about its vulnerability. In this sense, UNESCO states that the Yaqui language may only be used in very personal areas and therefore is at risk. For example, that communities only communicate in their homes in this way.

To prevent its extinction from occurring (as has happened with more than 200 other languages since the 50s), the Yaquis communities must communicate more using this language and demanding that its use expands. According to the 2000 census, Yaqui is spoken by almost 12 thousand people.