MultiTree:

Name: Southern Numic Type: Dialect Group Alternate Names: Ute-Southern Paiute; Pai Ute; Paviotso; South Paiute; Southern Paiute; Ute; Chemehuevi Spoken in: USA Number of speakers: 1,980 (2000 census). 20 monolinguals (1990 census). 3 Chemehuevi on Chemehuevi Reservation, 10 on Colorado River Reservation (1994 L. Hinton). Ethnic population: 5,000 (1977 SIL) (Ethnologue) Number of speakers: 903 (UNESCO) Number of speakers: 1984 (World Oral Literature Project) Code: ute Code Standard: ISO 639-3 Documentation: SIL Families: Uto-Aztecan (Yuta-Nawan) Parent Subgroup: Bannock; Southern Numic; Yutish Group (snum) Child Dialects: Ute; Southern Paiute; Paiute (Southern) (ute-sou) Chemehuevi; Ute (ute-ute) Ute; Chemehuevi (ute-che) Brief Description: "Ute-Chemehuevi is a dialect chain within Southern Numic that extends from central Colorado westward across Utah and southern Nevada to the eastern Mojave Desert in California. There are three major regional varieties, all mutually intelligible. Ute (Colorado and central Utah) is spoken by about 900 people in and around three reservation communities: (1) Southern Ute (Ignacio, Colorado), where there are about 100 first-language speakers, the youngest about 55, out of a total population of 1,300. (2) Ute Mountain Ute (Towaoc, Colorado), where there are about 500 first-language speakers, the youngest about 25, out of a total population of 1,500. (3) Uintah & Ouray (Northern) Ute (Ft. Duchesne, Utah), where there are about 300 first-language speakers, the youngest about 45, out of a total population of 2,000. Southern Paiute (southern Utah and Nevada) is spoken in ten widely separated communities in Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. The five Utah communities constitute the Paiute Tribe of Utah and have a total population of about 600. The San Juan Paiute Tribe is settled on the Navajo Reservation in Utah and Arizona and has a population of 220. The Kaibab Paiute Tribe, with a reservation north of the Grand Canyon, has a population of 212. The three southern Nevada tribes (Moapa, Las Vegas, and Pahrump), have a combined population of over 400. The language is spoken to a varying extent in all communities, but only in the San Juan tribe are children still acquiring it as their first language. Chemehuevi (southern California) is spoken on the Colorado River Indian Reservation at Parker, Arona (which the Chemehuevis share with Mohaves, Navajos, and Hopis), and on the neighbouring Chemehuevi Reservation in California. There are fewer than 20 first-language speakers, with the youngest nearly 40." Victor Golla, Atlas of the World's Languages 2007 pg. 24-25.

Endangerment Status

---

UNESCO Status: Severely endangered Ethnologue Status: Not listed Sutherland's Red List: Not listed