Guarijio language

Guarijio (properly spelled Guarijío in Spanish, also spelled Huarijío, Varihío, and Warihío) is an Uto-Aztecan language of the states of Chihuahua and Sonora in northwestern Mexico. It is spoken by around 5,000 people, most of whom are monolinguals.

Distribution

The language has two variants, known as Mountain Guarijio (guarijío de la sierra) and River Guarijio (guarijío del río). The mountain variant is chiefly spoke in the eastern portion of the municipality of Uruachi (with a small number of speakers in Moris to the north and Chínipas to the south) and around Arechuyvo, in the state of Chihuahua. The river variant is found to the southwest: most speakers inhabit the Río Mayo basin to the north of San Bernardo in the Sonoran municipality of Álamos.

Speakers of Mountain Guarijio self-identify as warihó and call River Guarijio speakers macurawe or makulái. River Guarijio speakers call themselves warihío and call Mountain speakers "tarahumaras". Contact between the two groups is scant and, although the linguistic differences between the two are slight, speakers report that mutual comprehension is difficult.

Grammar

The Guarijí language is notable typologically in that it shows an Object Verb Subject sentence order, the rarest order found cross-linguistically.

Phonology

The consonant inventory includes^[1]:

Media

Programming in Guarijio is carried by the CDI's radio station XEETCH, broadcasting from Etchojoa, Sonora.

References

1. ^ Wick R. Miller: Guarijío: Gramática, textos y Vocabulario, 1996, ISBN 968-36-4849-5

External links

• Lengua Guarijio (In Spanish)
• Ethnologue Report

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