Cora language

Not to be confused with Waikuri language.

Cora is an indigenous language of Mexico of the Uto-Aztecan language family, spoken by approximately 30,000 people. It is spoken by the ethnic group that is widely known as the Cora, but who refer to themselves as Naáyarite. The Cora inhabit the northern sierra of the Mexican state Nayarit which is named after its indigenous inhabitants. A significant portion of Cora speakers have formed an expatriate community along the southwestern part of Colorado in the United States. Cora is a Mesoamerican language and shows many of the traits defining the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. Under the General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, it is recognized as a "national language", along with 62 other indigenous languages and Spanish which have the same "validity" in Mexico.

Cora
naáyarite
Region	Mexico: Nayarit, Jalisco, Durango United States: Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Utah
Ethnicity	Cora
Native speakers	33,000 (2020 census)
Language family	Uto-Aztecan Corachol Cora
Official status
Regulated by	Secretaría de Educación Pública
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: crn – El Nayar Cora cok – Santa Teresa Cora
Glottolog	cora1260
ELP	Cora

Geographic distribution

Main communities where Cora is spoken in the Nayar municipality.

Ethnologue distinguishes two main variants of Cora. One is called Cora del Nayar or Cora Meseño and is spoken mainly in and around the medium-altitude settlements of Mesa de Nayar and Conel Gonzales in the south of the el Nayar municipality of Nayarit, and has approximately 9,000 speakers (1993 census). There are significant differences between some of these varieties and some sources distinguish between Cora Mariteco (of Jesus Maria), Cora Presideño (of Presidio de los Reyes), Cora Corapeño (of San Juan Corapan) and Cora Franciscqueño (of San Francisco). But Ethnologue considers the mutual intelligibility between these and Meseño to be high enough to classify them as a single language.

The other variant recognized by the Ethnologue is called Cora de Santa Teresa or Cora Tereseño and is spoken by approximately 7,000 people (1993 census), for the most part in the high sierra in the north of el Nayar. Cora de Santa Teresa has such a low degree of mutual intelligibility with other Cora speech communities that Ethnologue considers it a separate variety. Due to recent migrations a small community of Coras exists in the United States in western Colorado.

Dialects

Cora speakers themselves recognize only five dialects: Cora de Jesús María, Cora de Mesa de Nayar, Cora de Sta. Teresa, Cora de Corápan and Cora de San Francisco. Highland speakers consider Cora of Preseidio de los Reyes to be identical to the dialect of the other lowland community Corápan, and Cora of Dolores to be identical to Cora of Sta Teresa.

Cora is spoken in a number of dialects, some of which have difficult mutual intelligibility. The International Organization for Standardization distinguishes two languages, and the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas recognizes nine.

El Nayar Cora / Jesús María Cora (Cora Mariteco)

Dolores Cora

Rosarito Cora

San Blasito Cora

San Juan Corapan Cora (Cora Corapeño)

Santa Teresa Cora (Cora Tereseño)

La Mesa del Nayar Cora (Cora Meseño)

Presidio de los Reyes Cora (Cora Presideño)

San Francisco Cora (Cora Francisqueño)

The Pinome, or Totorame, were reported in the 16th century to speak Cora.

Classification

The closest relatives of the Cora language is the Huichol language together with which it forms the Coracholan subgroup of the Uto-Aztecan languages.

• Uto-Aztecan
  • Coracholan branch
    • Huichol language
    • Cora languages

Phonology

The phonology of Cora is typical of southern Uto-Aztecan languages, with five vowels and a relatively simple consonant inventory. However atypically of Uto-Aztecan languages, Cora has developed a simple tonal system or pitch accent with an harmonic accent taking high falling tone. The phonemic inventory given below is the analysis of Cora from Jesús María by Margarita Valdovinos:

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Palatal/ Retroflex	Velar	Glottal
			plain	pal.
Nasal	plain	m	n	nʲ
	lab.	mʷ	nʷ
Plosive	plain	p	t	tʲ		k	ʔ
	lab.	pʷ	tʷ			kʷ
Fricative		β	s	ʃ	ʂ		h
Affricate			ts		tʃ
Semivowel					j	w
Liquid	plain		l	lʲ	ɽ
	lab.				ɽʷ

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i   iː   ḭ	ɨ   ɨː   ɨ̰	u   uː   ṵ
Mid	ɛ   ɛː   ɛ̰
Open		a   aː   a̰

There are five contrastive vowels in Cora phonology. They are: [i ɛ a ɨ u]. However, [ɔ] which is produced in the midback area of the mouth is limited to diphthongs when it is followed by the [u] sound. Accents on vowels are to mark stress location. An example of this is (v́).

Monosyllables

There is a clear partition in both monophthongal and diphthongal combinations. Where words are divorced by rising and falling pitch. However, rising pitch is oftentimes modal and falling pitch shows variation.

Rime shapes in monosyllabic words. (V=monophthong and VV=diphthong)

Shape	n =	Tonal profile	Phonation
V(h)	7	Level/rising	Modal
V(h)	6	Falling	Modal ~ nonmodal variation
VV (h)	3	Level/rising	Modal
VV (h)	5	Falling	Modal ~ nonmodal variation

The level and rising monosyllables used for the table above are presented in the table below.

Level/Rising

a.	[sɛh]*	sand
b.	[hah]*	water
c.	[heh]	yes
d.	[ha꞉]	swollen
e.	[ɽuh]	life
f.	[tyeh]	long
g.	[taih]	fire
h.	[tʃwah]	earth
i.	[sɛih]	other
j.	[saɨh]	one
k.	[twah]	oak
l.	[naiŋ]	all

Below are the falling monosyllables. Chart relates to the two charts above.

Falling

m.	[mwa]	you, sg
n.	[tsɨ]	dog
o.	[tʃi]	house
p.	[mu]	head
q.	[βɛ]	big
r.	[mwi]	much
s.	[mwaŋ]	you, pl
t.	[weih]	fish
u.	[haɨh]	ant
v.	[sauh]	quail
w.	[sauh]	egg

Disyllables

Disyllables add to the existing dimensions of stress. Initial and final stress are common in Cora phonology. These stresses, at times, serve as conversation cues. Cues include but are not limited to high-pitched stressed syllable followed by the devoicing of the final syllable which is left unstressed. Duration of the word and syllable also have a role in location of stress as it relates to disyllables.

Grammar

Cora is a verb-initial language; its grammar is agglutinative and polysynthetic, particularly inflecting verbs with many affixes and clitics. There are a number of adpositional clitics that can also be used as relational nouns. Different types of subject and object marking can form the grammatical relations in the Cora language through the interplay of syntactic features like word order, topicalization, and dislocation processes. This is important for understanding the causative constructions and the grammatical encoding of the causer and causee. Conversely, the importance of understanding the causativation processes in order to process what grammatical features allow for the identification of a verbal base as either stative, intransitive, or transitive, this is due to processes being arranged according to the semantic and formal membership of the base words. Within the Cora language, addressing the agentive verbal bases leads semantic variation to appear, this results in facing the constraints in order to construct the morphological causatives.

Nominal morphology

Nouns are marked for possession and exhibit several different plural patterns.

Pluralization

Different classes of nouns mark the plural in different manners. The most common way is by means of suffixes - The suffixes used for pluralization are the following: -te, -mwa, -mwa'a, -tse, -tsi, -kʉ, -sʉ, -se, -si, -ri and -i. Other ways to form the plural is by reduplication of the final vowel of a noun stem or by shifting the accent from one syllable to the other. Another class of works form their plurals by suppletion.

Suffix pluralization

The suffix "mua and muaʼa" is generally only used to refer to people. Other suffixes include: -tze, -tzi, -cʌ, -sʌ, -se, -si, -ri, and -i.

Examples of each:

Cora		Spanish		English
singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
bej	bejtzé	urraca	urracas	magpie	magpies
tzʌʼʌ	tzʌʼʌcʌ	perro	perros	dog	dogs
muarabií	muarabiise	cucaracha	cucarachas	cockroach	cockroaches
tuucʌ	tuúcʌsi	camarón	camarones	shrimp	shrimps
tátziuʼu	tatziuʼuri	conejo	conejos	bunny	bunnies
tajtúhuaan	tajtúhuaani	nuestro gobernador	nuestros gobernadores	our governor	our governors
até	atetzi	piojo negro	piojos negros	black lice	black lice (plural)
cánʼa	cánaʼasʌ	borrego	borregos	sheep	sheep (plural)

Other forms of pluralization

Pluralization can also be indicated by having a vowel reduplicated:

Cora		Spanish		English
singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
cuaasú	cuaasuú	garza	garzas	heron	herons

Pluralization is also indicated through the use of accents.  

Cora		Spanish		English
singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
sáʼiru	saʼirú	mosca	moscas	fly	flies

Pluralization is also indicated by changing words from singular to plural to change of a word into a completely different one.  

Cora		Spanish		English
singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
páʼarʌʼʌ	tʌʼvrií	niña/niño	niñas/niños	boy/girl	boys/girls
taátaʼa	téteca	hombre	hombres	men	mens
ʌítaʼa	uuca	mujer	mujeres	woman	women

Possession

Possessed nouns are marked with a prefix expressing the person and number of their possessor. The forms of the prefix expressing first person singular is ne-, na-, or ni-, for second person singular it is a-, mwa'a-, a'a-. The third person singular is marked by the prefix ru-. A first person plural possessor is marked by the prefix ta-, second person plural by ha'amwa- and third person plural by wa'a-. Furthermore, there are two suffixes. One, -ra'an is used to mark an obviative or fourth person possessor. The other is -me'en used to mark a plural possessum of a singular possessor.

Possessive paradigm

Number/person of Possessor	Singular	Plural
1st person	nechi'i "my house"	tachi'i "our house"
2nd person	achi'i "your house"	há'amwachi'i "Your (pl.) house"
3rd person	ruchi'i "his/her own house"	wa'áchi'i "Their house"
4th person	chí'ira'an "the house of the other"
pl. possessum + 3.p.sg. possessor	chí'imeen "his/her houses"

Verbal morphology

Verbs are inflected for person and number of subject and direct object and object prefixes for 3rd person inanimate objects also show the basic shape of the object. Verbs are also inflected for location and direction. Verbs within the Cora language are also used to distinguish between locations, people, direction, and time.

Subject prefixes

				Prefijo (Spanish)	Prefix (English)
ni	ne	na	nu	yo	me
pi	pe	pa	pu	tú	You (informal)
	pu			él/ella	him/her
ti	te	ta	tu	Nosotros	us
si	se	sa	su	Ustedes	You (formal)
mi	me	ma	mu	ellos/ellas	them/us (masculine/femanin)

Example:

Jaʼatzuútac a ‘a nuja ‘umé   =   al rato me voy    = I'll go later

Cutzú                                   =   está dormido     = He's sleeping

Object prefixes

			Prefijo (Spanish)	Prefix (English)
na	naa	naʼa	me	I
mua	muaa	muaʼa	te	I
ra	raa	raʼa	lo/le	the
ta	taa	taʼa	nos	we
jamua	jamuaa	jaʼamua	les	them
hua	huaa	huaʼa	Los, les	them

Example:

náatapúajibe = regalame              = Gift me

jaʼachune timuáʼachaʼʌʌreʼe = Cuánto te debe?   = How much does he owe you?

Pecáraruure = No lo hagas!         = Don't do it!

Possessive Nouns

The prefix me- has three forms in the Cora language: ne, ni, and na. The variations of this prefix appear within different classes of nouns.

Cora	Spanish Translation	English Translation
nechiʼi	mi casa	My house
natáata	mi papá	My dad
nasʌté	mi dedo	My finger

The prefix "you" is indicated by ether: a, muaʼa, and aʼa.

Cora	Spanish Translation	English Translation
achiʼi	tu casa	Your house
muáʼajuu	tu hermanito	Your little brother
ajuú or áʼajuu	tu hermanito	Your little brother

Syntax

Typologically Cora is interesting because it is a VSO language but also has postpositions, a trait that is rare cross-linguistically but does occur in a few Uto-Aztecan languages (Papago, Tepehuán, and some dialects of Nahuatl). A VSO order is verb, subject, and object. This type of syntax form is the most common amongst Cora language. The VSO structure can be changed in order to show emphasis of certain words, phrases, and sounds.

Indirect object moved to the beginning for emphasis:

ex:

ne-‘ci

I-ACC

muni

bean

‘ya

give

ne-‘ci muni ‘ya

I-ACC bean give

"Give me the beans!"

Locatives and temporals moved to the beginning of sentence for emphasis:

ex:

‘régana

below

simí-le

go-PAST

‘régana simí-le

below go-PAST

"He went down below."

ex:

‘ma

now

simí-le

go-PAST

‘ma simí-le

now go-PAST

"He has already gone."

*Temporal má does not have a glottal, but it is added when it is being emphasized.

Emphasis seen in equative sentences:

ex:

alué

that

rió

man

huáni

PN

hú

is

alué rió huáni hú

that man PN is

"That man is John."

Discontinuous construction can be done by moving an adjective or an adverb to sentence-final position and giving it emphatic intonation:

ex:

‘líge

then

alé

there

wikóči

PN

napaī-ka

gather-EMPH

piésta

fiesta

olá-le-ru-ga-ra

do-PAST-PASS-STAT-QUOT

waʼlú

big

‘líge alé wikóči napaī-ka piésta olá-le-ru-ga-ra waʼlú

then there PN gather-EMPH fiesta do-PAST-PASS-STAT-QUOT big

"I am told that then they gathered there at Huicochi and a fiesta was held, a big one."

Pronoun copies

Subject pronoun suffix can co-occur with an explicit subject:

ex:

pé

just

ani-á

say-CONT

mučí-ru-ka

be:PL-we-EMPH

ramué-ka

we-EMPH

arégimi

LOC

pé ani-á mučí-ru-ka ramué-ka arégimi

just say-CONT be:PL-we-EMPH we-EMPH LOC

"That is what we were saying there."

Subject repeated by use of a pronoun:

ex:

Basačí-si

Coyote-also

‘líge

then

rowí-si

rabbit-also

‘líge

then

alué

they

napaí-ka

gather-EMPH

mučí-me

be:PL-PRTC

ka-rá-e

be-QUOT-DUB

ehperé-ga

live-CONT

hámi

wilds

Basačí-si ‘líge rowí-si ‘líge alué napaí-ka mučí-me ka-rá-e ehperé-ga hámi

Coyote-also then rabbit-also then they gather-EMPH be:PL-PRTC be-QUOT-DUB live-CONT wilds

"The coyote and the rabbit were living together in the wilds, they say."

Focus

Focus is a type of emphasis that shows "this very one" or "he himself is the one".

ex:

Alué

That

mukí

woman

tabilé

NEG

nakí

want

né

I

yé

this

‘nalí-na

very:one-LOC

nakí

want

né

I

Alué mukí tabilé nakí né yé ‘nalí-na nakí né

That woman NEG want I this very:one-LOC want I

"I don't want that woman. I want this one."

ex:

Yéʼ

This

‘nalí

very:one

ní-le-ke-‘e

be-PAST-QUOT-EMPH

Yéʼ ‘nalí ní-le-ke-‘e

This very:one be-PAST-QUOT-EMPH

"This was the one."

Examples of comparison between continuous construction and discontinuous:

ex:

Né

I

boʼné

myself

si-méla

go-FUT

Né boʼné si-méla

I myself go-FUT

"I myself will go."

ex:

boʼné

myself

simí-ka=ne

go-EMPH=I

boʼné simí-ka=ne

myself go-EMPH=I

"I myself went."

Apposition

Two nouns or noun phrases which have similar grammatical functions can come next to each other with the second further explaining the first:

ex:

‘líge

Then

alué

that

rió

man

luísi morío

PN

ani-lí-me

say-PASS-PRTC

‘líge alué rió {luísi morío} ani-lí-me

Then that man PN say-PASS-PRTC

"That man named Luis Morillo…"

Apposition can also be seen by a possessive pronoun preceded by a demonstrative pronoun:

ex:

Alué

That

né

my

baʼčí-la-ka

older:brother-POSS-EMPH

Alué né baʼčí-la-ka

That my older:brother-POSS-EMPH

"he (that one) my older brother"

Apposition can also give emphasis by repeating a sentence in different ways.

ex:

né-ka

I-EMPH

aʼlá

good

čeʼwá-ke-‘e

hit-QUOT-EMPH

gara-bé

good-DIM

nahká-la

ear-POSS

ili-gá

stand-CONT

alē

there

ćewā-ka

hit-EMPH

né

I

naʼnalī

very:one

alē-ge

there-side

‘má-ro-či

run-pass:by-when

né-ka aʼlá čeʼwá-ke-‘e gara-bé nahká-la ili-gá alē ćewā-ka né naʼnalī alē-ge ‘má-ro-či

I-EMPH good hit-QUOT-EMPH good-DIM ear-POSS stand-CONT there hit-EMPH I very:one there-side run-pass:by-when

"I hit him about on the ear. I myself hit him when he ran by on the side of the ridge."

Postpositions

Postpositions are attached directly to a pronominal base of some kind, which is the most common pattern in Uto-Aztecan language.

ex:

ta-

with

ham^wan

us

ta- ham^wan

with us

"with us"

Suffixing a postposition directly to a noun:

ex:

m^waka-

hand-

ta-

in-

n

his

m^waka- ta- n

hand- in- his

"in his hand"

wa- is used as a third-person plural postpositional object:

ex:

wa-

on

hap^wa

them

wa- hap^wa

on them

Inverted pronoun-copy construction:

ex:

wa-hap^wa?u-huci-m^wa

them-on their-younger brother-PL

wa-hap^wa?u-huci-m^wa

{them-on their-younger brother-PL}

on their younger brothers

The third-person postpositional base that is used in Cora is ru-. Many of the postpositions in Cora start with he- (or it can be ha- when the vowel that follows harmonizes).

Indirect pronoun-copy construction:

• -hece in/on/for < -he-ce < *-he-ciw < *pi-cii (him-P)
• -hete under < -he-te < *-he-tia < *pi-tua (him-P)
• -hemi with/about < -he-mi < *pi-mi (him=P)
• -ham^wan with/and < *-he-man < *pi-man (him-P)
• hap^wa on/above < *-he-pa < *pi-pa (him-P)

In Cora, the pre- or postpositions can be very similar in their form, but postpositions are typically bound forms and prepositions are free forms. These pairs can be illustrated through the following examples:

ex:

hap^wan

on

?i-čanaka

ART-earth

hap^wan ?i-čanaka

on ART-earth

"on the earth"

ex:

hecen

in

ru-muve

his-feather

hecen ru-muve

in his-feather

"by means of their feathershaft"

ex:

pu-ri

he-now

hecen

in

watara

go

sai

other

ru-čanaka

his-world

pu-ri hecen watara sai ru-čanaka

he-now in go other his-world

"Now he goes to his other world."

A member of the complex postpositional form is -na

ex:

?i-hatea-na-hece

ART-river-place of-in

?i-hatea-na-hece

{ART-river-place of-in}

"in the river"

Spacial concepts within the Cora language

The Cora language has a complex system of postpositions within its language. Words such as 'inside' and 'outside' have distinct markers that set them apart. To classify outside, the Cora people use the ending morpheme "u," while inside uses the morpheme "a".

(1)

ka-pú=a-tyé-nyee-ri-ʼi

not-it=outside-in middle-visible-APL-STAT

m-a-a

MED-outside-foot of slope

haa-taʼa

water-in

ka-pú=a-tyé-nyee-ri-ʼi m-a-a haa-taʼa

{not-it=outside-in middle-visible-APL-STAT} {MED-outside-foot of slope} water-in

'The river is muddy.'

(2)

u-ká-taa-sin

inside-down-burn-DUR

mɨ

ART

kantiira

candle

u-ká-taa-sin mɨ kantiira

inside-down-burn-DUR ART candle

The candle is burning.

The Inside and outside prepositions may not always be clear, in some cases they may be described as relative rather than absolute. The word deep can be classified using either a u or a morpheme.

Directional indicators

Used to indicate where an action is taking place

Cora	Spanish Translation	Translation (English)
jaʼu	hacia allá	Over there
jeʼi	hacia acá	Towards here
jaʼu and beʼe	ida y vuelta	Round trip
ta or taa	arriba	On top
ca or caa	abajo	Below
ata	alrededor	Around

Media

Cora-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEJMN-AM, broadcasting from Jesús María, Nayarit.

References

• Preuss, Konrad Theodor: Grammatik der Cora-SpracheGrammatik der Cora-Sprache, Columbia, New York 1932
• Miller, Wick. (1983). Uto-Aztecan languages. In W. C. Sturtevant (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 10, pp. 113–124). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Vázquez Soto, V. (2002). Some constraints on Cora causative constructions. TYPOLOGICAL STUDIES IN LANGUAGE, 48, 197–244.
• Vázquez Soto, V. (2011). The "uphill" and "downhill" system in Meseño Cora. Language Sciences, 33(6), 981–1005.
• Vázquez Soto, V. (2000). Morphology and Syllable Weight in Cora: The Case of the Absolutive Suffix-ti. Uto-Aztecan: Structural, Temporal, and Geographic Perspectives: Papers in Memory of Wick R. Miller by the Friends of Uto-Aztecan, 105.
• Vázquez Soto, V., Flores, J., & de Jesús López, I. (2009). " El ray". Una probadita de la narrativa y la gramática del cora meseño. Tlalocan, 16.
• Vázquez Soto, V. (1996). El participante no sujeto en Cora: orden de palabras, codificación y marcación de número. Memorias del III Encuentro de Lingüística del Noroeste, 533–54.
• Vázquez Soto, V. (2002). Cláusulas relativas en cora meseño. In Paulette Levy (ed.), Del cora al maya yucateco. Estudios lingüísticos sobre algunas lenguas indígenas mexicanas, 269–348.
• McMahon, Ambrosio & Maria Aiton de McMahon. (1959) Vocabulario Cora. Serie de Vocabularios Indigenas Mariano Silva y Aceves. SIL.
• McMahon, Ambrose. (1967). Phonemes and phonemic units of Cora (Mexico). International Journal of American Linguistics 33. 128–134.
• Casad, Eugene H. (1984). Cora. In Ronald W. Langacker (ed.), Studies in Uto-Aztecan grammar 4: Southern Uto-Aztecan grammatical sketches, 153–459. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
• Casad, Eugene H.. 2001. "Cora: a no longer unknown Southern Uto-Aztecan language." In José Luis Moctezuma Zamarrón and Jane H. Hill (eds), Avances y balances de lenguas yutoaztecas; homenaje a Wick R. Miller p. 109-122. Mexico, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia.
• Casad, E. H. (2012). From Space to Time: A cognitive analysis of the Cora locative system and its temporal extensions (Vol. 39). John Benjamins Publishing.
• Langacker, Ronald W. "The Syntax of Postpositions in Uto-Aztecan." International Journal of American Linguistics, vol. 43, no. 1, 1977, pp. 11–26.

External links

• ELAR archive of Language Documentation and Verbal Art among the Náayeri of Jesús María, Nayarit