Жаңа Мексиканың жеке тілі: Керес тілі

Language isolate of New Mexico, United States

Keres (/k//ə/'/ɹ//iː//s/), also Keresan ('/k//ɛ//ɹ//ᵻ//s//ən/), is a Native American language, spoken by the Keres Pueblo people in New Mexico. Depending on the analysis, Keres is considered a small language family or a language isolate with several dialects. The varieties of each of the seven Keres pueblos are mutually intelligible with its closest neighbors. There are significant differences between the Western and Eastern groups, which are sometimes counted as separate languages.

Keres is now considered a language isolate. In the past, Edward Sapir grouped it together with a Hokan–Siouan stock. Morris Swadesh suggested a connection with Wichita. Joseph Greenberg grouped Keres with Siouan, Yuchi, Caddoan, and Iroquoian in a superstock called Keresiouan. None of these proposals has been validated by subsequent linguistic research.

Keresan has between 42 and 45 consonant sounds, and around 40 vowel sounds, adding up to a total of about 85 phonemes, depending on the analysis and the language variety. Based on the classification in the World Atlas of Language Structures, Keres is a language with a large consonant inventory. The great number of consonants relates to the three way distinction between voiceless, aspirated and ejective consonants (e. g. /t tʰ tʼ/), and to the larger than average number of fricatives (i. e. /s sʼ ʂ ʂʼ ʃ ʃʼ h/) and affricates, the latter also showing the three way distinction found in stops. The large number of vowels derives from a distinction made between long and short vowels (e. g. /e eː/), as well as from the presence of tones and voicelessness. Thus, a single vowel quality may occur with seven distinct realizations: /é è e̥ éː èː êː ěː/, all of which are used to distinguish words in the language.

The only sequence of consonants (i. e. consonant cluster) that occurs in native Keresan words is a sequence of a fricative /ʃ ʂ/ and a stop or affricate. Clusters are restricted to beginnings of syllables (i. e. the syllable onset). When the alveolo palatal consonant /ʃ/ occurs as C1, it combines with alveolar and palatal C2, whereas the retroflex alveolar /ʂ/ precedes bilabial and velar C2s, which suggest a complementary distribution. Consonant clusters may occur both word initially and word medially. The language's religious connotation and years of persecution of Pueblo religion by European colonizers may also explain why no unified orthographic convention exists for Keresan. However, a practical spelling system has been developed for Laguna (Kʼawaika) both of which are remarkably consistent. In the Keres spelling system, each symbol represents a single phoneme. The letters ⟨c q z f⟩ and sometimes also ⟨v⟩ are not used. Digraphs represent both palatal consonants (written using a sequence of C and ⟨y⟩), and retroflex consonants, which are represented using a sequence of C and the letter ⟨r⟩. These graphemes used for writing Western Keres are shown between ⟨ ⟩ below.

Woodpecker and Coyote and whether it occurred or not (polarity). On the other hand, information about when the action took place (i. e. tense) is expressed elsewhere in a clause, mostly by adverbs. Actions that take an object are encoded by transitive verbs, whereas those that take no object are expressed via intransitive verbs.

Keres was one of the seven languages sung in the Coca Cola "It's Beautiful" commercial during the 2014 Super Bowl featuring "America the Beautiful".