Comanche (langue)

Comanche (kəˈmæntʃi, endonym Nʉmʉ Tekwapʉ̲) is a Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Comanche people, who split from the Shoshone people soon after the Comanche had acquired horses around 1705. The Comanche language and the Shoshoni language are therefore quite similar, but certain consonant changes in Comanche have inhibited mutual intelligibility. The name Comanche comes from the Ute word kɨmantsi meaning 'enemy, stranger'. Their own name for the language is nʉmʉ tekwapʉ which means 'language of the people'. Although efforts are now being made to ensure its survival, most speakers of the language are elderly. In the late 19th century, Comanche children were placed in boarding schools where they were discouraged from speaking their native language, and even severely punished for doing so. The second generation then grew up speaking English, because of the belief that it was better for them not to know Comanche. The Comanche language was briefly prominent during World War II. A group of seventeen young men referred to as the Comanche Code Talkers were trained and used by the U.S. Army to send messages conveying sensitive information in the Comanche language so that it could not be deciphered by the enemy. As of July 2013, there were roughly 25-30 native speakers of the language, according to The Boston Globe. The Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee offers dictionaries and language learning materials. Comanche language courses were available at the now-closed Comanche Nation College. The college previously conducted a language recording project, as the language is "mostly oral," and emphasizing instruction for tribal members. As of 2022, there were fewer than nine fluent native speakers of Comanche, many of the old speakers having succumbed to old age, health problems or the COVID-19 pandemic. Comanche has a typical Numic vowel inventory of six vowels. In addition, there is the common diphthong /ai/.