Mojave language

Mohave
Mojave
Hamakhav
RegionArizona and California, U.S.
Ethnicity2,000 Mohave people (2007)[1]
Native speakers
200 (2015 census)[2]
Yuman
Language codes
ISO 639-3mov Mohave
Glottologmoha1256  Mohave
ELPMojave
Mojave is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Mohave or Mojave[a] is the native language of the Mohave people along the Colorado River in northwestern Arizona, southeastern California, and southwestern Nevada. Approximately 70% of the speakers reside in Arizona, while approximately 30% reside in California. It belongs to the River branch of the Yuman language family, together with Quechan and Maricopa.

The Mojave language became endangered during the manifest destiny movement of the 19th century when Mohave and other Native American children were taken away from their parents and tribes to be placed in boarding schools, where they were prohibited from speaking their language. The schools went so far as to prohibit students from speaking their native tongue even with their parents when they occasionally visited home; many parents did not speak English.[7][8][9]

  1. ^ a b Mojave language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Mohave at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
  3. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forke, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2020). "Mohave". Glottolog 4.3.
  4. ^ "Mohave". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  5. ^ "Mohave". American Heritage Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  6. ^ "Mohave". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins Publishers. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  7. ^ Penfield 2005.
  8. ^ Penfield & Tucker 2011.
  9. ^ Weinberg & Penfield 2000.


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