Numic languages

Numic
Geographic
distribution
Western United States
Linguistic classificationUto-Aztecan
Subdivisions
  • Western Numic
  • Central Numic
  • Southern Numic
Language codes
Glottolognumi1242

Numic is the northernmost branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It includes seven languages spoken by Native American peoples traditionally living in the Great Basin, Colorado River basin, Snake River basin, and southern Great Plains. The word Numic comes from the cognate word in all Numic languages for “person”, which reconstructs to Proto-Numic as /*nɨmɨ/. For example, in the three Central Numic languages and the two Western Numic languages it is /nɨmɨ/. In Kawaiisu it is /nɨwɨ/ and in Colorado River /nɨwɨ/, /nɨŋwɨ/ and /nuu/.

Tree of Numic languages. Dialects are in italics.