Cora
naáyarite
Region	Mexico:Nayarit,Jalisco,Durango United States:Colorado,Arizona,Nevada,Utah
Ethnicity	Cora
Native speakers	33,000 (2020 census)[1]
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
Precolonial distribution of Cora and surrounding Uto-Aztecan languages
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Cora is anindigenous language of Mexico of theUto-Aztecanlanguage family, spoken by approximately 30,000 people.^[2] It is spoken by the ethnic group that is widely known as theCora, but who refer to themselves asNaáyarite. The Cora inhabit the northern sierra of the Mexican stateNayarit 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.^[3] Cora is aMesoamerican language and shows many of the traits defining theMesoamerican Linguistic Area^{[citation needed]}. Under theGeneral Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, it is recognized as a "national language", along with 62 other indigenous languages andSpanish which have the same "validity" in Mexico.^[4]

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

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

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.^[5]

Cora is spoken in a number of dialects, some of which have difficult mutual intelligibility. TheInternational Organization for Standardization distinguishes two languages, and theInstituto 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)

TheTotorame [es] were reported in the 16th century to speak Cora.^[6]

The closest relatives of the Cora language is theHuichol language together with which it forms theCoracholan subgroup of theUto-Aztecan languages.

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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 simpletonal system orpitch 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:^[7]

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).

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.

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

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

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.

Cora is a verb-initial language; its grammar isagglutinative andpolysynthetic, particularly inflecting verbs with many affixes and clitics. There are a number of adpositional clitics that can also be used asrelational 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.^[8]

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

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 bysuppletion.

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.

Pluralization can also be indicated by having a vowel reduplicated:

Pluralization is also indicated through the use of accents.  

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

Possessed nouns are marked with a prefix expressing the person and number of their possessor. The forms of the prefix expressing first person singular isne-,na-, orni-, for second person singular it isa-,mwa'a-,a'a-. The third person singular is marked by the prefixru-. A first person plural possessor is marked by the prefixta-, second person plural byha'amwa- and third person plural bywa'a-. Furthermore, there are two suffixes. One, -ra'an is used to mark anobviative orfourth person possessor. The other is -me'en used to mark a plural possessum of a singular possessor.

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.

Example:

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

Cutzú                                   =   está dormido     = He's sleeping^[9]

Example:

náatapúajibe = regalame              = Gift me

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

Pecáraruure = No lo hagas!         = Don't do it!^[9]

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

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

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 ofNahuatl). 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:

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

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

Emphasis seen in equative sentences:

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

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

Subject repeated by use of a pronoun:

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

Examples of comparison between continuous construction and discontinuous:

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

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

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

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

Suffixing a postposition directly to a noun:

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

Inverted pronoun-copy construction:

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:

A member of the complex postpositional form is -na

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".

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 au ora morpheme.[10]

Used to indicate where an action is taking place

Cora-language programming is carried by theCDI's radio stationXEJMN-AM, broadcasting fromJesús María, Nayarit.

• 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.

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

• Agglutinative languages
• Indigenous languages of Mexico
• Mesoamerican languages
• Southern Uto-Aztecan languages
• Endangered Uto-Aztecan languages
• Verb–subject–object languages

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