Quechan

Quechan or Kwtsaan (/kʷt͡sa:n/, Kwatsáan Iiyáa), also known as Yuma, is the native language of the Quechan people of southeastern California and southwestern Arizona in the Lower Colorado River Valley and Sonoran Desert. Despite its name, it is not related to the Quechua language of the Andes.

Quechan belongs to the River branch of the Yuman language family, together with Mohave and Maricopa languages. Publications have documented Quechan grammar and texts.

In 1980, it was estimated that there were fewer than 700 speakers of the language, including both the elderly and young. Hinton put a conservative estimate of the number of speakers at 150, and a liberal estimate at 400–500. As of 2009, 93 preschoolers were learning Quechan in the Quechan tribe's language preservation program, and the number of fluent speakers was estimated to be about 100. A Quechan dictionary was in progress.

From Wikipedia · Quechan language · CC BY-SA 4.0