A Language Isolate in New Mexico - Keres 

Hello sir .my sister, father and I are from kewa Pueblo. My father and I are fluent in Keres, my sister is still learning. My father was very interested in you video.Your right about us slowly loosing our language. We really enjoyed your video, and thank you for shining a light on the Pueblos culture.

I randomly heard people speaking a Keresan language at a gas station near the San Felipe Pueblo, it was at the Black Mesa Casino run by the tribe. At first I thought it was Navajo, but I had heard Navajo before and it sounded very distinct. I was shocked to see very young people casually speaking the language fluently, so it seems that in these pueblos, the people are all using the language every day, which really makes me happy. It was a happy accident that I got to listen to a rare language isolate being spoken at the urinals while I went to the bathroom in a casino.

From Wiki on split ergativity: 'In linguistic typology, split ergativity is a feature of certain languages where some constructions use ergative syntax and morphology, but other constructions show another pattern, usually nominative-accusative. The conditions in which ergative constructions are used varies among different languages. [1]'

True, decrease of fluent speakers of "keres" speakers. There's more official name of the language but also said in "keres". Yes and Spanish slang is mixed in with keresan and the actual dialect is nearly gone. "Outside" world keres is different than the actual traditional language of the natives of this particular land within the homes. The Elders living and gone have the actual "keres" language with them. They stress so much for us Pueblo people to sit and listen with the Elders even if don't fully understand yet. Also in our ceremonies there is strictly no loud English speaking. unless by permission to translate for younger people who are non/ or barely fluent in more opened ceremonies for feast days (men, woman, and kids). Best way to learn a native language of any sort is directly from family.

That's what Google Bard told me: "A split-ergative language is a language that uses ergative alignment in some contexts and nominative-accusative alignment in others. "Ergative alignment is a system of marking grammatical relations in a language where the subject of a transitive verb (the agent) is marked differently from the subject of an intransitive verb (the patient) and the object of a transitive verb (the theme). "Nominative-accusative alignment is a system of marking grammatical relations in a language where the subject of both transitive and intransitive verbs is marked the same, and the object of a transitive verb is marked differently. "In other words, in a split-ergative language, the subject of a transitive verb may be marked like the subject of an intransitive verb, or like the object of a transitive verb, depending on the context. "Here are some examples of split-ergative languages: "Hindi: In Hindi, the subject of a transitive verb is marked with the ergative case if the verb is in the perfective aspect and the object of the verb is a third-person pronoun. Otherwise, the subject of a transitive verb is marked with the nominative case. Chol: In Chol, the subject of an intransitive verb is marked with the absolutive case, while the subject of a transitive verb is marked with the ergative case. However, in the non-perfective aspect, the subject of both transitive and intransitive verbs is marked with the ergative case. "Columbia River Sahaptin: In Columbia River Sahaptin, the subject of a transitive verb is marked with the ergative case if the subject is third-person and the object is first- or second-person. Otherwise, the subject of a transitive verb is marked with the nominative case. "Split-ergative languages are interesting because they show that there is no one-size-fits-all way to organize grammatical relations in a language. Different languages use different systems depending on their history and the needs of their speakers."

toki pona helped me understand ergativity. Normally toki pona is Nom-acc. working as such; Subject li verb e object. Subj li verb. jan li tawa e ijo - the person moves the thing jan li tawa - the person moves But with the grammatical particles this can very strictly be interpreted as the verb before the 'e' applying to, changing and applying its state to what comes after the 'e'. Arguably the action of doing a verb to an object makes the verb also usable as an adjective. So if [jan li tawa e ijo] then the [ijo] becomes an [ijo tawa]. This also happens to be true if there is no object for the subject so if [jan li tawa] then [jan] becomes [jan tawa]. But this means its ripe for a bit of ergativity if we play with the grammar. jan li tawa e ijo. - the person moved the thing. tawa e jan. - the person moved. As such the function of the verb remains the same, to apply itself and its adjective to the object. So the same way that [ijo] becomes [ijo tawa], [jan] becomes [jan tawa] (that is, using the same grammatical feature). This may be jibberish to non toki pona speakers but it helped me understand it so there you go. I'd also be interedted to know if Keres sign has ergativity and how that presents in a sign language. Usually sign languages don't really have nominiative/accusative or ergativity - usually verbs either happen from one party to another pretty explicitly (even if some of these is dropped) or they just happen, with noone initiating them and the "subject" more being a context setter. So if I were to sign ME SWEAT in BSL the sign sweat doesn't really work in such a way that its me that is *doing* it as English has it, its more that the sign ME contextualises that the sweat is coming from and on my body.

The fact that Native American residential schools come up in so many of your videos actually proves an important point. It demonstrates the huge amount of distinct, varied cultures and languages in North America that were all heavily damaged by this extreme racism. It's a miracle that so many schools teaching Native American languages exist today, but that is only the beginning of undoing the damage.

Awesome thank you for representing my people.

Your videos are so underrated! Your analysis and explanations are excellent, please keep it up!

I'm a L2 speaker of Griko (Calabria), and I've just found out your channel. Amazing! If you desire to dedicate a video about Griko, I can help you.

Pleasure being the first to view and comment! Ты настоящий молодец, твои ролики великие! כל הכבוד אחי!

Just a suggestion but a video about basque-Icelandic pidgin which in my opinion is the weirdest language fusion ever it super strange or a video about Scottish Gaelic (my grandmothers native language)

So awesome! Just showed this to my Keres class! Thanks for this overview!

Kwakwhá um it matamìnpit Akookavit epnìiqat yuku.--Thank you for making this video about the Keres people. I am Hopi from the village of Sitsomʼovi, and I am happy to see so much interest in our history--recounting our struggles past and present, while also acknowledging our resilience.

My grandmother on my mom's side is Pueblo, from New Mexico and her native language is Keres...I would like to learn it.

For those interested in Keresan languages, there is an available book by Wick R. Miller, "Acoma Grammar and Texts", University of California Press, 1965. The reluctance to let their languages be learned, studied, analyzed is widerspread among North American Indians. For instance, no real work could be done in the past twenty years on Shawnee. The Indians would rather have the languages die with them, and unfortunately their wish is rapidly coming true.

Love the way you explained ergativity, one of the first times I've ever actually understood the concept, well put

Spanish is my favorite example of a non-ergative language since that which is in a state because of some outside force, circumstance or location can be described by Estar + verbs, whereas, when the action comes from within, whether it's towards another, or the self, it's usually time to use a Ser + verb. The non-ergative is certainly a great invention and probably changed, or was because change of much.

A major source for those interested in North American languages is Marianne Mithun's "The Languages of Native North America", Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Commenting for the algorithm. On a binge of this excellent content

This was an amazing video, I walked across America and they spoke this language on the reservations. Nicest people I’ve ever met. Even gave me some piki bread

Good video mate,isolated languages are the most curious and nicer languages to study.

Lol I bet you would be shocked on how to actually say Gukacha Keres speaker 🙌🏾 awesome vid

I love visiting Jemez Pueblo. They all speak Towa which I was surprised to hear them speaking to the kids/students. And switching back to English to speak to us Hispanics. Really neat to hear the difference in Towa from Tewa. I was born in raised in española valley and grew up heavily influenced by the 8 northern Tewa speaking Pueblos (Ohkay Owingeh and Santa Clara Pueblo). I know some words in Tewa, but listening to Towa being spoken. That was like listening to Mandarin

hi, I'm from kewa and I'm 11 years old and I'm very fluent with speaking keres

Yes I agree with the theory of dialects I am from Laguna and we speak the western dialect but time and distance makes it hard to fully understand some of the Eastern speakers

I'm from cochiti and we use keres

The Pueblo Revolt is a fascinating piece of history, especially the role of Domingo Naranjo and his two sons, Jose and Lucas. Tragic in a particularly Shakespearean way. Also interesting that the secrecy about Keres languages and religion seems to have influenced how the Navajo/Dineh stories about the Pueblos & Anasazi have come to be more widely known... There is a rich history there that will probably never be truly known by what serms to be deliberate policy...

FYI Kewa is still Santo Domingo… the name never changed or approved by our tribal council.

Hokan is not a language family. It is an unproven and largely abandoned hypothesis. Many languages once considered Hokan are isolates.

Hello. Georgian is also a split ergative language. I'm not sure what the patterning is in Keres. In Georgian, it varies by tense: The man (nominative) reads the book (accusative); The man (ergative ) read the book (nominative).; The man (dative) must have read the book (nominative). Some of the Australian languages are also split ergative but they split along pronominal lines, e.g., I (nominative) read the book (accusative) : You/He (ergative) read/s the book (nominative.)

Can u tell me how to pronounce hello in keres? Its for school?

Living in New Mexico I am curious, what is your take on the Anasazi people that apparently disappeared from the four corners area (New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah)? What was the language base of the Anasazi, and does it connect in any way to the Keres dialects that you are speaking about now?

I’m from santo domingo Pueblo

As for nominative/accusative explanation, there is an example of that in English, that being the differentiation between I/me, he/him and she/her. So going with that it would be: NOM/ACC: He was chasing her. He was sweating. ERG/ABS: He was chasing her. Him was sweating.

Just sad 😢 very few speakers

It's only taught from other speakers by their permission or family it also wasn't written

CO-CHI-Ti almost like coach a ti , but I’ll give it you saying based on research

Ah meh rrow ah hopah ah...hin al KEWA MEH SOOTAH...SPEE YAH CHRIS 😝😝😝

Looking for study buddy or teaçher of Kewa

Agreed it is the BEST state flag!

I am a Keres speaker, and it is true

Theirs old language in kewa and new language in keres some of us speak new language that in kewa

I am absolutely certain that it is totally irrelevant, yet I can not resist mentioning for the irony in view of the misterious nature of 'Keres' that the word means in Hungarian (he/she/it) search(es) (or, is searching). The only imperfection of this coincidence is that the Hungarian final 's' equals English 'sh'. Still keres it is! It keres relations, to be clear.

Im Navajo, but my 2nd clan says Im Zia Pueblo weaver clan. I did a DNA. What!? There it was 94% Navajo, 5% Pueblo. 1% Spain. My Navajo clans and DNA line up.

That's 2000 in each of the seven places. Not exactly endangered Pueblo, Castilian for " population " or village.

I have read that Kurdish is split-ergative.

Acoma ACK-uh-muh

Very cool, it would have been nice to leave the orthography off the screen out of respect but I understand the need to have the visual aid while giving examples. Keep the native American languages coming!

In first place your saying words in keres is wrong

We accept you ❤️ Let's see you try The boy is drinking a cup of water. .. 🤘 Let's see

The fact that the people themselves don't want the language to be written down unfortunately won't help its preservation at all, that's unfortunate.

quick correction, i know a lot of white people say "Uh-coma" but its more pronounced "Ah-cu-muh".

Kiowa = KAI-uh-wuh

I have seen some good information that the Basques originated from Armenia then later influenced the Iroquois language. I want to learn Keres.

Kurdish is an Indo-European ergative language

They invented it like Esperanto.

This attitude towards language secrecy doesn't really help preservation.

Please get "schooled" on proper pronunciation of "Acoma". It's not A-Coma! 🤦

not at all respectful to an entire people - fellow members of the human family - to synopsis this as "crazy" just to get hits - really - folks out there are looking at this - as a linguist you can appreciate the importance of the words you are using and how they feel to others