Kumeyaay language
| Kumeyaay | |
|---|---|
| Southern Diegueño | |
| Native to | United States, Mexico |
| Region | California, Baja California |
| Ethnicity | Kumeyaay |
Native speakers | 40–50 Kumeyaay in the United States (2020) (assuming all Diegeño in Mexico are Tiipai) |
Yuman
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | dih (as part of Diegueño) |
| Glottolog | kumi1248 Tipai |
| ELP | Kumeyaay |
Kumeyaay (Kumiai), more precisely known as Central Diegueño or Campo, is the Native American language spoken by the Kumeyaay people of southern San Diego and Imperial counties in California.
Hinton in 1994 suggested a conservative estimate of 50 native speakers of Kumeyaay.
Kumeyaay belongs to the Yuman language family and to the Delta–California branch of that family. Kumeyaay and its neighbors, ʼIipay to the north and Tiipay to the south, were often considered to be dialects of a single Diegueño language, but the 1990 consensus among linguists seems to be that at least three distinct languages are present within the dialect chain.
Confusingly, Kumeyaay is commonly used as a designation both for the central language of this family and for the ʼIipay-Tiipay-Kumeyaay people as a whole. Tiipay is also commonly used as a collective designation for speakers of both Kumeyaay and Tiipay proper.