- Guarijio language
Infobox Language
name=Guarijío, Huarijío, Varihío, Macurawe
familycolor=American
speakers=5000
region=Mexico :Chihuahua ,Sonora
fam2=Uto-aztecan
fam3=Taracahitan
agency=Secretaría de Educación Pública
iso2=varGuarijio (properly spelled Guarijío in Spanish, also spelled Huarijío, Varihío, and Warihío) is an Uto-Aztecan language of the states of
Chihuahua andSonora in northwesternMexico . It is spoken by around 5,000 people, most of whom are monolinguals.Distribution
The language has two variants, known as Mountain Guarijio "(guarijío de la sierra)" and River Guarijio "(guarijío del río)". The mountain variant is chiefly spoke in the eastern portion of the municipality of
Uruachi (with a small number of speakers in Moris to the north and Chínipas to the south) and aroundArechuyvo , in the state of Chihuahua. The river variant is found to the southwest: most speakers inhabit theRío Mayo basin to the north of San Bernardo in the Sonoran municipality of Álamos.Speakers of Mountain Guarijio self-identify as "warihó" and call River Guarijio speakers "macurawe" or "makulái". River Guarijio speakers call themselves "warihío" and call Mountain speakers "
tarahumara s". Contact between the two groups is scant and, although the linguistic differences between the two are slight, speakers report that mutual comprehension is difficult.Grammar
The Guarijí language is notable typologically in that it shows an
Object Verb Subject sentence order, the rarest order found cross-linguistically.Phonology
The consonant inventory includes [Wick R. Miller: "Guarijío: Gramática, textos y Vocabulario", 1996, ISBN 968-36-4849-5] :
Media
Programming in Guarijio is carried by the CDI's radio station
XEETCH , broadcasting from city-state|Etchojoa|Sonora.References
External links
* [http://www.proel.org/mundo/guarijio.htm Lengua Guarijio] (In Spanish)
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=var Ethnologue Report]
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