Keresan, also called Keres, is spoken by the Keres Pueblo peoples of New Mexico and is classified, depending on the analysis, either as a small language family or as a single language isolate with several dialects; under the isolate analysis it would be the most widely spoken language isolate within the United States. It had about 13,190 speakers as of a 2013 estimate, divided between an Eastern Keres group, spoken at the Cochiti, San Felipe, Kewa, Zia and Santa Ana pueblos, and a Western Keres group, spoken at Acoma and Laguna. The two groups remain mutually intelligible with their closest neighbors even as the differences between Eastern and Western Keres are substantial.
Facts
Speaker Count Proto-Language StatusClassified either as a small language family or as a single language isolate with several dialects; if treated as an isolate it would be the most widely spoken language isolate within the United States, and it is now generally considered a language isolate. Earlier proposals linking it to a Hokan-Siouan stock (Sapir), to Wichita (Swadesh), or to a Keresiouan superstock with Siouan, Yuchi, Caddoan and Iroquoian (Greenberg) have not been validated by subsequent research. 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Keres Language
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction, first sentence
spoken by the Keres Pueblo people in New Mexico
Classification section, final sentence
None of these proposals has been validated by subsequent linguistic research.
Classification, Internal classification subsection
In 2013, there was an estimate total of 13,190 speakers.
View the Source Wikidata: Keresan
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