Huarijio language


Huarijio is a Uto-Aztecan language of the states of Chihuahua and Sonora in northwestern Mexico. It is spoken by around 5,000 Huarijio people, most of whom are monolinguals.

Distribution

The language has two variants, known as Mountain Guarijio ' and River Guarijio '. The mountain variant is chiefly spoken in the eastern portion of the municipality of Uruachi and around Arechuyvo, in the state of Chihuahua.
The river variant is found to the southwest: most speakers inhabit the Río 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 "tarahumaras". Contact between the two groups is scant and, although the linguistic differences between the two are slight, speakers report that mutual comprehension is difficult.

Morphology

Guarijio is an agglutinative language, where words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together. The Guarijí language is notable typologically in that it shows an object–verb–subject sentence order, one of the rarest order found cross-linguistically.

Phonology

The consonant inventory includes:
The vowel inventory includes: /a/, /i/, /e/, /o/, /u/.

Media

Programming in Guarijio is carried by the CDI's radio station XEETCH, broadcasting from Etchojoa, Sonora.