Online Encyclopedia
Hopi language
Hopi is an Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Hopi people of northeastern Arizona, although today many Hopi are monolingual English speakers.
The use of the language gradually declined over the course of the 20th century. In 1990, it was estimated that over 5,000 other people could speak Hopi natively, at least 40 of them monolingual.
Despite the fact that relatively few people can speak Hopi, it is very unlikely that it will face the danger of extinction in the near future, as the language is making a comeback. Many Hopi children are being raised in the language, a comprehensive Hopi-English dictionary has been published, and a group called the Hopi Literacy Project has focused its attention on promoting the language.
Phonology
Hopi has six vowels, written a, e, i, o, u, and ö. The first five are pronounced approximately as in the English words want, met, pit, off, and put, while the last is roughly the same as in German. All six vowels occur in long and short forms; long vowels are indicated in writing by doubling them. Long vowels differ slightly in quality as well as in length from their short counterparts.