Not to be confused with Teiwa language or Tiwa languages.
Tewa
Native to
United States
Region
New Mexico, Arizona
Ethnicity
Tewa people
Native speakers
1,600 (2007)[1]
Language family
Tanoan
Tewa
Language codes
ISO 639-3
tew
Glottolog
tewa1261
ELP
Tewa
Linguasphere
64-CAB-a
Tewa is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Tewa (IPA:[tewa]) is a Tanoan language spoken by some Pueblo people, mostly in the Rio Grande valley in New Mexico north of Santa Fe, and in Arizona. It is also known as Tano,[2] or Tée-wah (archaic). There is some disagreement among the Tewa people about whether or not Tewa should have a written form, as some Pueblo elders believe that their language should be preserved by oral tradition alone. Because of this, it was not until the 1960s that the language was written down for the first time. However, many Tewa speakers have decided that Tewa literacy is an important aspect in passing down the language and so orthographies have been created for this purpose.[3]
The language has struggled to maintain a healthy speaker base; however, because of efforts to preserve the language starting in the 1980s—both by native speakers and linguists—this problem is not as dire as it for some other indigenous languages.
Tewa has a fairly large phoneme inventory with 45 distinct individual sounds. Twelve of these are vowels, which can be either long or short. Tewa, like other Tanoan languages, also makes use of tones, of which it has four.
^"UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
^"Tewa (Tano) Language and the Tewa Indian Tribes (Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara, and Tesuque Pueblos)". Retrieved 2012-09-27.
^"Tano/Tewa Indian Language". Retrieved 2023-01-29.
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