Picuris (also Picurís) is a language of the Northern Tiwa branch of Tanoan spoken in Picuris Pueblo, New Mexico.

Genealogical relations

Picuris is partially mutually intelligible with Taos dialect, spoken at Taos Pueblo. It is slightly more distantly related to Southern Tiwa (spoken at Isleta Pueblo and Sandia Pueblo).

Phonology

! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | ! rowspan="2" | Bilabial ! colspan="2" | Dental ! rowspan="2" | Alveolar ! rowspan="2" | Palatal ! colspan="2" | Velar ! rowspan="2" | Glottal ! central ! lateral ! rowspan="4" | Stop ! voiced ! voiceless ! aspirated ! ejective ! colspan="2" | Fricative ! colspan="2" | Nasal ! colspan="2" |Approximant ! colspan="2" |Flap

Vowels

Picuris has 6 vowels. Picuris also has nasalized counterparts for each vowel. ! ! Front ! Back ! High ! Upper Mid ! Lower Mid ! Low Picuris has three degrees of stress: primary, secondary, and unstressed. Stress affects the phonetic length of syllable rimes (lengthening the vowel or the syllable-final sonorant consonant). Additionally, there are three tones: high, mid, and low — the mid tone being the most frequent.

Text

Two sentences with interlinear glosses: ˌʔìˈʔīˌnẽ́ ˌpāˈʔāˌnẽ́ ˌtāˈʔāˌnẽ́ ʔã̄nnã̄ˈpīaˌtʃí ˈmẽˌwíathā-ˌpʔīnˈwēlthā-ʔīˈkʔòˌthʌ̀ corn pumpkins beans we.two.will.make at.going.being-at.Picuris-we.good.dwell "Corn, pumpkins, beans, we live happily at Picuris by raising an abundant crop." ˈʔẽ́ kãˈxwẽ́ˌkì you you.have.the.tail "It's your turn."