Numic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family and the peoples who speak those languages across the Great Basin
2. Describing the languages, cultures, or peoples belonging to the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan speakers in western North America
3. Of or belonging to the subgroup of Uto-Aztec languages spoken by peoples such as the Shoshone, Paiute, and Comanche

Etymology: Numic is a term for a branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, spoken across the Great Basin and neighbouring parts of the western United States, and its name is built from the word for "person" in the languages themselves. The root reconstructed for the ancestral language is "nï(h)mï", meaning "person", and the adjective adds the suffix "-ic" to mark something as belonging to or relating to that people and their speech. Comanche, one of the descendant languages, keeps a closely related form, "nʉmʉ", which means the same thing. The pattern is a common one among speakers of these languages, who often used a word for "person" or "the people" as a name for themselves. Linguists adopted that self-designation when they grouped the related languages together, so the label records how the speakers described themselves rather than an outside name.