Taracahitic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to the Taracahitic group of Uto-Aztecan languages and the Indigenous peoples who speak them in northwestern Mexico
2. Describing the Taracahitic linguistic family, or the peoples of Sonora and Chihuahua and their cultures, within Uto-Aztecan
3. Of or belonging to the Taracahitic branch of Uto-Aztecan languages spoken by Indigenous communities of northwestern Mexico

Etymology: The name is a compound built from two language names: "Tarahumara" and "Cahita." Both are labels outsiders gave to peoples of northwestern Mexico. Tarahumara is the Spanish name for the people who call themselves Rarámuri, and Cahita is a name associated with the Yaqui and Mayo peoples and their closely related languages. Linguists joined the two into a single label for a branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, and the "-itic" ending is the standard adjectival suffix used for language and group names, as in "Semitic." The label covers a set of related languages spoken in parts of northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States. Its members include Tarahumara, the Cahitan languages such as Yaqui and Mayo, and several others. Specialists have debated the exact membership and internal structure of the group, so the term names a family grouping rather than one language.