Native to United States Ethnicity Tiwa people | Region New Mexico, Arizona Native speakers 2,700 (2007) | |
Language family Tanoan
Tiwa–Tewa?
Tiwa ISO 639-3 Variously:
tix – Southern Tiwa
twf – Northern Tiwa
pie – Piro | ||
Tiwa /ˈtiːwə/ (Spanish Tigua, also E-nagh-magh) is a group of two, possibly three, related Tanoan languages spoken by the Tiwa Pueblo, and possibly Piro Pueblo, in the U.S. state of New Mexico.
Contents
Subfamily members and relations
Southern Tiwa is spoken in Isleta Pueblo, Sandia Pueblo, and Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (Tigua Pueblo).
The remaining two languages form a subgrouping known as Northern Tiwa. Northern Tiwa consists of Taos spoken in Taos Pueblo and Picuris spoken in Picuris Pueblo.
The extinct language of Piro Pueblo may also have been Tiwa, but this is uncertain. See Piro Pueblo language.
History
After the Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish conquistadors in 1680, some of the Tigua and Piro peoples fled south with the Spanish to El Paso del Norte (present-day Ciudad Juárez, Mexico). There they founded Ysleta del Sur, Texas; Socorro, Texas; and Senecú del Sur, Mexico. Their descendants live in these communities to this day.