A preliminary analysis of Southern Ute with a special focus on noun phrases

Abstract

This paper is an initial descriptive analysis of noun phrases in Southern Ute. This analysis begins with a brief sociolinguistic introduction to the Southern Ute tribe located in southwestern Colorado. Next Southern Ute phonemes are presented in the current official tribal orthography and the International Phonetic Alphabet. Various verb phrases are presented to develop a basic understanding of word order in Southern Ute. The internal structure of nouns is discussed followed by examples and discussions of various noun phrases. This paper is a springboard for further analysis of the Southern Ute language.