Shoshoni language

Shoshoni, also written as Shoshoni-Gosiute and Shoshone (, shoh-SHOH-nee; Shoshoni orthography: Sosoni' ta̲i̲kwappe, newe ta̲i̲kwappe or neme ta̲i̲kwappeh), is a Uto-Aztecan language from the Numic branch spoken in the Western United States by the Shoshone. Shoshoni is primarily spoken in the Great Basin in areas of Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and Idaho. The phonemes of Shoshoni are few, but a wide range of allophones appear in the spoken language. The language has six vowels distinctions (including one that is underlyingly a diphthong), which are each also distinguished by length. Shoshoni is strongly suffixing, inflecting nouns for number and case, and distinguishes verbs for aspect and tense. Word order is relatively free, but shows a preference toward subject–object–verb word order order. The endonyms newe ta̲i̲kwappe and Sosoni' ta̲i̲kwappe mean "the people's language" and "the Shoshoni language", respectively. Shoshoni is classified as threatened, although attempts at language revitalization are underway.