Uto-Aztecan

American  

[yoo-toh-az-tek-uhn] / ˈju toʊˈæz tɛk ən /

noun

1. an American Indian language family, widespread from Idaho to Central America and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean: this family includes Hopi, Ute, Shoshone, Comanche, Nahuatl, Tohono O'odham, Pima, and other languages.

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adjective

1. of or relating to Uto-Aztecan.

Uto-Aztecan British  

/ ˈjuːtəʊˈæztɛkən /

noun

1. a family of North and Central American Indian languages including Nahuatl, Shoshone, Pima, and Ute

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adjective

1. of or relating to this family of languages or the peoples speaking them

Etymology

Origin of Uto-Aztecan

First recorded in 1890–95; Ut(e) + -o- + Aztecan ( def. )

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Uto-Aztecan

Today, Mexico’s most commonly spoken languages are Spanish and Nahuatl, an Uto-Aztecan language.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2023

Today, Mexico’s official languages are Spanish and Nahuatl — an Uto-Aztecan language.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2023

Distressed trans-desert pedestrians are invited—in English, Spanish and O’odham, a Uto-Aztecan language spoken in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico—to press a red button on the 30-foot-tall communication towers to initiate rescue.

From Time ● Jul. 21, 2017

These legacies may include the Uto-Aztecan languages of Mesoamerica and the western United States, the Oto-Manguean languages of Mesoamerica, the Natchez-Muskogean languages of the U.S.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

With the exception of the Paiute-Shoshone split, language differences gave no firm basis for differentiation, and even this major division of the Uto-Aztecan stock was commonly not recognized.

From Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and Society by Robert F. Murphy

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