Tewa is a Native American language spoken by Pueblo people, mostly in the Rio Grande valley in New Mexico north of Santa Fe. It belongs to the Tewa-Tiwa branch of the Kiowa-Tanoan family. The 1980 census counted 1,298 speakers, almost all of whom are bilingual in English. Each pueblo or reservation where it is spoken has a dialect:

• Nambe Pueblo : 50 speakers
• Pojoaque Pueblo : 25 speakers
• San Ildefonso Pueblo: 349 speakers
• San Juan Pueblo : 495 speakers
• Santa Clara Pueblo: 207 speakers
• Tesuque Pueblo : 172 speakers

Tewa is also spoken by Tewa people who live at Hano on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona.

In the names "Pojoaque" and "Tesuque", the element spelled "que" (pronounced something like /ge/ in Tewa, or /ki/ in English) is Tewa for "place".

A system for writing Tewa with the Latin alphabet has been devised. It is occasionally used for such purposes as signs (Be-pu-wa-ve, "Welcome"). Otherwise, unlike such languages as Navajo and Cherokee, Tewa is not normally written by its speakers.

External link

Ethnologue page on Tewa