Comanche

Comanche (Comanche: Nʉmʉ Tekwapʉ; ISO 639-3 com) is a Central Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family and the ancestral language of the Comanche Nation, now centered in southwestern Oklahoma. It developed historically from Shoshoni and remains closely related to it, but is a distinct language with its own sound changes, vocabulary, and community identity. Comanche has short and long vowels, including the central vowel written ʉ, and extensive suffixing morphology that builds complex words, especially verbs. The modern Latin-based Comanche alphabet, formally adopted by the Nation in 1994, represents vowel length and sounds not found in English. With fewer than fifty fluent first-language speakers reported in recent community-informed research, the language is critically endangered; the Comanche Nation Language Department supports reclamation through courses, teaching materials, recordings, and translation services.