Keres
/ˈkɛrɛs
/noun (plural same)
1A member of a Pueblo Indian people inhabiting parts of New Mexico.
2 [mass noun] The language of the Keres, of unknown affinity, with fewer than 8,000 speakers.There are a multitude of reasons why the young men & women turning twenty-one this year are far less fluent in Keres than the twenty-one year olds of twenty-five years ago....
- Many of Lucero's students through the years have primarily spoken English, while most of the older people were fluent in their native language of Keres.
adjective
Relating to the Keres or their language.Here, as she does on many other occasions, Silko employs italics to introduce some background information about the traditions of the Keres people (their food and dances), as well as about coyote language....
- As with Tiwa, Tewa and Towa, there is some disagreement among the Keres people as to whether Keres should be a written language or not.
- Balance and harmony are two primary assumptions of the Keres people who inhabit the Laguna and Acoma Pueblos of New Mexico.
Derivatives
Keresan
- Since the Keresan language is primarily an oral language and is actively spoken by the Laguna as well as other Pueblo peoples, such an assumption was not only inaccurate but offensive to many of them.
Origin
From American Spanish Queres, from American Indian.