Cahuilla /kəˈwiːə/, or Ivilyuat (Ɂívil̃uɂat or Ivil̃uɂat [ʔivɪʎʊʔat]), is an endangered Uto-Aztecan language, spoken by the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the Coachella Valley, San Gorgonio Pass and San Jacinto Mountains region of southern California.

[3] The Cahuilla demonyms include Ɂívil̃uwenetem or Iviatam–speakers of Ivilyuat (Iviɂa)–or táxliswet meaning "person.

With such a decline, Ivilyuat is classified as "critically endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger as most speakers are middle-aged or older with limited transmission rates to children.

This Californian subgroup consisting of Cupan and Serran languages was once titled the Takic group which has fallen out of use.

One of the indigenous designations for the language is Ɂívil̃uɂat, alongside ʼÍvilluʼat, where Cahuilla could call themselves Ɂívil̃uqalet (s)/Ɂívil̃uwenetem (pl.

A salient feature found in Ivilyuat is the phenomenon of voiceless vowels which occur in word-final positions or around /ʔ/.

Words in Ivilyuat may never start with a vowel, and consonant clusters generally indicate the break between morphemic units.

Generally, stress falls on the first syllable of the root, however there are numerous cases of doubt and ambiguity.

It uses various affixes, alternating between prefixes and suffixes, to change the meaning and grammatical function of words.

This phenomenon permeates the language such that some words are examples of a double derivation, such as 'blue/green' (túkvašnekiš).

The word for the colour, túkvašnekiš, is derived from 'that which comes from heaven' which in turn comes from 'the thing where carrying [of the sun?]

Number is marked with the suffixes -m, -em, -im and -am (táxliswetem 'the Indigenous people'), making a simple singular/plural distinction.

The object is marked with the oblique case suffix (obl) -i, -y and -iy which sometimes includes glottalization either through insertion or infixation:

The lative case appears to combine only with construct state nouns only: Case and plural endings can combine with one another, especially the locative and ablative: Pronouns in Ivilyuat can be broken down into three categories: personal, question/answer – indefinite and non-personal – non-question/answer – non-indefinite.

Nominalization, or the creation of nouns from verbs and adverbs as is the case in Ivilyuat, occurs fairly frequently.

Seiler lists ten nominalizers attached to the verb playing a wide range of functions.

There are three major forms of declension in Ivilyuat: oriented relationship, diminutive (DIM) and special marking.

Although Ivilyuat employs a relatively free word order, its underlying classification is that of a subject–object–verb (or SOV) language.

Ivilyuat contains about a dozen or so classifiers notably indicating the type of noun being modified or possessed.

Classifiers cover nouns ranging from general, inanimate items -ɂa in ne-m-éxam-ɂa 'it (is) my thing' lit., 'it (is) somehow doing this way,' to trees, plants, fruits, meats, animals and moieties.

kíɂiwɂa is used for trees and certain plants/fruits found in a naturally occurring group, and this is used to help denote legal claims as members of certain lineages had grouping-specific sites of harvest.

Plants such as corn, watermelon, cacti, wheat and palm trees fall under this classifier.

Finally, séxɂa indicates food items that are being or have been cooked such as black beans, corn or jerked meat.

The most important classifier for animals is the relation to animals as pets, expressed with ɂaš, which includes horses (pásukat), cottontail rabbits (távut), turtles (ɂáyil̃), coyotes (ɂísil̃), bears (húnwet), snakes (séwet), fish (kíyul) and eagles (ɂáswet) amongst others; however, this does not include wild cat (túkut).

A vast majority of Ivilyuat words come from Uto-Aztecan roots and there is a large shared vocabulary between neighbouring languages such as Luiseño or Serrano.

Between IPA and NAPA, there are ways to write the language down, but there is no agreed-upon script used Nationwide.

That being said, the most employed orthography is that of a modified NAPA found in Seiler and Hioki's "Cahuilla Dictionary".

Alvin Siva of the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians, a fluent speaker, died on 26 June 2009.

[17] In April 2014, the University of California, Riverside offered free public workshops in the Cahuilla language, later making a full four-class course in the language available to undergraduates and members of the Cahuilla tribal community beginning in the fall of 2020.