Maricopa or Piipaash is spoken by the Native American Maricopa people on two reservations in Arizona: the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and the Gila River Indian Community.

[6] There are many more with varying degrees of fluency, including many who can understand but not speak Maricopa.

The modern Maricopa people are actually an amalgamation of five separate but related groups, with different dialects.

There is a language revitalization program at Salt River, the O'odham Piipaash Language Program, offering immersion classes, language-based cultural arts classes, community language-based social activities, and assistance with translation, cultural information and language learning.

Phonemes /f/ and /ŋ/ occur only in loanwords like kafe /kafe/ 'coffee' and narangk /naraŋk/ 'orange',[bad example, as that could be assimilation with the ŋ] both from Spanish.

Epenthesis of vowels to relieve consonant clusters is a major and complicated issue in Maricopa.

However, the form is basically predictable from the local context: Sequences of three non-syllabic consonants never surface without epenthesis.

Nasals and liquids are least likely to accompany epenthesis, as they often syllabify instead, particularly in the following circumstances: In most other initial two-consonant cluster, epenthesis occurs: Some final clusters are allowed, but others are broken up.

h'a-shtree-SUBJECTha-s-iiwater-DEMONSTRATIVE-LOCATIVEv'aw-mstand-REALh'a-sh ha-s-ii v'aw-mtree-SUBJECT water-DEMONSTRATIVE-LOCATIVE stand-REAL"The tree is by the water (distant, out of sight).

iipaa-ny-shman-DEMONSTRATIVE-SUBJECTFlagstaff-lyFlagstaff-LOCATIVEyem-kgo-REALiipaa-ny-sh Flagstaff-ly yem-kman-DEMONSTRATIVE-SUBJECT Flagstaff-LOCATIVE go-REAL"The man went to Flagstaff.

Lynn-shLynn-SUBJECTYuma-kYuma-LOCATIVEdii-kcome-REALLynn-sh Yuma-k dii-kLynn-SUBJECT Yuma-LOCATIVE come-REAL"Lynn came from Yuma.

tdishcornmatearthily-k-shvaw-kLOCATIVE-IMPERATIVE-put-REALtdish mat ily-k-shvaw-kcorn earth LOCATIVE-IMPERATIVE-put-REAL"Plant the corn in the ground.

"[15]In copulative sentences (those with the verb "to be"), the negative element is placed on the predicate noun.

The language uses the verb aly-'aa-ma-k 'NEGATIVE-hear-NEGATIVE-REAL' and the event that did not occur as a subordinate clause.

For example, the adverb -haay 'still, yet' is outside of the scope of the negation if the order of the morphemes is ma-haay.

On the other hand, 'still' is inside of the scope of the negation if the order of the morphemes is haay-ma.

"[18]The following is a summary of interrogative words: Mki-shwho-SUBJECTm-ashham-m?3RDSUBJECT+2NDOBJECT-hit+DISTANCE+QUESTIONMki-sh m-ashham-m?who-SUBJECT 3RDSUBJECT+2NDOBJECT-hit+DISTANCE+QUESTION"Who hit you?

"[19]Mkip-shwhich-SUBJECTv'aw-mstand-REALduu?beMkip-sh v'aw-m duu?which-SUBJECT stand-REAL be"Who is standing there?

David Gil reports that the Maricopa managed quite well despite having no equivalent for "and".

However, whether the absence of a lexeme constitutes a lexical gap depends on not a theory but the shared verbal habits of the people using the relevant conceptualization.

There are inalienable nouns such as clothing items, which must bear possessive markers.

"[25]Determiners are expressed as suffixes or independent words following the noun.

"[25]chyerbirdvany-aDEMONSTRATIVE-EPENTHETICVOWELshviily-shfeather-SUBJECThmaaly-mwhite-REALchyer vany-a shviily-sh hmaaly-mbird DEMONSTRATIVE-EPENTHETICVOWEL feather-SUBJECT white-REAL"That bird's feathers are white.

"[30]If a zero morpheme is used to mark the question and the root of the verb is consonant-final, an epenthetic -ii is added.