The earliest records of the Seri language are from 1692,[5] but the population has remained fairly isolated.

Extensive work on Seri began in 1951 by Edward and Mary Beck Moser with the Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Exceptions include primary and secondary school, some parts of local church services, and communications with Spanish speakers outside of the Seri community.

[7] Most members of the community, including youth, are fluent in their language, but the population of speakers is small and cultural knowledge has been dwindling since the traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle was essentially replaced in the 1930s by fixed settlements.

The name "Seri" is an exonym for this people that has been used since the first contacts with the Spaniards (sometimes written differently, as "Ceres").

Gilg reported in 1692 that it was a Spanish name, but surely it was the name used by another group of the area to refer to the Seris.

Nevertheless, modern claims that it is a Yaqui term that means something like "people of the sand"[9] or an Opata term that means "people who run fast"[10] are lacking in factual basis; no evidence has been presented for the former and no credible evidence has been presented for the latter.

The name chosen by the Seri committee for the name of the language used in the title of the recent dictionary was Comcaac quih Yaza, the plural version of Cmiique iitom.

(ooza is the plural root, y- (with an accompanying vowel ablaut) is the nominalizer; the prefix for third person possessor elides before the y.

The word quih is a singular article (which combines with the plural noun to refer to the Seri community).

The nonrounded vowels /i, ɛ, ɑ/ may be realized as diphthongs [iu̯, ɛo̯, ɑo̯] when followed by the labialized consonants /kʷ, xʷ, χʷ/, but this small phonetic detail is not written in the community-based writing system.

It can be documented, by careful examination of word lists collected in the nineteenth century, that some of these phonetic rules have arisen fairly recently.

Seri three-consonant onsets such as /ptk/ do occur, as in ptcamn (Cortez spiny lobster, Panulirus inflatus).

Clusters of four consonants also occur, but they are more rare in the lexicon: /kʷsχt/ in cösxtamt, ..., "there were many, ..."; /mxkχ/ in ipoomjc x, ... "if s/he brings it, ...", (with enclitic x).

Vowel clusters may include 3 separate elements, as in the one syllable word kaoi (NOM-D-delouse).

When necessary, empty vowel positions are inserted and often filled with a syllabic nasal or an "i" to aid in pronunciation.

A few nouns have completely suppletive plural forms: cmiique 'Seri person', comcáac 'Seri people', ziix 'thing', xiica 'things'.

As they are obligatorily possessed nouns, a special prefix appears when no possessor is specified, and kinship terms sometimes have additional material at the end as well.

For object person (which is written as a separate word in the orthography although it is really just a prefix), compare ma hyooho 'I saw you (sg.

For indirect object (also written as a separate word except in third person), compare me hyacóhot 'I showed it to you (sg.

Most of the words that have been called postpositions at one time (and some of which still are, in limited situations) are actually relational preverbs; they must occur in a position immediately before the verbal complex and are commonly not adjacent to their semantic complements.

The singular indefinite article (a, an) is zo before consonants, and z before vowels (it presumably is historically related to the word for "one", which is tazo).

Cótotajboojum treezoahantplacezaitiinpoop...if there isCótotaj zo hant z iti poop...boojum tree a place a in {if there is}If there is a boojum tree in a place...ComcaacSerispacsomeyoozcam.came.Comcaac pac yoozcam.Seris some came.Some Seris arrived.There are several different definite articles (the), depending on the position and movement of the object: These articles are derived historically from nominalized forms (as appear in relative clauses in Seri) of verbs: quiij ("that which sits"), caap ("that which stands"), coom ("that which lies"), quiih ("that (especially soft item like cloth) which is located"), moca ("that which comes"), contica ("that which goes"), and caahca ("that which is located"; root -ahca) Four simple demonstrative pronouns occur, plus a large set of compound demonstrative adjectives and pronouns.

For example, one of the many olfactory metaphors used by speakers is the expression hiisax cheemt iha ("I am angry"), literally 'my.spirit stinks (Declarative)'.

This kind of phrase formation is deeply ingrained in the lexicon; it has been used in the past to create new terms for lexical items that became taboo due to the death of a person whose nickname was based on that word.

[20] Essays by three Seri writers appear in the new anthology of Native American literature published by the University of Nebraska Press.

The Constitution of Mexico has been translated in its entirety into the Seri language by the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas.