Colorado River Numic (also called
Ute ,
Southern Paiute ,
Ute–Southern Paiute, or
Ute-Chemehuevi ), of the
Numic branch of the
Uto-Aztecan language family, is a
dialect chain that stretches from southeastern California to Colorado. Individual dialects are Chemehuevi, which is in danger of extinction, Southern Paiute (Moapa, Cedar City, Kaibab, and San Juan subdialects), and
Ute (Central Utah, Northern, White Mesa, Southern subdialects). According to the
Ethnologue, there were a little less than two thousand speakers of Colorado River Numic Language in 1990, or ca. 40% out of an ethnic population of 5,000.