Comanche /kəˈmæntʃiː/ is a Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Comanche people, who split off from the Shoshone soon after they acquired horses around 1705. The Comanche language and the Shoshoni language are therefore quite similar, although certain consonant changes in Comanche have inhibited mutual intelligibility.The name "Comanche" comes from the Ute word kɨmantsi meaning "enemy, stranger". Their own name for the language is nʉmʉ tekwapʉ which means "language of the people".