Chinantecan languages

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Chinantec
Tsa Jujmi
Native to
Chinantecs
Native speakers
140,000 (2020 census)[1]
  • Western
    • Oto-Pame–Chinantecan
      • Chinantec
Language codes
Valle Nacional Chinantec
Glottologchin1484
ELPCentral Chinantec
The Chinantecan languages, number 9 (chartreuse
), east.

The Chinantec or Chinantecan languages constitute a branch of the Oto-Manguean family. Though traditionally considered a single language, Ethnologue lists 14 partially mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinantec.[2] The languages are spoken by the indigenous Chinantec people who live in Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico, especially in the districts of Cuicatlán, Ixtlán de Juárez, Tuxtepec and Choapan, and in Staten Island, New York.[3]

Internal classification

Egland and Bartholomew (1978)[4] established fourteen Chinantec languages on the basis of 80% mutual intelligibility. Ethnologue found that one that had not been adequately compared (Tlaltepusco) was not distinct, but split another (Lalana from Tepinapa). At a looser criterion of 70% intelligibility, Lalana–Tepinapa, Quiotepec–Comaltepec, Palantla–Valle Nacional, and geographically distant Chiltepec–Tlacoatzintepec would be languages, reducing the count to ten. Lealao Chinantec (Latani) is the most divergent.

70% Language (80% intelligibility) Distribution
* Chinantec of Lealao Northeastern Oaxaca, San Juan Lealao, Latani, Tres Arroyos, and La Hondura
* Chinantec of Chiltepec San José Chiltepec, Oaxaca
Chinantec of Tlacoatzintepec Northern Oaxaca
* Chinantec of Comaltepec Comaltepec, Northern Oaxaca
Chinantec of Quiotepec
(Highland Chinantec) 		San Juan Quiotepec and surrounding towns, Oaxaca
* Chinantec of Lalana 25 towns on the border between Oaxaca and Veracruz
Chinantec of Tepinapa Northern
Choapan District
. Very remote area.
* Chinantec of Ojitlán Northern Oaxaca and Veracruz municipios of Minatitlán and Hidalgotitlán
* Chinantec of Ozumacín San Pedro Ozumacín and surrounding towns, Oaxaca
* Chinantec of Palantla San Juan Palantla and surrounding towns, Oaxaca
Chinantec of Valle Nacional Yetla, North Oaxaca
* Chinantec of Sochiapan Northern Oaxaca
* Chinantec of Tepetotutla Northern Oaxaca
* Chinantec of Usila Oaxaca one town in Veracruz

Phonology

the register-tone inventory of Usila Chinantec

Chinantecan languages have ballistic syllables, apparently a kind of phonation.[5][6][7]

All Chinantec languages are

Ojitlán Chinantec, have five register tones (in addition to contour tones), with the extreme tones deriving historically from ballistic syllables.[8]

Grammar

Grammars are published for Sochiapam Chinantec,[9] and a grammar and a dictionary of Palantla (Tlatepuzco) Chinantec.[10][11]

Example phrase:

ca¹-dsén¹=jni chi³ chieh³
‘I pulled out the hen (from the box).[11]

The parts of this sentence are: ca¹ a

noun classifier chi³ and the noun
chieh³ meaning chicken.

Whistled speech

The Chinantec people have practiced

loudspeakers have made long-distance communication easier.[12]

Media

Chinantec-language programming is carried by the

Guelatao de Juárez, Oaxaca
.

  • Example of Chinantec in written form from the Biblioteca Cervantina
    Example of Chinantec in written form from the
    Biblioteca Cervantina
  • Example of Chinantec in written form from the Biblioteca Cervantina
    Example of Chinantec in written form from the
    Biblioteca Cervantina

References

  1. ^ "Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020". Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020. INEGI.
  2. ^ Palancar, Enrique L. (2014). "Revisiting the Complexity of the Chinantecan Verb Conjugation Classes". In Léonard, Jean-Léo; Kihm, Alain (eds.). Patterns in Mesoamerican Morphology. pp. 77–102. HAL 01100738.
  3. ^ Torrens, Claudio (2011-05-28). "Some NY immigrants cite lack of Spanish as barrier". UTSanDiego.com. Retrieved 2015-03-02.
  4. ^ Egland, S.; Bartholomew, D. (1978). La inteligibilidad inter-dialectal en Mexico: Resultados de algunos sondeos (PDF). Mexico, D.F.: Instituto Linguistico de Verano. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-12-02.
  5. LCCN 90-71408. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2017-12-12.
  6. ^ Mugele, R. L. (1982). Tone and Ballistic Syllables in Lalana Chinantec (Ph.D. dissertation). Austin: University of Texas.
  7. ^ Rensch, Calvin (1978). "Ballistic and controlled syllables in Otomanguean Languages". In Bell, Alan; Hooper, Joan B. (eds.). Syllables and Segments. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Company. pp. 85–92.
  8. ^ Edmondson, Jerold A.; Gregerson, Kenneth J. (1992). "On Five-level Tone Systems". In Hwang, Shin Ja J.; Merrifield, William R. (eds.). Language in Context: Essays for Robert E. Longacre. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 555–576.
  9. ^ Foris, David Paul (2000). A grammar of Sochiapam Chinantec. Studies in Chinantec languages. Vol. 6. Dallas, TX: SIL International and The University of Texas at Arlington.
  10. ^ Merrifield, William R. (1968). "Palantla Chinantec grammar". Papeles de la Chinantla 5. Serie Científica. Vol. 9. México: Museo Nacional de Antropología.
  11. ^ a b Merrifield, William R.; Anderson, Alfred E. (2007). Diccionario Chinanteco de la diáspora del pueblo antiguo de San Pedro Tlatepuzco, Oaxaca (PDF). Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves”. Vol. 39 (2nd ed.). Mexico DF: Summer Linguistic Institute.
  12. ^ Schachar, Natalie (8 September 2017). "The decline of Chinantec whistled speech in Mexico". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 15 July 2019.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chinatecan languages.
Wiktionary has a list of reconstructed forms at Appendix:Proto-Chinantec reconstructions
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