Mazahua language

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Mazatec language.

Mazahua
Jñatjo (mmc)
Jñatrjo (maz)
Region
Oto-Manguean
  • Otomian
    • Mazahua
Official status
Regulated bySecretaría de Educación Pública
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
mmc – Toluca Mazahua
maz – Central Mazahua
Glottologmaza1293
Extent of the Mazahua language in Mexico
The Mazahua language, number 4 (darker blue), northwest
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The Mazahua language (

State of México, near Toluca
.

The closest relatives of the Mazahua language are

Oto-Manguean language family
.

Mazahua is a

tonal language and distinguishes high, low, and falling tones
on all syllables except the final syllable of a word whose stress is predictable.

Mazahua's most distinctive feature is its abnormally-large phoneme inventory, around sixty phonemes, or twice the number in English. There are eight vowel phonemes, seven contrastive nasal vowels, and as many as forty-five consonants.

Amongst them are

voiceless sonorants. Along with Sindhi and Tukang Besi, Mazahua is a rare case of a language with true implosives that is far from regions where implosives are commonly encountered. It is also one of the few languages with ejective fricatives.[3]

Mazahua-language programming is carried by the

XETUMI-AM, broadcasting from Tuxpan, Michoacán
.

Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain lab.
Nasal
 glott. m̰ n̰ ɲ̰
voiceless m̥ n̥ ɲ̥
plain m
n
 		ɲ
Plosive implosive ɓ ɗ
ejective
tʼ
 		kʼ kʼʷ
aspirated
 		pʰ tʰ kʰ kʷʰ
tenuis p
t
 		k kʷ ʔ
voiced ɡ ɡʷ
Affricate ejective tsʼ tʃʼ
aspirated
 		tsʰ tʃʰ
tenuis ts tʃ
Fricative ejective sʼ
aspirated
 		sʰ
tenuis s ʃ h
voiced z ʒ ɣ
Semivowel glott. j̰ w̰
voiceless
j̊
 		w̥
plain j w
Liquid lateral
l
trill
r

Oral vowels

Front Back
Close oral i u
nasal ĩ ũ
Close-mid oral e o
nasal ẽ õ
Mid ə
Open-mid oral ɛ ɔ
nasal ɛ̃ ɔ̃
Open oral a
nasal ã

Orthography

The orthography is based on the

Spanish alphabet
, with additional rules to account for the large phonetic inventory of Mazahua:

Grapheme Phoneme
a [a]
ⱥ [ə]
a̱ [ã]
b [ɓ]
c [k]
cꞌ [kʼ]
cj [kʰ]
cu [kʷ]
cꞌu [kʷʼ]
cju [kʷʰ]
ch [tʃ]
chꞌ [tʃʼ]
chj [tʃʰ]
d [ɗ]
dy [dz]
e [e]
ɇ [ɛ]
e̱ [ɛ̃]/[ẽ]
g [ɡ]
gu [ɡʷ]
hu [w]
ꞌhu [w̰]
i [i]
i̱ [ĩ]
j [j]/[h]
jꞌ [j̰]
jm [m̥]
jn [n̥]
jñ [ɲ̥]
ju [w̥]
jy [
j̊
]
l [
l
]
m [m]
mꞌ [m̰]
n [
n
]
nꞌ [n̰]
ñ [ɲ]
ñꞌ [ɲ̰]
o [o]
ø [ɔ]
o̱ [õ]/[ɔ̃]
p [p]
pj [pʰ]
r [
r
]
s [s]
sꞌ [sʼ]
sj [sʰ]
t [
t
]
tꞌ [
tʼ
]
tj [tʰ]
ts [ts]
tsꞌ [tsʼ]
tsj [tsʰ]
u [u]
ꞹ [ɨ]
u̱ [ũ]
x [ʃ]
z [z]
zh [ʒ]
ꞌ [ʔ]

Sample text:

Texe yo nte̱ꞌe̱ chjetrjoji, angezeji ximi xoꞌoji ñeje kꞌinchiji, nesta ra ngara na joꞌo kꞌo dyaja e nte̱ꞌe̱.
(All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.)

References

  1. INALI (2012) México: Lenguas indígenas nacionales
  2. ^ "Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas" [General Law of the Linguistic Rights of Indigenous peoples] (in Spanish). 13 March 2003. Archived from the original on 8 February 2007.
  3. ISBN 0-521-26536-3
  4. ^ "Proposal to encode two Latin characters for Mazahua" (PDF). Unicode. 22 January 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  5. ISBN 9781412044288
    – via Google Books.
  6. ^ "Mazahua language, alphabet and pronunciation". www.omniglot.com.

Sources

  • Knapp Ring, Michael Herbert, Fonología del mazahua, Tesis de licenciatura, ENAH, México, 1996
  • Michael Knapp, 2002 “Elementos de dialectología Mazahua" In Del Cora Al Maya Yucateco: Estudios Linguisticos Sobre Algunas Lenguas Indigenas Mexicanas Paulette Levy (Ed.), Universidad Nacional Autonoma De Mexico
Mazahua language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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