Palantla Chinantec, also known as ''Chinanteco de San Pedro Tlatepuzco'', is a major Chinantecan language of Mexico, spoken in San Juan Palantla and a couple dozen neighboring towns in northern

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

. The variety of San Mateo Yetla, known as Valle Nacional Chinantec, has marginal mutual intelligibility. A grammar and a dictionary have been published.Merrifield, William R. 1968. Palantla Chinantec grammar. Papeles de la Chinantla 5, Serie Científica 9.México: Museo Nacional de Antropología

/ref>Merrifield, William R. and Alfred E. Anderson. 2007. Diccionario Chinanteco de la diáspora del pueblo antiguo de San Pedro Tlatepuzco, Oaxaca. nd Edition Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves” 39. Mexico DF: Summer Linguistic Institute

Phonology

Vowels

Close vowels /i u/ typically are articulated as more open � ʊand are realized as more closed when represented by different tones. The close back vowel /ɯ/ tends to be articulated as �when present in vowel clusters following /u/, or when preceding the /j/ consonant, and may also have a higher central sound. The mid back vowel /ɤ/ tends to be articulated as �or �when preceding a /w/ consonant. The low central vowel /a/ tends to be realized as �following /i/ when one of the consonants /t l n/ occurs. Each vowel can be nasalized as /ĩ ɯ̃ ũ ɛ̃ ɤ̃ õ ã/. The language is unusual in having, for some speakers, a three-way contrast between non- nasalized, lightly nasalized, and heavily nasalized vowels. Stress tones may include either high or low /v́ v̀/ tones.

Consonants

References

{{Oto-Manguean languages Chinantec languages