Usila is a

Chinantec language 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.Palancar, Enrique L. (2014) ...

of Mexico. It is most similar to

Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec Chiltepec-Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec is a Chinantecan language of Mexico, spoken in northern Oaxaca in the towns of San José Chiltepec, San Juan Bautista Tlacoatzintepec, San Pedro Alianza, Santiago Quetzalapa, and San Juan Zapotitlán. The ...

, with which it has 50% intelligibility (intelligibility in the reverse direction is 85%, presumably due to greater familiarity in that direction). Like other Chinantecan and

Mazatec language The Mazatecan languages are a group of closely related indigenous languages spoken by some 200,000 people in the area known as the Sierra Mazateca, which is in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, as well as in adjacent ...

s, Usila Chinantec is a tonal language noted for having

whistled speech Whistled languages use whistling to emulate speech and facilitate communication. A whistled language is a system of whistled communication which allows fluent whistlers to transmit and comprehend a potentially unlimited number of messages over l ...

. Its tone system is unusually finely graded, however, with five

register tone Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), t ...

s and four contour tones.Edmondson, Jerold A. & Gregerson, Kenneth J. (1992). On Five-level Tone Systems. In Shin Ja J. Hwang & William R. Merrifield (Eds.), ''Language in Context: Essays for Robert E. Longacre'' (pp. 555-576). Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

References

{{Oto-Manguean languages Chinantec languages