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Otomanguean
The Oto-Manguean or Otomanguean () languages are a large family comprising several subfamilies of indigenous languages of the Americas. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the family, which is now extinct, was spoken as far south as Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Oto-Manguean is widely viewed as a proven language family. The highest number of speakers of Oto-Manguean languages today are found in the state of Oaxaca where the two largest branches, the Zapotecan and Mixtecan languages, are spoken by almost 1.5 million people combined. In central Mexico, particularly in the states of Mexico, Hidalgo and Querétaro, the languages of the Oto-Pamean branch are spoken: the Otomi and the closely related Mazahua have over 500,000 speakers combined. In the linguistic world of Mesoamerica, the Otomanguean family stands out as the most diverse and extensively distributed. Some Oto-Manguean languages are moribund or highl ...
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Ixcatec Language
} Ixcatec (in Ixcatec: ''xwja'' or ''xjuani'') is a language spoken by the people of the Mexican village of Santa María Ixcatlan, in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca. The Ixcatec language belongs to the Popolocan branch of the Oto-Manguean language family. It is believed to have been the second language to branch off from the others within the Popolocan subgroup, though there is a small debate over the relation it has to them. According to the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, there were only 8 speakers of the language in 2008.Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, "SÓLO QUEDAN OCHO HABLANTES DE XWJA O IXCATECO EN SANTA MARÍA IXCATLÁN, OAXACA", Press Release, May 27, 2008 In 2010, 190 speakers of Ixcatec were registered. In 2020, 195 people reported speaking the language. The small number of current speakers is the result of a steady decline over the last 60 years, which can be attributed to anti-illiteracy campaigns by the Mexican government that ...
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Language Family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics analogous to a family tree, or to phylogenetic trees of taxa used in evolutionary taxonomy. Linguists thus describe the ''daughter languages'' within a language family as being ''genetically related''. The divergence of a proto-language into daughter languages typically occurs through geographical separation, with different regional dialects of the proto-language undergoing different language changes and thus becoming distinct languages over time. One well-known example of a language family is the Romance languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, and many others, all of which are descended from Vulgar Latin.Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.)''Ethnologue: Languages ...
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Otomi Language
Otomi ( ; ) is an Oto-Pamean languages, Oto-Pamean language spoken by approximately 240,000 indigenous Otomi people in the Mexican Plateau, central ''altiplano'' region of Mexico. Otomi consists of several closely related languages, many of which are not mutually intelligible. The word ''Hñähñu'' has been proposed as an endonym, but since it represents the usage of a single dialect, it has not gained wide currency. Linguists have classified the modern dialects into three dialect areas: the Northwestern dialects are spoken in Querétaro, Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo and Guanajuato; the Southwestern dialects are spoken in the Mexico (state), State of Mexico; and the Eastern dialects are spoken in the highlands of Veracruz, Puebla, and eastern Hidalgo and villages in Tlaxcala and Mexico states. Like all other Oto-Manguean languages, Otomi is a tonal language, and most varieties distinguish three tones. Nouns are marked only for possessor; the plural number is marked with a definite ...
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Mazahua Language
The Mazahua language (, ) is an Oto-Pamean language spoken in the central states of Mexico by the ethnic group that is widely known as the Mazahua people, Mazahua but calls itself the Hñatho. It is a Mesoamerican language and has many of the traits of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. In 2003, along with some 62 other indigenous languages, it was recognised by a statutory law of Mexico (Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas, General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples) as an official language in the Mexican Federal District, Federal District and the other administrative divisions in which it is spoken, and on an equal footing with Spanish language, Spanish. The largest concentration of Mazahua is found in the municipality of San Felipe del Progreso, State of México, near Toluca. The closest relatives of the Mazahua language are Otomi language, Otomi, Matlatzinca language, Matlatzinca, and Matlatzinca language, Ocuilteco/Tlahuica langua ...
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Chinantecan Languages
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. 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. Internal classification Egland and Bartholomew (1978) 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. Ph ...
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Indigenous Languages Of The Americas
The Indigenous languages of the Americas are the languages that were used by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas before the arrival of non-Indigenous peoples. Over a thousand of these languages are still used today, while many more are now extinct. The Indigenous languages of the Americas are not all related to each other; instead, they are classified into a hundred or so language families and isolates, as well as several extinct languages that are unclassified due to the lack of information on them. Many proposals have been made to relate some or all of these languages to each other, with varying degrees of success. The most widely reported is Joseph Greenberg's Amerind hypothesis, which, however, nearly all specialists reject because of severe methodological flaws; spurious data; and a failure to distinguish cognation, contact, and coincidence. According to UNESCO, most of the Indigenous languages of the Americas are critically endangered, and many are dormant (wit ...
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Tlapanec Language
Tlapanec , or Mephaa, is an indigenous Mexican language spoken by more than 98,000 Tlapanec people in the state of Guerrero. Like other Oto-Manguean languages, it is tonal and has complex inflectional morphology. The ethnic group themselves refer to their ethnic identity and language as ''Me̱pha̱a̱'' . Before much information was known about it, Tlapanec (sometimes written "Tlappanec" in earlier publications) was either considered unclassified or linked to the controversial Hokan language family. It is now definitively considered part of the Oto-Manguean language family, of which it forms its own branch along with the extinct and very closely related Subtiaba language of Nicaragua. Mephaa people temporarily move to other locations, including Mexico City, Morelos and various locations in the United States, for reasons of work. Varieties Ethnologue distinguishes four Tlapanec languages: *Acatepec (dialects Acatepec proper, Huitzapula, Nanzintla, Teocuitlapa, Zapotitlán Ta ...
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Supanecan Languages
The Supanecan or Tlapanecan languages are Tlapanec (Me'phaa) of Guerrero and the extinct Subtiaba of Nicaragua. The family was recognized in 1925 by Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist-linguistics, linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States ..., who linked them to his Hokan proposal. However, they are the most recently recognized members of the Oto-Manguean language family, the relationship having been demonstrated in 1977 by Jorge Suárez. The Oto-Manguean affiliation of Tlapaneco-Subtiaba is supported by Kaufman (2016). According to Costenla (1994), these two languages diverged sometime after 1200 AD. Sapir proposed that a third language, the extinct ''Maribo'' of the village of Maribichicoa, on the Guatajiguala River in Lencan country in El Salvador, may have been the closest relative of Subtiaba, or tha ...
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Chiapanec Language
Chiapanec is a presumably extinct indigenous Mexican language of the Oto-Manguean language family believed to have been spoken by the Chiapanec people. The 1990 census reported 17 speakers of the language in southern Chiapas out of an ethnic population of 32, but later investigations failed to find any speakers.LISTSERV 14.4
There are, however, a number of written sources on the language. Vocabularies and grammars based on these materials include Aguilar Penagos (2012) and Carpio-Penagos and Álvarez-Vázquez (2014). It is closely related to Mangue.


Phonology


Consonants


Vowels

Four vowels are ...
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Matlatzinca Language
Matlatzinca, or more specifically San Francisco Matlatzinca, is an endangered Oto-Manguean language of Western Central Mexico. The name of the language in the language itself is ''pjiekak'joo''. The term "Matlatzinca" comes from the town's name in Nahuatl, meaning "the lords of the network." At one point, the Matlatzinca groups were called "pirindas," meaning "those in the middle." The first group or groups of Matlatzincas likely settled in the Toluca Valley around the 12th century. After other groups began to settle around and within it, the Matlatzinca territory became an important hub of economic activity. The economic activity prompted the Nahuatl language to become the dominant language in the area. At this point, Matlatzinca communities began losing their language. Since the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the group has lost much of their territory. As Franciscan orders began arriving in the territory and evangelizing to the natives, missionaries were forced to learn ...
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Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundary, maritime boundaries with the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Caribbean Sea to the southeast, and the Gulf of Mexico to the east. Mexico covers 1,972,550 km2 (761,610 sq mi), and is the List of countries by area, thirteenth-largest country in the world by land area. With a population exceeding 130 million, Mexico is the List of countries by population, tenth-most populous country in the world and is home to the Hispanophone#Countries, largest number of native Spanish speakers. Mexico City is the capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city, which ranks among the List of cities by population, most populous metropolitan areas in the world. Human presence in Mexico dates back to at least 8,000 BC. Mesoamerica, considered a cradle ...
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Subtiaba Language
Subtiaba is an extinct Oto-Manguean language which was spoken on the Pacific slope of Nicaragua, especially in the Subtiaba district of León. Edward Sapir established a connection between Subtiaba and Tlapanec. When Lehmann wrote about it in 1909 it was already very endangered or moribund. The name "Subtiaba" may be of Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ... origin, from the roots xoctli ("black snail") and atl ("water"). Lexical comparison Lexical comparison from ''Native American Language Net'': See also * Tlapanecan languages References * Campbell, Lyle (1979): "Middle American Languages" en ''The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment'', Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne (Eds.), Austin: University of Texas Press, pp ...
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