Chichimeca or Chichimeca Jonaz is an indigenous language of Mexico spoken by around 200 Chichimeca Jonaz people in Misión de Chichimecas near San Luis de la Paz in the state of

Guanajuato Guanajuato, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato, is one of the 32 states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Guanajuato, 46 municipalities and its cap ...

. The Chichimeca Jonaz language belongs to the Oto-Pamean branch of the

Oto-Manguean 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 languages, Ma ...

language family. The Chichimecos self identify as ''úza'' and call their language ''eza'r''.

Distribution

The language is currently spoken only in San Luis de la Paz (

), in the settlements of Berlín, Buenavista (El Cuernito), Cerro Blanco, Colonia Benito Juárez lan Benito Juárez Ejido Santa Ana y Lobos (Fracción de Lourdes), El Desmonte, El Sauz Tres, El Tepetate, Exhacienda de Ortega (Ejido Ortega), Garibaldi (El Cerrito), La Ciénega, La Curva, La Huerta, La Laguna (La Lagunita), La Leona, La Mesa de Jesús, La Norita, Los Dolores (Las Quince Letras), Lourdes (Estación de Lourdes), Maguey Blanco, Manzanares, Mesa de Escalante, Mesa de la Estacada, Mesa del Pueblo, Misión de Chichimecas, Norita del Refugio, Parajes, Paso Colorado, Piedras de Lumbre, Pozo Hondo (Exhacienda de Pozo Hondo), Puerto de la Virginita, Puerto del Gato, Rancho Nuevo de las Trojes, San Antonio Chiquito, San Antonio Primero, San Ignacio, San Isidro de Pozos (San Isidrito), San José del Carmen, and San Pedro de los Pozos (Mineral de Pozos). In 1934, Jacques Soustelle counted 452 chichimecas, 63 of whom were children who attended the local school. Prior to that point the language was spoken in five other locations: # Misión Arnedo (Guanajuato) to the east of San Luis, near Villa Victoria. # Misión de las Palmas (

Querétaro Querétaro, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Querétaro, 18 municipalities. Its capital city is Querétaro Cit ...

), along the Etorax river, which arises near Victoria. # Misión de Santa Rosa, to the north of Victoria. # San Pedro Tolimán, where a mission was established in the 18th century, which failed, however, and the chichimecas abandoned the area. It was later repopulated with Otomís. # Villa Colón (Querétaro), to the south of Tolimán.

Phonology

Chichimeca Jonaz is a tonal language and distinguishes high and low level tones. * In addition, Chichimeca Jonaz has nasal counterparts of these vowels, which are //.Lastra 1984 p. 23 Sounds are heard as voiced stops when after a nasal consonant.Lizárraga Navarro (2018)

Notes

References

* * * * Mesoamerican languages Indigenous languages of Mexico Oto-Pamean languages Endangered Oto-Manguean languages {{Oto-Manguean-lang-stub