Highland Chatino
Sierra Chatino
Native toMexico
RegionOaxaca
Native speakers
17,800 (2000)[1]
Oto-Manguean
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
ctp  Western Highland
cly  Eastern Highland (Lachao-Yolotepec)
cya  Nopala
Glottologeast2736  = Zacatepec–Highlands
ELPWestern Highland Chatino

Highland Chatino is an indigenous Mesoamerican language, one of the Chatino family of the Oto-Manguean languages. Dialects are rather diverse; Ethnologue 16 counts them as three languages as follows:

  • Eastern Highland Chatino (Lachao-Yolotepec dialect)
  • Western Chatino (Yaitepec, Panixtlahuaca, and Quiahije dialects)
  • Nopala Chatino

Neighboring dialects between the three groups are about 80% mutually intelligible; diversity among the three Western dialects is almost as great.

For phonological and grammatical details, see Chatino languages, which includes examples from Yaitepec dialect.

Phonology

Yaitepec Chatino

Yaitepec Chatino has the following phonemic consonants (Rasch 2002):

Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain pal. plain lab. plain lab. pal.
Plosive voiceless p t c k ʔ
voiced d ɟ ɡ ɡʷ
Affricate voiceless t͡s t͡ʃ
voiced d͡z
Fricative voiceless s ʃ h
voiced z ʒ
Nasal plain m n
preglottal ʔn ʔnʲ
Lateral l
Rhotic ɾ
Approximant plain j w
preglottal ʔj ʔw
  • Sounds /d͡z, ʒ/ only rarely occur.
  • Other fricative sounds /ð, ɣ/ may also appear as a result of Spanish loanwords.
  • /hʷ/ is heard as a labio-dental [f] when preceding consonants.
  • Nasals when preceding consonants, are heard as syllabic [n̩, m̩].
  • A bilabial nasal /m/ can also be written as nw orthographically. When nw is preceding a /k/, it is pronounced as [ŋʷ], elsewhere; it is heard as [m].
  • /w/ can be heard as a bilabial fricative [β], when preceding sounds /j, i, e/ in word-initial position.
  • /n/ assimilates as [ŋ] when preceding velar consonants /k, ɡ/.
  • /k/ is heard as [kʲ] when preceding /e/.
  • /j/ is heard as voiceless [j̊] when preceding a voiceless consonant.
Vowels
Front Central Back
oral nasal oral nasal
Close i ɪ̃ u ũ
Mid e ɛ̃ (ə) o ɔ̃
Open a
  • An extra schwa sound [ə] is heard in between consonants.

Rasch (2002) reports ten distinct tones for Yaitepec Chatino: the four level tones of high /˥/, mid /˦/, low-mid /˨/, and low /˩/; the two rising tones /˦˥/ and /˨˦/; and the three falling tones /˥˦/, /˦˨/, /˨˩/, as well as a more limited falling tone /˦˩/, found in a few lexical items and in a few completive forms of verbs.

Orthography

There are a variety of practical orthographies for Chatino, most based on Spanish orthography. Typically, x = /ʃ/, ch = /tʃ/, and /k/ is spelled c before back vowels and qu before front vowels.

In Quiahije Chatino, and perhaps more broadly across Highland Chatino, superscript capitals AL are used as lexical tone letters: ᴬ ᴮ ꟲ ᴰ ᴱ ꟳ ᴳ ᴴ ᴵ ᴶ ᴷ ᴸ,[2] with additional letters (superscript M and S) for tone sandhi.

References

  • Rasch, Jeffrey Walker. 2002. The basic morpho-syntax of Yaitepec Chatino. Ph.D. thesis. Rice University.
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