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 established fourteen Chinantec languages on the basis of 80% mutual intelligibility. Ethnologue found that one that had not been adequately compared was not distinct, but split another. 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 is the most divergent.
70%Language Distribution
*Chinantec of LealaoNortheastern Oaxaca, San Juan Lealao, Latani, Tres Arroyos, and La Hondura
*Chinantec of ChiltepecSan José Chiltepec, Oaxaca
*Chinantec of TlacoatzintepecNorthern Oaxaca
*Chinantec of ComaltepecComaltepec, Northern Oaxaca
*Chinantec of Quiotepec
San Juan Quiotepec and surrounding towns, Oaxaca
*Chinantec of Lalana25 towns on the border between Oaxaca and Veracruz
*Chinantec of TepinapaNorthern Oaxaca, Choapan District. Very remote area.
*Chinantec of OjitlánNorthern Oaxaca and Veracruz municipios of Minatitlán and Hidalgotitlán
*Chinantec of OzumacínSan Pedro Ozumacín and surrounding towns, Oaxaca
*Chinantec of PalantlaSan Juan Palantla and surrounding towns, Oaxaca
*Chinantec of Valle NacionalYetla, North Oaxaca
*Chinantec of SochiapanNorthern Oaxaca
*Chinantec of TepetotutlaNorthern Oaxaca
*Chinantec of UsilaOaxaca one town in Veracruz

Phonology

This section describes the phonology of Chinantec.

Comaltepec Chinantec

The following are sounds of Comaltepec Chinantec:
;Consonants
LabialAlveolarRetroflexPalatalVelarLaryngeal
Stop &
Affricate		Voicelesspttʃkʔ
Stop &
Affricate		Voicedᵐbⁿdⁿdʒᵑɡ
FricativeVoicelesssh
FricativeVoiced
Nasalmnŋ
Laterall
Approximantjw

;Vowels

Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec

The following are sounds of Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec:
;Consonants
BilabialInterdentalAlveolarVelarLaryngeal
StopVoicelessptkʔ
StopVoicedɡ
AffricateVoicelessts
Nasalmnŋ
FricativeVoicelessθsh
FricativeVoicedð
Laterall
Flapɾ

;Vowels
FrontCentralBack
Highiɨ • u
Mideɘ • o
Lowa

Sochiapan Chinantec

The following are sounds of Sochiapan Chinantec:
;Consonants
LabialInterdentalAlveolarRetroflexVelarLaryngeal
StopVoicelessptkʔ
StopVoiced
AffricateVoicelessts
FricativeVoicelessθsh
FricativeVoicedβðʐ
Nasalmnŋ
Laterall
Flap

;Vowels
FrontCentralBack
Highiɨ • u
Mideɘ • o
Lowa

Quiotepec Chinantec

The following are sounds of Quiotepec Chinantec:
;Consonants
LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarLaryngeal
StopVoicelesspttʲkʔ
StopVoicedbddʲɡ
FricativeVoicelessfsçh
FricativeVoicedβzʝɣ
Nasalmnɲŋ
Laterall
Trillr

;Vowels
FrontBack
Highi • yɨ • u
Lowe • øa • o

Ojitlán Chinantec

The following are sounds of Ojitlán Chinantec:
;Consonants
LabialAlveolarRetroflexPalatalVelarLaryngeal
StopVoicelesstkʔ
StopVoicedɡ
AffricateVoicelesstscç
FricativeVoicelesssʃh
NasalVoicelessm̥n̥ŋ̊
NasalVoicedmnŋ
LateralVoicelessɭ̊
LateralVoicedlɭ
Trillr

;Oral Vowels
FrontCentralBack
Highiɨ • u
Mideɘ • o
Lowa

;Nasal Vowels
FrontCentralBack
Highĩɨ̃ • ũ
Midẽɘ̃ • õ
Lowã

Phonological features

All Chinantec dialects are tonal. Some of its dialects, such as Usila Chinantec, have five register tones, which is an uncommon trait in the world's languages.
Chinantec also has ballistic syllables, apparently a kind of phonation.

Notation of tones

Several ways of transcribing Chinantec tones have been developed. Linguists typically use superscripted numbers or IPA tone letters.
The following diacritics are used to mark Ozumacín Chinantec tones. Examples can be found in their Bible.

Grammar

Grammars are published for Sochiapam Chinantec, and a grammar and a dictionary of Palantla Chinantec.
Example phrase:
The parts of this sentence are: ca¹ a prefix which marks the past tense, dsén¹ which is the verb stem meaning "to pull out an animate object", the suffix -jni referring to the first person, the noun classifier chi³ and the noun chieh³ meaning chicken.

Whistled speech

The Chinantec people have practiced whistled speech since the pre-Columbian era. The rhythm and pitch of normal Chinantec speech allow speakers of the language to have entire conversations only by whistling. The sound of whistling carries better than shouting across the canyons of mountainous Oaxaca. It enables messages to be exchanged over a distance of up to. Whistled speech is typically only used by Chinantec men, although women also understand it. Use of the whistled language is declining, as modern technology such as walkie-talkies and loudspeakers have made long-distance communication easier.

Media

Chinantec-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio stations XEOJN, broadcasting from San Lucas Ojitlán, Oaxaca, and XEGLO, broadcasting from Guelatao de Juárez, Oaxaca.