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.[3] 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.[4]

Chinantec
Tsa Jujmi
Native to	Mexico
Region	Oaxaca
Ethnicity	Chinantecs
Native speakers	130,000 (2010 census)[1]
Language family	Oto-Mangue Western Oto-Mangue Oto-Pame–Chinantecan Chinantec
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: cco – Comaltepec Chinantec chj – Ojitlán Chinantec chq – Quiotepec Chinantec chz – Ozumacín Chinantec cle – Lealao Chinantec cnl – Lalana Chinantec cnt – Tepetotutla Chinantec cpa – Palantla Chinantec csa – Chiltepec Chinantec cso – Sochiapan Chinantec cte – Tepinapa Chinantec ctl – Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec cuc – Usila Chinantec cvn – Valle Nacional Chinantec
Glottolog	chin1484[2]
The Chinantecan languages, number 9 (chartreuse), east.

Internal classification

Egland and Bartholomew (1978)[5] 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.

70%	Language (80% intelligibility)	Distribution
*	Chinantec of Lealao	Northeastern Oaxaca, San Juan Lealao, Latani, Tres Arroyos, and La Hondura
*	Chinantec of Chiltepec	San José Chiltepec, Oaxaca
	Chinantec of Tlacoatzintepec	Northern Oaxaca
*	Chinantec of Comaltepec	Comaltepec, Northern Oaxaca
	Chinantec of Quiotepec (Highland Chinantec)	San Juan Quiotepec and surrounding towns, Oaxaca
*	Chinantec of Lalana	25 towns on the border between Oaxaca and Veracruz
	Chinantec of Tepinapa	Northern Oaxaca, Choapan District. Very remote area.
*	Chinantec of Ojitlán	Northern Oaxaca and Veracruz municipios of Minatitlán and Hidalgotitlán
*	Chinantec of Ozumacín	San Pedro Ozumacín and surrounding towns, Oaxaca
*	Chinantec of Palantla	San Juan Palantla and surrounding towns, Oaxaca
	Chinantec of Valle Nacional	Yetla, North Oaxaca
*	Chinantec of Sochiapan	Northern Oaxaca
*	Chinantec of Tepetotutla	Northern Oaxaca
*	Chinantec of Usila	Oaxaca one town in Veracruz

Phonology

This section describes the phonology of Chinantec.

Comaltepec Chinantec

The following are sounds of Comaltepec Chinantec:[6][7]

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Laryngeal
Stop & Affricate	Voiceless	p	t		tʃ	k	ʔ
	Voiced	ᵐb	ⁿd		ⁿdʒ	ᵑɡ
Fricative	Voiceless	(f)	s	(ʂ)	(ʃ)	(x)	h
	Voiced			(ʐ)
Nasal		m	n		(ɲ)	ŋ
Lateral			l
Approximant					j	w

1. Parenthesised sounds are loans, allophones, or free variants

2. Voiced stops are frequently prenasalised

Vowels

i	ɨ	u
e	ʌ	o
æ		a

Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec

The following are sounds of Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec:[8]

Consonants

		Bilabial	Interdental	Alveolar	Velar	Laryngeal
Stop	Voiceless	p		t	k	ʔ
	Voiced	(b)			ɡ
Affricate	Voiceless			ts
Nasal		m		n	ŋ
Fricative	Voiceless	(ɸ)	θ	s		h
	Voiced		ð
Lateral				l
Flap				ɾ

1. Parenthesised sounds are loans, allophones, or free variants

2. /r/ is an alveolar flap in unstressed syllable; a retroflexed alveopalatal grooved affricate in a stressed syllable

3. /t, ts, θ, l, s, n, ŋ, k, ɡ, h/ can be palatalised before the semivowel /j/

4. /p, ŋ, k, ɡ, h/ can be labialised before the semivowel /w/

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		ɨ • u
Mid	e		ɘ • o
Low		a

1. Vowels to the left of the bullet dot are unrounded; to the right rounded

Sochiapan Chinantec

The following are sounds of Sochiapan Chinantec:[9]

Consonants

		Labial	Interdental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Velar	Laryngeal
Stop	Voiceless	p		t		k	ʔ
	Voiced					(ɡ)
Affricate	Voiceless			ts
Fricative	Voiceless	(ɸ)	θ	s			h
	Voiced	β	ð		ʐ
Nasal		m		n		ŋ
Lateral				l
Flap				(ɾ)

1. Parenthesised sounds are loans, allophones, or free variants

2. /p, t, k/ tends to be slightly aspirated

3. Alveolar and velar consonants are palatalised before the semivowel /j/

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		ɨ • u
Mid	e		ɘ • o
Low		a

1. Vowels to the left of the bullet dot are unrounded; to the right rounded

Quiotepec Chinantec

The following are sounds of Quiotepec Chinantec:[10]

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Laryngeal
Stop	Voiceless	p	t	tʲ	k	ʔ
	Voiced	b	d	dʲ	ɡ
Fricative	Voiceless	f	s	ç		h
	Voiced	β	z	ʝ	ɣ
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Lateral			l
Trill			r

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i • y	ɨ • u
Low	e • ø	a • o

1. Vowels to the left of the bullet dot are unrounded; to the right rounded

Ojitlán Chinantec

The following are sounds of Ojitlán Chinantec:[11]

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Laryngeal
Stop	Voiceless	(p)	t			k	ʔ
	Voiced					ɡ
Affricate	Voiceless		ts		cç
Fricative	Voiceless		s		ʃ		h
Nasal	Voiceless	m̥	n̥			ŋ̊
	Voiced	m	n			ŋ
Lateral	Voiceless			ɭ̊
	Voiced		l	ɭ
Trill			r

Oral Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		ɨ • u
Mid	e		ɘ • o
Low		a

Nasal Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	ĩ		ɨ̃ • ũ
Mid	ẽ		ɘ̃ • õ
Low		ã

Phonological features

the tonal system of Usila Chinantec

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.[12]

Chinantec also has ballistic syllables, apparently a kind of phonation.[13][14][15]

Notation of tones

Several ways of transcribing Chinantec tones have been developed. Linguists typically use superscripted numbers or IPA tone letters. The following diacritics ⟨◌ˈ, ◌ˉ, ◌ˊ, ◌ˋ, ◌ꜗ, ◌ꜘ, ◌ꜙ, ◌ꜚ⟩ are used to mark Ozumacín Chinantec tones.[16] Examples can be found in their Bible.[17]

U+02C8 ˈ MODIFIER LETTER VERTICAL LINE
U+02C9 ˉ MODIFIER LETTER MACRON
U+02CA ˊ MODIFIER LETTER ACUTE ACCENT
U+02CB ˋ MODIFIER LETTER GRAVE ACCENT
U+A717 ꜗ MODIFIER LETTER DOT VERTICAL BAR
U+A718 ꜘ MODIFIER LETTER DOT SLASH
U+A719 ꜙ MODIFIER LETTER DOT HORIZONTAL BAR
U+A71A ꜚ MODIFIER LETTER LOWER RIGHT CORNER ANGLE

Grammar

Grammars are published for Sochiapam Chinantec,[18] and a grammar and a dictionary of Palantla (Tlatepuzco) Chinantec.[19][20]

Example phrase:

ca¹-dsén¹=jni chi³ chieh³

‘I pulled out the hen (from the box).[20]

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 one kilometre (0.62 mi). 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.[21]

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.

• 
  Example of Chinantec in written form from the Biblioteca Cervantina
• 
  Example of Chinantec in written form from the Biblioteca Cervantina

References

1. INALI (2012) México: Lenguas indígenas nacionales
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Chinantecan". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Palancar, Enrique L. (2014). Revisiting the Complexity of the Chinantecan Verb Conjugation Classes. In Jean-Léo Léonard & Alain Kihm (Eds.), Patterns in Mesoamerican Morphology (pp. 77-102). HAL 01100738
4. Claudio Torrens (2011-05-28). "Some NY immigrants cite lack of Spanish as barrier". UTSanDiego.com. Retrieved 2015-03-02.
5. Egland, S. and Bartholomew, D.. 1978. La inteligibilidad inter-dialectal en Mexico: Resultados de algunos sondeos. Mexico, D.F.: Instituto Linguistico de Verano
6. Anderson, Judi Lynn, Martínez, Isaac H., & Pace, Wanda. (1990). Comaltepec Chinantec Tone. In William R. Merrifield & Calvin R. Rensch (Eds.), Syllables, Tone, and Verb Paradigms: Studies in Chinantec Languages 4 (pp. 3-20). Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
7. Silverman, Daniel. (1997). Tone Sandhi in Comaltepec Chinantec. Language, 73(3), 473-492.
8. Thelin, Anders. (1980). Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec Syllable Structure. Summer Institute of Linguistics Mexico Workpapers, 4, 1-8.
9. Foris, David. (1973). Sochiapan Chinantec Syllable Structure. International Journal of American Linguistics, 39(4), 232-235.
10. Robbins, Frank E. (1961). Quiotepec Chinantec Syllable Patterning. International Journal of American Linguistics, 27(3), 237-250.
11. Macaulay, Monica. (1999). Ojitlán Chinantec Phonology and Morphology. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, 24(2), 71-84.
12. 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.
13. Merrifield, William and Calvin R. Rensch. 1990. Syllables, Tone, and Verb Paradigms. [Studies in Chinantec Languages 4]. Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington.
14. Mugele, R. L. 1982. Tone and Ballistic Syllables in Lalana Chinantec. Ph.D. dissertation. Austin: University of Texas.
15. Rensch, Calvin. 1978. Ballistic and controlled syllables in Otomanguean Languages, in Alan Bell and Joan B. Hooper (eds.), Syllables and Segments, pp. 85-92. Amsterdam : North Holland Publishing Company.
16. Priest, Lorna A. (2004). Revised Proposal to Encode Chinantec Tone Marks. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
17. Wycliffe Bible Translators. (2003). New Testament and Psalms in Chinantec, Ozumacín. Retrieved 27 April 2019 from https://ebible.org/pdf/chzNTps/chzNTps_all.pdf
18. Foris, David Paul. 2000. A grammar of Sochiapam Chinantec. Studies in Chinantec languages 6. Dallas, TX: SIL International and The University of Texas at Arlington.
19. Merrifield, William R. 1968. Palantla Chinantec grammar. Papeles de la Chinantla 5, Serie Científica 9.México: Museo Nacional de Antropología.
20. Merrifield, William R. and Alfred E. Anderson. 2007. Diccionario Chinanteco de la diáspora del pueblo antiguo de San Pedro Tlatepuzco, Oaxaca (2nd Edition). Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves” 39. Mexico DF: Summer Linguistic Institute.
21. Schachar, Natalie (8 September 2017). "The decline of Chinantec whistled speech in Mexico". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 15 July 2019.

External links

• The Chinantec language family (SIL-Mexico)
• Feist, Timothy & Enrique L. Palancar. (2015). Oto-Manguean Inflectional Class Database: Tlatepuzco Chinantec. University of Surrey. doi:10.15126/SMG.28/1.01