Tepehuán language
Tepehuán | |
---|---|
O'otham | |
Native to | Mexico |
Region | Chihuahua, Durango |
Ethnicity | Tepehuán |
Native speakers | 55,000 (2020 census) |
Dialects | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Variously:ntp – Northern Tepehuánstp – Southeastern Tepehuántla – Southwestern Tepehuántep – Tepecano |
Glottolog | tepe1281 |
ELP | |
Northern Tepehuán is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Southwestern Tepehuán is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger |
Tepehuán (Tepehuano) is the name of three closely related languages of the Piman branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, all spoken in northern Mexico. The language is called O'otham by its speakers.
Northern Tepehuán
Northern Tepehuán is spoken by about 10,000 people (2020 census) in several settlements in Guadalupe y Calvo and Guachochi, Chihuahua, as well as in the north of Durango.
Southern Tepehuán
Southern Tepehuán is spoken by about 45,000 people, about equally divided into:
- Southeastern Tepehuán in Mezquital Municipio in the state of Durango.
- Southwestern Tepehuán in southwestern Durango.
Southern Tepehuán coexists with the Mexicanero language; there is some intermarriage between the two ethnic groups, and a number of speakers are trilingual in Mexicanero, Tepehuán and Spanish.
Media
Tepehuán-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio stations XEJMN-AM, broadcasting from Jesús María, Nayarit, and XETAR, based in Guachochi, Chihuahua.
Morphology
Tepehuán is an agglutinative language, in which words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.
Phonology
Northern Tepehuan
The following is representative of the Northern dialect of Tepehuan.
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | ɨ | u |
Mid | o | ||
Open | a |
Consonants
Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | tʲ | k | |
voiced | b | d | dʲ | ɡ | ||
Affricate | t͡ʃ | |||||
Fricative | v | s | ʃ | x | ||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||
Rhotic | r | |||||
Approximant | l |
Nasal consonants /n, ɲ/ become [ŋ] when preceding a velar consonant.
Southern Tepehuan
The following is representative of the Southeastern dialect of Tepehuan.
Vowels
Front | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | ɯ | u |
Mid | ʌ | o | |
Open | ɑ |
Consonants
Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | ||
voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||||
Affricate | voiceless | t͡ʃ | |||||
voiced | d͡ʒ | ɣ͡ʎ | |||||
Fricative | v | s | ʃ | h | |||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||||
Rhotic | ɾ | ||||||
Approximant | (l) | j |
/v/ is sometimes realized as [f] in word-final position. /l/ appears only in loanwords from Spanish.
Sample Tepehuan Text
Northern Tepehuan:
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Southeastern Tepehuan:
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Further reading
- Gil Burgoin, Carlos Ivanhoe (2021). "Northern Tepehuan". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association: 1–17. doi:10.1017/S002510032100013X, with supplementary sound recordings.