Cuicatec language
| Cuicatec | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Mexico |
| Region | Oaxaca |
| Ethnicity | Cuicatec |
Native speakers | 13,000 (2020 census)[1] |
Oto-Manguean
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:cux – Tepeuxilacut – Teutila |
| Glottolog | cuic1234 |
| ELP | Cuicatec |
 Extent of the Cuicatec language: prior to contact (olive green) and current (red) | |
Cuicatec is an Oto-Manguean language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico. It belongs to the Mixtecan branch together with the Mixtec languages and the Trique language.[2] The Ethnologue lists two major dialects of Cuicatec: Tepeuxila Cuicatec and Teutila Cuicatec. Like other Oto-Manguean languages, Cuicatec is tonal.
The Cuicatecs are closely related to the Mixtecs. They inhabit two towns: Teutila and Tepeuxila in western Oaxaca. According to the 2000 census, they number around 23,000, of whom an estimated 65% are speakers of the language.[3] The name Cuicatec is a Nahuatl exonym, from [ˈkʷika] 'song' [ˈteka] 'inhabitant of place of'.[4]
Cuicatec-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEOJN, based in San Lucas Ojitlán, Oaxaca.
Phonology
[edit]Vowels
[edit]The Santa Maria Papalo dialect contains six vowel sounds both oral and nasal:
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i ĩ | u ũ |
| Mid | e ẽ | o õ |
| ɔ ɔ̃ | ||
| Open | a ã | |
Consonants
[edit]| Bilabial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | ||||||
| Plosive | p | t | k | kʷ | ʔ | ||
| Affricate | tʃ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | |||||
| voiced | β | ð | ɣ | ɣʷ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Rhotic | ɾ, r | ||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||
Allophones of the following sounds /β ð ɣ n j t tʃ/ include [b d ɡ~x ŋ j̈ θ ʃ], respectively.
Notes
[edit]- ^ Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020 INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.
- ^ The proposal to group Mixtec, Trique and Cuicatec into a single family (none more closely related to one than to the other) was made by Longacre (1957) with convincing evidence.
- ^ Website of the Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas, http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=660 Archived 2019-09-15 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 28 July 2008.
- ^ Campbell 1997:402)
Bibliography
[edit]- Anderson, E. Richard & Hilario Concepción R. 1983. Diccionario cuicateco: español-cuicateco, cuicateco-español. Mexico City: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
- Bradley, David P. 1991. A preliminary syntactic sketch of Concepción Pápalo Cuicatec. In C. Henry Bradley and Barbara E. Hollenbach (eds.), Studies in the syntax of Mixtecan languages 3, pp. 409–506. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
- Campbell, Lyle. 1997. American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Needham, Doris & Marjorie Davis. 1946. Cuicateco phonology. International Journal of American Linguistics 12: 139-46.
- Prewett, Joanne and Omer E. 1974. The Segmental Phonology of Cuicateco of Santa María Pápalo Oaxaca, Mexico, pp. 53-92
