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Eastern Chatino

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(Redirected from Yaitepec Chatino language)
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
ctz – Zacatepec
Glottologeast2736
ELPWestern Highland Chatino

Highland Chatino is an indigenous Mesoamerican language, one of the Chatino family of the Oto-Manguean languages. Dialects are rather diverse; neighboring dialects are about 80% mutually intelligible.

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

Dialects

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Eastern Chatino is spoken in 14 dialects in 17 communities that centered on the economic and cultural centers of Santa Catarina Juquila and Santiago Yaitepec. ISO assigns these dialects to four groups with different language codes, but there is no objective evidence that the dialects grouped together are closest to each other. Dialects include:

Lachao-Yolotepec
Yaitepec
Panixtlahuaca
Quiahije
Nopala
Zacatepec

Phonology

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Yaitepec Chatino

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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 o
Open a

An epenthetic 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

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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 A–L 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.[citation needed] Not all of these are distinct in all dialects; rather, they mark pan-dialect tone-cognate sets.

In Yaitepec dialect, the pronunciations are:[3]

[˧] (3)
[˦˨] (24)
ꟲ = ᴷ [˦˧] (23)
[˥˨] (14)
[˥] (1)
ꟳ = ᴸ [˧˦] (32)
[˥˦] (12)
[˨˧] (43)
[˦] (2)
[˧˥] (31)

References

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  1. ^ Western Highland at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
    Eastern Highland (Lachao-Yolotepec) at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
    Nopala at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
    Zacatepec at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Unicode submission L2/20-251
  3. ^ "Chatino language, alphabet and pronunciation".
  • Rasch, Jeffrey Walker. 2002. The basic morpho-syntax of Yaitepec Chatino. Ph.D. thesis. Rice University.
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