Huasteca Nahuatl

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Huasteca Nahuatl
Native to Mexico
Region La Huasteca (San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Puebla, Veracruz)
Native speakers
 1.0 million  (1991–2000)[1]
Uto-Aztecan
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Variously:
nhe – Eastern (Hidalgo)
nch – Central
nhw – Western (Tamazunchale)

Huasteca Nahuatl is a Nahuan language spoken by over a million people in the region of La Huasteca in Mexico, centered in the states of Hidalgo (Eastern) and San Luis Potosí (Western), but also spoken in the northern part of Veracruz and the extreme north of Puebla.[2] Ethnologue divides Huasteca Nahuatl into three languages, Eastern, Central, and Western, as they judge that separate literature is required, but notes that there is 85% mutual intelligibility between Eastern and Western. Half of Eastern speakers know no Spanish.[3]

XEANT-AM radio broadcasts in Huasteca Nahuatl.

Demographics

Huasteca Nahuatl is spoken in the following municipalities in the states of Hidalgo, Veracruz, and San Luis Potosí (Rodríguez & Valderrama 2005:168).

Hidalgo (121,818 speakers)
  • Huejutla Reyes (56,377 speakers)
  • Huautla (18,444 speakers)
  • Yahualica (14,584 speakers)
  • Xochiatipan (12,990 speakers)
  • Atlapexco (12,445 speakers)
  • Jaltocan (6,978 speakers)
Veracruz (98,162 speakers)
  • Chicontepec (41,678 speakers)
  • Ixhuatlán de Madero (21,682 speakers)
  • Benito Juárez (11,793 speakers)
  • Ilamantlan (9,689 speakers)
  • Ixcatepec (6,949 speakers)
  • Zontecomatlán (6,371 speakers)
San Luis Potosí (108,471 speakers)
  • Tamazunchale (35,773 speakers)
  • Axtla de Terrazas (17,401 speakers)
  • Xilitla (16,646 speakers)
  • Matlapa (16,286 speakers)
  • Coxcatlan (12,300 speakers)
  • Chalchicuautla (10,065 speakers)

Phonology

The following description is that of Eastern Huasteca.

Vowels

Front Back
High i iˑ
Mid-high e eˑ
Mid-low o oˑ
Low a aˑ

Consonants

Labial Apical Postalveolar Velar Glottal
Unrounded Rounded
Plosive p t k kʷ ʔ
Affricate ts tʃ
Lateral affricate tɬ
Fricative s ʃ h
Liquid l, r
Nasal m n
Semivowel w j

Notes

  1. ↑ Eastern (Hidalgo) reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
    Central reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
    Western (Tamazunchale) reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  2. ↑ Kimball: p. 196.
  3. ↑ Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl reference at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)

References

    • Kimball, Geoffrey (1990). "Noun Pluralization in Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl". International Journal of American Linguistics 56 (2): 196–216. doi:10.1086/466150. 
    • Rodríguez López, María Teresa, and Pablo Valderrama Rouy. 2005. "The Gulf Coast Nahua." In Sandstrom, Alan R., and Enrique Hugo García Valencia. 2005. Native peoples of the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
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