Amuzgo language

Amuzgo
Amuzgoan
Native to Mexico
Region Guerrero, Oaxaca
Ethnicity Chatino people
Native speakers
 51,000 (2010 census)[1]
Oto-Manguean

  • Eastern Oto-Mangue

    • Amuzgo–Mixtecan?
      • Amuzgo
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Variously:
amu – Northern (Guerrero) Amuzgo
azm – Ipalapa Amuzgo
azg – San Pedro Amuzgos (Oaxaca) Amuzgo
Glottolog amuz1254[2]

The Amuzgo language, number 12 (darker blue), southwest.

Amuzgo is an Oto-Manguean language spoken in the Costa Chica region of the Mexican states of Guerrero and Oaxaca by about 44,000 speakers.[3] Like other Oto-Manguean languages, Amuzgo is a tonal language. From syntactical point of view Amuzgo can be considered as an active language. The name Amuzgo is claimed to be a Nahuatl exonym but its meaning is shrouded in controversy; multiple proposals have been made, including [amoʃ-ko] 'moss-in'.[4]

A significant percentage of the Amuzgo speakers are monolingual; the remainder also speak Spanish.

Four varieties of Amuzgo are officially recognized by the governmental agency, the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI).[5] They are:

These varieties are very similar, but there is a significant difference between western varieties (Northern and Southern) and eastern varieties (Upper Eastern and Lower Eastern), as revealed by recorded text testing done in the 1970s.[6]

Three dictionaries have been published for Upper Eastern Amuzgo in recent years. For Northern Amuzgo, no dictionary has yet been published, yet it too is very actively written. Lower Eastern Amuzgo and Southern Amuzgo (spoken in Huixtepec (Ometepec), for example) are still not well documented, but work is underway.

While the Mixtecan subdivision may indeed be the closest to Amuzgo within Oto-Manguean,[7] earlier claims that Amuzgo is part of it have been contested.[8]

Phonology

Consonants

The dialect presented in the following chart is Upper Eastern, as spoken in San Pedro Amuzgos as analyzed by Smith & Tapia (2002).

Bilabial Dental Alveolar Alveopalatal/
Palatal		 Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ
Plosive t d tʲ dʲ k ɡ ʔ
Affricate t͡s t͡ʃ
Fricative s ʃ h
Approximant j w

The following chart is based on Coronado Nazario et al. (2009) for the variety of Southern Amuzgo spoken in Huixtepec. The phonetic facts are very similar to that of other varieties, but the analysis is different.

Bilabial Apico-dental Apico-lamino-/
alveolar		 Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal n nʲ
Plosive (p) t tʲ k kʷ ⁿk ʔ
Affricate t͡s t͡ʃ
Fricative s ʃ h
Lateral approximant l
Central approximant j w
Tap (ɾ)

In this analysis, the nasals and central approximants have distinctive allophones that depend on whether or not they precede a nasalized vowel. The approximant /w/, which is [b] before oral vowels or consonants in Huixtepec, is [m] before nasalized vowels. The approximant /j/ is likewise nasalized before nasalized vowels, and [j] elsewhere. The nasals are pronounced with an oral non-nasal release when they precede an oral vowel, and as such sound like [nd] in that context. Various other important details about the phonetics of Amuzgo are not presented in a simplified chart such as the one shown above.

Vowels

Amuzgo distinguishes seven vowels with respect to quality. In all the documented dialects, all but the two close vowels may be nasalized. Some descriptions claim that Amuzgo also has ballistic syllables, a possible type of supra-glottal phonation. Ballistic syllables are also a feature of the phonology of another Oto-Manguean branch, Chinantec.

Front Central Back
oral nasal oral nasal oral nasal
Close
 i u
Close-mid e ẽ o õ
Open-mid ɛ ɛ̃ ɔ ɔ̃
Open
 ɑ ɑ̃

Tones

Amuzgo has three basic tones: high, mid, and low. But it also has several combinations of tones on single syllables. The contour high-low is a common one. The following words are apparently distinguished only by tone in Huixtepec: /ha/ 'sour' (low), /ha/ (mid) 'I', /ha/ (high-low) 'we (exclusive)', and /ha/ (high) 'we (inclusive)'. See also the set: /ta/ 'hill' (low), /ta/ 'thick' (mid), /ta/ ' father (vocative)' (high-low), /ta/ 'slice' (high).[9]

Morphology

Nouns are pluralized by a prefix. The common plural prefix is n-. Compare /thã/ 'skin', /n-thã/ 'skins' (Northern and Southern Amuzgo). Typically the consonant /ts/ drops when the noun is pluralized: /tsʔɔ/ 'hand', /l-ʔɔ/ 'hands' (Northern Amuzgo), /n-ʔɔ/ 'hands' (Southern Amuzgo).

Animate nouns (most animals and insects, plus some other nouns) carry the classifier prefix /ka/. This classifier precedes the inflected noun, as in /ka-tsueʔ/ 'dog', /ka-l-ueʔ/ 'dogs' (Northern Amuzgo), /ka-n-ueʔ/ 'dogs' (Southern Amuzgo).

Syntax

Amuzgo has been proposed to be an active–stative language.[10] Like many other Otomanguean languages, it distinguishes between first person inclusive plural and first person exclusive plural pronouns.

Media

Amuzgo-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEJAM, based in Santiago Jamiltepec, Oaxaca, and by the community radio station Radio Ñomndaa in Xochistlahuaca-Suljaa'.

Notes

  1. ↑ INALI (2012) México: Lenguas indígenas nacionales
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Amuzgoan". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ 2005 census; http://www.inegi.org.mx/est/contenidos/espanol/rutinas/ept.asp?t=mlen10&c=3337
  4. ↑ Campbell (1997:402)
  5. ↑ Catálogo de las lenguas indígenas nacionales: Variantes lingüísticas de México con sus autodenominaciones y referencias geoestadísticas. .
  6. ↑ Egland, Bartholomew & Cruz Ramos, 1983:8.
  7. ↑ Campbell (1997:158)
  8. ↑ Longacre (1961, 1966a, 1966b); Longacre & Millon (1961)
  9. ↑ Coronado et al. (2009).
  10. ↑ Smith & Tapia 2002

References

External links

Look up Amuzgo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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