Cuicatec language
{{Short description|Oto-Manguean language spoken in Mexico}}
{{Distinguish|text= the Cuitlatec language}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Cuicatec
| states = Mexico
| region = Oaxaca
| ethnicity = Cuicatec
| speakers = {{sigfig|12961|2}}
| date = 2020 census
| familycolor = oto-manguean
| fam1 = Oto-Manguean
| fam2 = Mixtecan
| script = Latin
| lc1 = cux
| ld1 = Tepeuxila
| lc2 = cut
| ld2 = Teutila
| glotto = cuic1234
| glottorefname = Cuicatec
| notice = IPA
| map = Cuicatec map.svg
| mapcaption = 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.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. 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.Website of the Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas, http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=660 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190915035252/http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=660 |date=2019-09-15 }}, accessed 28 July 2008. The name Cuicatec is a Nahuatl exonym, from {{IPA|nah|ˈkʷika|}} 'song' {{IPA|[ˈteka]}} 'inhabitant of place of'.Campbell 1997:402)
Cuicatec-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEOJN, based in San Lucas Ojitlán, Oaxaca.
Phonology
= Vowels =
The Santa Maria Papalo dialect contains six vowel sounds both oral and nasal:
| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center | |
| Front
!Back | |
|---|---|
| Close
|{{IPAlink|i}} {{IPAlink|ĩ}} |{{IPAlink|u}} {{IPAlink|ũ}} | |
| rowspan="2" |Mid
| rowspan="2" |{{IPAlink|e}} {{IPAlink|ẽ}} |{{IPAlink|o}} {{IPAlink|õ}} | |
| {{IPAlink|ɔ}} {{IPAlink|ɔ̃}} | |
| Open
| colspan="2" |{{IPAlink|a}} {{IPAlink|ã}} |
= Consonants =
| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | ! rowspan="2" |Bilabial ! rowspan="2" |Dental ! rowspan="2" |Palatal ! colspan="2" |Velar ! rowspan="2" |Glottal |
| plain
!lab. |
|---|
| colspan="2" |Plosive
|{{IPAlink|p}} |{{IPAlink|t}} | |{{IPAlink|k}} |{{IPAlink|kʷ}} |{{IPAlink|ʔ}} |
| colspan="2" |Affricate
| | |{{IPAlink|tʃ}} | | | |
| rowspan="2" |Fricative
!voiceless | |{{IPAlink|s}} | | | | |
| voiced
|{{IPAlink|β}} |{{IPAlink|ð}} | |{{IPAlink|ɣ}} |{{IPAlink|ɣʷ}} | |
| colspan="2" |Nasal
|{{IPAlink|m}} |{{IPAlink|n}} | | | | |
| colspan="2" |Rhotic
| |{{IPAlink|ɾ}}, {{IPAlink|r}} | | | | |
| colspan="2" |Approximant
| |{{IPAlink|l}} |{{IPAlink|j}} | |{{IPAlink|w}} | |
Allophones of the following sounds /β ð ɣ n j t tʃ/ include [b d ɡ~x ŋ j̈ θ ʃ], respectively.
Notes
{{reflist|2}}
Bibliography
- 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
{{Oto-Manguean languages}}
{{Indigenous people of Oaxaca}}
{{Languages of Mexico}}