Isthmus Nahuatl | |
---|---|
melaꞌtájto̱l | |
Native to | Mexico |
Region | Veracruz, Tabasco |
Native speakers | (39,000 cited 1990–2000)[1] |
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Latin | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Variously:nhk – Cosoleacaquenhx – Mecayapannhp – Pajapan |
Glottolog | isth1245 |
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Isthmus Nahuatl (Isthmus Nahuat; native name: melaꞌtájto̱l) is a Nahuatl dialect cluster spoken by about 30,000 people in Veracruz, Mexico. According to Ethnologue 16, the Cosoleacaque dialect is 84% intelligible with Pajapan, and 83% intelligible with Mecayapan.
It is spoken in the following Veracruzan communities:[2]
The following description is that of Mecayapan dialect.
Front | back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i iː | o oː |
Mid | e eː | |
Open | a aː |
Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | |
voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||
Affricate | voiceless | ts | tʃ | |||
voiced | (dz[a]) | (dʒ) | ||||
Fricative | voiceless | s | ʃ | h | ||
voiced | z | (ʒ[a]) | ||||
Approximant | l | j | w | |||
Rhotic | r |
A a | B b | C c | Ch ch | D d | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i | J j | K k | L l | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
/a/ | /b/ | /k/ | /tʃ/ | /d/ | /e/ | /ɡ/ | /i j/ | /h/ | /k/ | /l/ | |||
M m | N n | O o | P p | Q q | R r | S s | T t | U u | V v | X x | Y y | Z z | ꞌ |
/m/ | /n/ | /o/ | /p/ | /k/ | /r/ | /s/ | /t/ | /w/ | /ʃ/ | /j/ | /ʔ/ |
H is used at the beginnings of words before u, and has no value of its own. C is used to represent /k/ before the vowels a and o, while qu is used before i and e.
Amacron under the letter (a̱, e̱, i̱, o̱) is used to mark long vowels.
Stress on the second-last syllable of a word that does not end in lorr, and stress on the last syllable of a word that does end in lorr, is unmarked. All other stress patterns are marked with an acute accent on the stressed vowel (á, é, í, ó).
The letters f, k, v and z occur only in loanwords.
This variety of Nahuatl has developed a distinction between inclusive and exclusive "we", which Classical Nahuatl and other modern forms of Nahuatl lack. The exclusive form is regularly derived from the first person singular ("I"), while the inclusive continues the suppletive first person plural of Classical Nahuatl.
Classical | Isthmus-Mecayapan | ||
---|---|---|---|
1st person singular | niquīsa "I leave" | niqui̱sa "I leave" | 1st person singular |
niqui̱saj "We (not you) leave" | 1st person plural exclusive | ||
1st person plural | tiquīsaj "We leave" | tiqui̱saj "We (including you) leave" | 1st person plural inclusive |
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Northern |
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Southern |
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History |
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Italics indicate extinct languages |