Chatino language
Encyclopedia
The Chatino language is an indigenous Mesoamerican language, which is classified under the Zapotecan
branch of the Oto-Manguean
language family
. The language is natively spoken by approximately 23,000 of the Chatino
people
, whose communities are located in the southern portion of the Mexican state of Oaxaca
.
The Chatinos have close cultural and linguistic ties with the Zapotec people, whose languages
form the other branch of the Zapotecan language family. The Chatinos call their language cha'cña, which means "difficult word." The Chatino language is recognized as a national language in Mexico.
counts some six distinct dialect
s of Chatino, which exhibit varying degrees of mutual intelligibility
. (See box.)
There are five oral vowels, /i e a o u/, and four nasal vowels, /ĩ ẽ õ ũ/.
Rasch (2002) reports ten distinct tones for Yaitepec Chatino. The level tones are high /1/, mid /2/, low-mid /3/, and low /4/. There are also two rising tones (/21/ and /32/) and three falling tones (/12/, /23/, /34/) as well as a more limited falling tone /24/, found in a few lexical items and in a few Completive forms of verbs.
There are a variety of practical orthographies for Chatino, most influenced by Spanish orthography. In the examples below, ⟨x⟩ represents /ʃ/, ⟨ch⟩ = /tʃ/, and /k/ is spelled ⟨c⟩ before back vowels and ⟨qu⟩ before front vowels.
The prefix /x/ occurs before some roots that start with one of the following consonants: /c, qu, ty/ or with the vowels /u,a/, e.g.
The prefix /xa/ is put before certain roots that begin with /t/, e.g.
Palatalization occurs in some roots that begin with /t/, e.g.
taa 'will give' tyaa 'will pay'
(Pride 1970: 95-96)
The alternations seen here are similar to the causative alternation seen in the related Zapotec language
s.
Pride (1965) reports eight aspects in Yaitepec Chatino.
potential 'The majority of the verbs have no potential prefix, and its absence indicates this aspect.'
habitual This is indicated by the prefixes /n-, nd-, l-/ and /n-/ with palatalization of the first consonant of the root, e.g.:
nsta 'puts it in'
nsta chcubi loo mesa 'puts the box on the table'
ndu'ni cu'na 'graze'
Ndu'ni ngu' cu'na quichi re 'The people of this town graze'
ntya 'sow'
Ntya ngu' quichi re quiña 'The people of this town sow chile.'
continuative Roots that take /n-/ or /nd-/ in the habitual have the same in the continuative plus palatalization; roots that have /n-/ plus palatalization in the habitual have /ndya-/, e.g.
Nxtya chcubi loo mesa 'is putting the box on the table'
Ndyu'ni ngu' cu'na quichi re 'The people of this town are grazing.'
Ndyata ngu' quichi re quiña 'The people of this town are sowing chile.'
completive This is indicated with the prefix /ngu-/, and verbs that start with /cu-, cui-, qui-/ change to /ngu-/ and /ngüi-/ in the completive:
sta 'will put it'
Ngu-sta chcubi loo mesa 'Someone put the box on the table'
culu'u 'will teach it'
Ngulu'u mstru ji'i 'The teacher taught it.'
imperative This aspect is indicated by palatalization in the first consonant of the potential form of the verb. If the potential is already a palatalized consonant, the imperative is the same, e.g:
sati 'will slacken' xati' ji'i 'let it loose!'
xi'yu 'will cut' xi'yu ji'i 'cut it!'
perfective This aspect is indicated by the particle /cua/, which is written as a separate word in Pride (1965).
tyee 'will end' cua tyee ti 'is ended'
cua ndya ngu 'is gone'
passive potential /tya-/
Tyaala ton'ni'i 'The door will be opened.'
passive completive /ndya-/
Ndyaala ton'ni'i 'The door is open.'
'The lazy dog gave a sweetbread to the coyote.'
's radio station XEJAM, based in Santiago Jamiltepec
, Oaxaca
.
Zapotecan languages
The Zapotecan languages are a group of related Oto-Manguean languages which descend from the common proto-Zapotecan language spoken by the Zapotec people during the era of the dominance of Monte Albán....
branch of the Oto-Manguean
Oto-Manguean languages
Oto-Manguean languages are a large family comprising several families of Native American languages. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the family, which is now extinct, was spoken as far south as Nicaragua and Costa Rica.The...
language family
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
. The language is natively spoken by approximately 23,000 of the Chatino
Chatino
Chatino is the Spanish name of an indigenous people of southern central Mexico, and also of their language, the Chatino language. Chatino communities are located in the southeastern region of the state of Oaxaca. Speakers of Chatino are numbered around 23,000 , but ethnic Chatinos may number many...
people
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
, whose communities are located in the southern portion of the Mexican state of Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
.
The Chatinos have close cultural and linguistic ties with the Zapotec people, whose languages
Zapotec language
The Zapotec language are a group of closely related indigenous Mesoamerican languages spoken by the Zapotec people from the southwestern-central highlands of Mexico. Present-day native speakers are estimated to number over half a million, with the majority inhabiting the state of Oaxaca....
form the other branch of the Zapotecan language family. The Chatinos call their language cha'cña, which means "difficult word." The Chatino language is recognized as a national language in Mexico.
Dialects
EthnologueEthnologue
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
counts some six distinct dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s of Chatino, which exhibit varying degrees of mutual intelligibility
Mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort...
. (See box.)
Phonology and orthography
Yaitepec Chatino has the following phonemic consonants (Pride 1965):| p, b | t, d | k, ɡ | ʔ |
| w | s, ʃ | h | |
| m | n | ||
| l, r, j |
There are five oral vowels, /i e a o u/, and four nasal vowels, /ĩ ẽ õ ũ/.
Rasch (2002) reports ten distinct tones for Yaitepec Chatino. The level tones are high /1/, mid /2/, low-mid /3/, and low /4/. There are also two rising tones (/21/ and /32/) and three falling tones (/12/, /23/, /34/) as well as a more limited falling tone /24/, found in a few lexical items and in a few Completive forms of verbs.
There are a variety of practical orthographies for Chatino, most influenced by Spanish orthography. In the examples below, ⟨x⟩ represents /ʃ/, ⟨ch⟩ = /tʃ/, and /k/ is spelled ⟨c⟩ before back vowels and ⟨qu⟩ before front vowels.
Transitive-Intransitive alternations
Chatino languages have some regular alternations between transitive and intransitive verbs. In general this change is shown by altering the first consonant of the root, as in the following examples from Tataltepec Chatino:| gloss | transitive | intransitive |
|---|---|---|
| 'change' | ntsa'a | ncha'a |
| 'finish | ntyee | ndyee |
| 'put out' | nxubi' | ndyubi' |
| 'scare' | nchcutsi | ntyutsi |
| 'melt' | nxalá | ndyalá |
| 'throw' | nchcuaa | ndyalu |
| 'bury' | nxatsi | ndyatsi |
| 'frighten' | ntyutsi | nchcutsi |
| 'move' | nchquiña | nguiña |
| 'roast' | nchqui'i | ngui'i |
Causative alternations
There is also a morphological causative in Chatino, expressed by the causative prefix /x-/, /xa-/, /y/, or by the palatalization of the first consonant. The choice of prefix appears to be partially determined by the first consonant of the verb, though there are some irregular cases.The prefix /x/ occurs before some roots that start with one of the following consonants: /c, qu, ty/ or with the vowels /u,a/, e.g.
| catá chcu | 'bathe (reflexive)' | xcatá ji'i | 'bathe (transitive)' |
| quityi | 'dry (reflexive)' | xquityi ji'i | 'dry (tr)' |
| ndyu'u | 'is alive' | nxtyu'u ji'i | 'waken' |
| ndyubi' | 'is put out' | nxubi' | 'put out' |
| tyatsi' | 'is buried' | xatsi' | 'bury' |
The prefix /xa/ is put before certain roots that begin with /t/, e.g.
| nduu | 'is stopping' | nxatuu | 'to stop something' |
Palatalization occurs in some roots that begin with /t/, e.g.
taa 'will give' tyaa 'will pay'
(Pride 1970: 95-96)
The alternations seen here are similar to the causative alternation seen in the related Zapotec language
Zapotec language
The Zapotec language are a group of closely related indigenous Mesoamerican languages spoken by the Zapotec people from the southwestern-central highlands of Mexico. Present-day native speakers are estimated to number over half a million, with the majority inhabiting the state of Oaxaca....
s.
Aspect
Aspect:Pride (1965) reports eight aspects in Yaitepec Chatino.
potential 'The majority of the verbs have no potential prefix, and its absence indicates this aspect.'
habitual This is indicated by the prefixes /n-, nd-, l-/ and /n-/ with palatalization of the first consonant of the root, e.g.:
nsta 'puts it in'
nsta chcubi loo mesa 'puts the box on the table'
ndu'ni cu'na 'graze'
Ndu'ni ngu' cu'na quichi re 'The people of this town graze'
ntya 'sow'
Ntya ngu' quichi re quiña 'The people of this town sow chile.'
continuative Roots that take /n-/ or /nd-/ in the habitual have the same in the continuative plus palatalization; roots that have /n-/ plus palatalization in the habitual have /ndya-/, e.g.
Nxtya chcubi loo mesa 'is putting the box on the table'
Ndyu'ni ngu' cu'na quichi re 'The people of this town are grazing.'
Ndyata ngu' quichi re quiña 'The people of this town are sowing chile.'
completive This is indicated with the prefix /ngu-/, and verbs that start with /cu-, cui-, qui-/ change to /ngu-/ and /ngüi-/ in the completive:
sta 'will put it'
Ngu-sta chcubi loo mesa 'Someone put the box on the table'
culu'u 'will teach it'
Ngulu'u mstru ji'i 'The teacher taught it.'
imperative This aspect is indicated by palatalization in the first consonant of the potential form of the verb. If the potential is already a palatalized consonant, the imperative is the same, e.g:
sati 'will slacken' xati' ji'i 'let it loose!'
xi'yu 'will cut' xi'yu ji'i 'cut it!'
perfective This aspect is indicated by the particle /cua/, which is written as a separate word in Pride (1965).
tyee 'will end' cua tyee ti 'is ended'
cua ndya ngu 'is gone'
passive potential /tya-/
Tyaala ton'ni'i 'The door will be opened.'
passive completive /ndya-/
Ndyaala ton'ni'i 'The door is open.'
Syntax
Chatino languages usually have VSO as their predominant order, as in the following example:| N-da | nu | xni' | ndaha | ska | ha | xtlya | ?i | nu | 'o. |
| con-give | the | dog | lazy | one | tortilla | Spanish | to | the | coyote |
'The lazy dog gave a sweetbread to the coyote.'
Media
Chatino-language programming is carried by the CDINational Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples
The National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples is a decentralized agency of the Mexican Federal Public Administration. It was founded in 2003 as a replacement for the National Indigenist Institute . It has its headquarters in Mexico City and, since 15 December 2006, has been...
's radio station XEJAM, based in Santiago Jamiltepec
Santiago Jamiltepec
Santiago Jamiltepec is a town, and the seat of surrounding municipality of the same name, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca....
, Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
.
External links
- Chatino language dialects, as documented by Ethnologue