Huichol language
Encyclopedia
The Huichol language is an indigenous language of Mexico which belongs to the Uto-Aztecan
language family
. It is spoken by the ethnic group widely known as the Huichol (self-designation Wixaritari), whose mountainous territory extends over portions of the Mexican states
of Jalisco
, Nayarit
, and Durango
, mostly in Jalisco. Under the 2003 law of language rights, the indigenous languages of Mexico along with Spanish are recognized as "national languages".
In regard to language typology, the language has switch-reference, is about as agglutinative as any language in the world (a verb in Huichol can have more than 20 morphemes), and is incorporating. Areally, it does not belong to the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area
—contrary to old proposals.
In recent years, at least two teaching grammars for Huichol have been produced in Mexico for nonnative speakers. In addition, a project to produce a reference grammar and dictionary of Huichol has been underway since the 1980s, conducted by a team of investigators in the Department of Indigenous Languages at the University of Guadalajara, and the first volume of the reference grammar was published in 2006.
languages (whose territories are contiguous) form the Coracholan subgroup of the Uto-Aztecan languages
.
s strung together.
For x an older spelling rr is seen, even in recent linguistic scholarship and lay publications. When the IPA symbol for the glottal stop, is not available with the typing device being used, the apostrophe is substituted.
(the diphthongs are different in the initial syllables of ʔɨi.tɨa and niɨ.tɨa). The sequences /wV/ are distinct from /uV/, likewise /yV/ is distinct from /iV/. /uV/ and /iV/ are diphthongs, and to form a valid syllable in Huichol, they must be preceded by a consonant.
Stress accent is phonemic. The default position for word stress in Huichol is the penultimate syllable (the next to last syllable), as in Spanish and English. When a word has primary stress on the penult, the orthography does not mark it. When the primary stress of the word falls on a syllable other than the penult, the stress is marked with the acute accent (as in Spanish). When there is a need to mark stress on a long vowel, the acute accent is placed on the second vowel letter. Minimal pairs showing phonemic syllable stress:
. /k/ before /ɛ/ is palatalized
, hence the pronunciation of /kɛ/ is /kjɛ/.
/w/ is [w] before /a ü/, [β] (voiced bilabial fricative) before /e i u/. The sequence /wu/, 'vu' occurs only in loanwords from Spanish.
/z, r/, while basically alveolar, have a retroflex quality. The descriptions of the phonetic content of these two phonemes vacillated from McIntosh (1945:31-32) to Grimes (1955:31) to Grimes (1959:221, 223).
McIntosh described [c s] as "alveolar" and considered these two to be allophones of the same phoneme, with [c] being the main allophone. Grimes agreed with this: he never uses 's' in his list of 13 phonemes.
McIntosh described /r/ as "a voiced retroflex alveolar flap" and /z/ as "backed alveolar . . . somewhat retroflex"; "backed alveolar" seems to correspond to the term "postalveolar" in more modern phoneticians' jargon. Among phoneticians, the alveolar ridge
is seen as a range, not a point, in the sagittal (front to back) dimension of the roof of the mouth. Phoneticians optionally distinguish between prealveolar and postalveolar (and likewise between prepalatal, midpalatal, and postpalatal). It must be understood that in the jargon, pre- and post- do not have their normal English meanings. Postalveolar means "the rear portion of the alveolar ridge", not "a region behind the alveolar ridge", while prepalatal means "the front portion of the palate (immediately behind the alveolar ridge)", not "a region in front of the palate". Thus, the descriptions "backed alveolar" and "somewhat retroflex" are consistent (perhaps even duplicative). Grimes (1955) described the allophone symbols [r] as "retroflex reverse flap" and [z s] as "retroflex", but he amended this to "apicoalveolar affricate, fricative, and flap /c z r/ (the latter two with retroflex quality)". The description, "reverse flap" was not defined. By way of conjecture, it may mean that the tongue tip (apex) travels up and backward during the flap articulation instead of straight up or up and forward.
's radio station XEJMN-AM
, broadcasting from Jesús María, Nayarit
.
Uto-Aztecan languages
Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...
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...
. It is spoken by the ethnic group widely known as the Huichol (self-designation Wixaritari), whose mountainous territory extends over portions of the Mexican states
States of Mexico
The United Mexican States is a federal republic formed by 32 federal entities .According to the Constitution of 1917, the states of the federation are free and sovereign. Each state has their own congress and constitution, while the Federal District has only limited autonomy with a local Congress...
of Jalisco
Jalisco
Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...
, Nayarit
Nayarit
Nayarit officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic.It is located in Western Mexico...
, and Durango
Durango
Durango officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is located in Northwest Mexico. With a population of 1,632,934, it has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja...
, mostly in Jalisco. Under the 2003 law of language rights, the indigenous languages of Mexico along with Spanish are recognized as "national languages".
In regard to language typology, the language has switch-reference, is about as agglutinative as any language in the world (a verb in Huichol can have more than 20 morphemes), and is incorporating. Areally, it does not belong to the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area
Mesoamerican Linguistic Area
The Mesoamerican Linguistic Area is a sprachbund containing many of the languages natively spoken in the cultural area of Mesoamerica. This sprachbund is defined by an array of syntactic, lexical and phonological traits as well as a number of ethnolinguistic traits found in the languages of...
—contrary to old proposals.
In recent years, at least two teaching grammars for Huichol have been produced in Mexico for nonnative speakers. In addition, a project to produce a reference grammar and dictionary of Huichol has been underway since the 1980s, conducted by a team of investigators in the Department of Indigenous Languages at the University of Guadalajara, and the first volume of the reference grammar was published in 2006.
Genealogy
The Huichol and CoraCora language
The Cora language is an indigenous language of Mexico of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It is spoken by the ethnic group that is widely known as the Cora but who refer to themselves as Naáyarite. The Cora inhabit the northern sierra of the Mexican state Nayarit which is named after its indigenous...
languages (whose territories are contiguous) form the Coracholan subgroup of the Uto-Aztecan languages
Uto-Aztecan languages
Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...
.
Morphology
Serrano is an agglutinative language, where words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemeMorpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
s strung together.
Orthography
The alphabet currently in use to teach Huichol speaking children to be literate in their native language isFor x an older spelling rr is seen, even in recent linguistic scholarship and lay publications. When the IPA symbol for the glottal stop, is not available with the typing device being used, the apostrophe is substituted.
Syllable structure
Syllables have one of the following structures (C = consonant, V = vowel, V^ = long vowel): CV; CV^; CVV (the two vowels differ in articulation), at least in the base form of words; in speech and sometimes in writing, the elision of vowels creates sequences in violation of these syllable canons. In syllables of the last type, the two vowels form a diphthong in which the first vowel is the most prominent. The language has a large number of diphthongs; both ascending diphthongs and descending diphthongs occur. Examples (period marks syllable boundary):- ʔɨi.tɨa 'to give';
- niɨ.tɨa 'to lend';
- xei.ya 'to see';
- xie.te 'bee'
(the diphthongs are different in the initial syllables of ʔɨi.tɨa and niɨ.tɨa). The sequences /wV/ are distinct from /uV/, likewise /yV/ is distinct from /iV/. /uV/ and /iV/ are diphthongs, and to form a valid syllable in Huichol, they must be preceded by a consonant.
Vowels
There are five vowel phonemes: /i, ɛ, a, u, ɨ/; /ɛ/ is spelled 'e'. /ɨ/ is phonetically [ɨ], a high central unrounded vowel, similar to the 'e' in the word 'roses' in English English.Details of the articulation of the vowel phonemes
[ɛ] is reported to be even more open than the similar half open front vowel of French, but less open than the [æ] of English 'cat'. [a] is low central.Suprasegmental phonemic contrasts
Length is phonemic for vowels. A long vowel is marked by a pair of identical vowel letters. Some minimal pairs:- ʔiiya 'to drink', ʔiya 'to chew';
- ʔeetsiya 'to cook', ʔetsiya 'sown field';
- pukuʔeewiene 'looking for a place to get out of the rain', pukuʔewiene 'walking around tending to things'.
Stress accent is phonemic. The default position for word stress in Huichol is the penultimate syllable (the next to last syllable), as in Spanish and English. When a word has primary stress on the penult, the orthography does not mark it. When the primary stress of the word falls on a syllable other than the penult, the stress is marked with the acute accent (as in Spanish). When there is a need to mark stress on a long vowel, the acute accent is placed on the second vowel letter. Minimal pairs showing phonemic syllable stress:
- tuaxa 'to shoot', tuaxá 'oak';
- kɨpi 'close one's eyes', kɨpí 'butterfly'.
Consonants
There are thirteen consonant phonemes. /c/ has two allophones, the affricate, [ts] by default and the fricative, [s] when it immediately precedes another consonant. /h/, which Grimes (1955) groups with /w y/ for morphophonemic reasons, is phonetically the glottal voiceless fricative, [h]. The boldfaced symbols in parentheses are the symbols used in the Huichol orthography, where these differ from the linguists' symbols.| Bilabial | Apicoalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Occlusive | p | t | k | kʷ (kw) | ʔ | |
| Affricate | c (ts; s) | |||||
| Fricative | z (x) | |||||
| Flap Flap consonant In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another.-Contrast with stops and trills:... |
r | |||||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ||||
| Approximant | w | y | h |
Details of the articulation of the consonant phonemes
/k/ before /i/ is aspiratedAspiration (phonetics)
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
. /k/ before /ɛ/ is palatalized
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
, hence the pronunciation of /kɛ/ is /kjɛ/.
/w/ is [w] before /a ü/, [β] (voiced bilabial fricative) before /e i u/. The sequence /wu/, 'vu' occurs only in loanwords from Spanish.
The precise description of the articulation of /c z r/
/z, r/, while basically alveolar, have a retroflex quality. The descriptions of the phonetic content of these two phonemes vacillated from McIntosh (1945:31-32) to Grimes (1955:31) to Grimes (1959:221, 223).
McIntosh described [c s] as "alveolar" and considered these two to be allophones of the same phoneme, with [c] being the main allophone. Grimes agreed with this: he never uses 's' in his list of 13 phonemes.
McIntosh described /r/ as "a voiced retroflex alveolar flap" and /z/ as "backed alveolar . . . somewhat retroflex"; "backed alveolar" seems to correspond to the term "postalveolar" in more modern phoneticians' jargon. Among phoneticians, the alveolar ridge
Alveolar ridge
An alveolar ridge is one of the two jaw ridges either on the roof of the mouth between the upper teeth and the hard palate or on the bottom of the mouth behind the lower teeth. The alveolar ridges contain the sockets of the teeth....
is seen as a range, not a point, in the sagittal (front to back) dimension of the roof of the mouth. Phoneticians optionally distinguish between prealveolar and postalveolar (and likewise between prepalatal, midpalatal, and postpalatal). It must be understood that in the jargon, pre- and post- do not have their normal English meanings. Postalveolar means "the rear portion of the alveolar ridge", not "a region behind the alveolar ridge", while prepalatal means "the front portion of the palate (immediately behind the alveolar ridge)", not "a region in front of the palate". Thus, the descriptions "backed alveolar" and "somewhat retroflex" are consistent (perhaps even duplicative). Grimes (1955) described the allophone symbols [r] as "retroflex reverse flap" and [z s] as "retroflex", but he amended this to "apicoalveolar affricate, fricative, and flap /c z r/ (the latter two with retroflex quality)". The description, "reverse flap" was not defined. By way of conjecture, it may mean that the tongue tip (apex) travels up and backward during the flap articulation instead of straight up or up and forward.
Media
Huichol-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 XEJMN-AM
XEJMN-AM
XEJMN-AM is an indigenous community radio station that broadcasts in Spanish,Cora, Huichol, Tepehuano and Nahuatl from Jesús María, municipality of El Nayar, in the Mexican state of Nayarit....
, broadcasting from Jesús María, Nayarit
Jesús María, Nayarit
Jesús María is the municipal seat of the municipality of El Nayar in the Mexican state of Nayarit. The population was 1,783 in 2000.XEJMN-AM, a government-run indigenous community radio station that broadcasts in Cora, Huichol, Tepehuano and Nahuatl, is based in Jesús María.-References:...
.
Other sources (not consulted)
- Gómez López, Paula. 1999. El huichol de San Andrés Cohamiata, Jalisco. Mexico City: El Colegio de México. Series: Archivo de Lenguas Indígenas de México; 22. 204 pp.
- Grimes, Joseph E. 2008. Review of Gramática Wixarika I (Iturrioz and Gómez López). International Journal of American Linguistics, July 2008, 74(3): 401-404.
- Iturrioz, José Luis, ed. 2004. Lenguas y literaturas indígenas de Jalisco. Guadalajara: Secretaría de Cultura, Gobierno del Estado de Jalisco. The bulk of the book addresses the grammar of the Huichol language.
- Iturrioz, José Luis & Gómez López, Paula. 2006. Gramática Wixárika I. LINCOM Europa. Studies in Native American Linguistics; 3. ISBN 3895860611. 268 pp. (Reference grammar)
- Iturrioz, José Luis & Gómez López, Paula. 2009. Gramática Wixárika II/III. München/Munich: LINCOM Europa. 280 pp. (Reference grammar)
- Santos García, Saúl; Tutupika Carrillo de la Cruz; Marina Carrillo Díaz. 2008. Taniuki: curso de Wixárika como segunda lengua. [Taniuki [Our language], course in Huichol as a second language] Nayarit, Mexico: Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit. 90 pp. In Spanish. (news report announcing publication of the book)