View source for Chinantecan languages

{{Short description|Oto-Manguean language branch of Mexico}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Chinantec
|nativename=Tsa Jujmi
|states=[[Mexico]]
|region=[[Oaxaca]]
|ethnicity=[[Chinantecs]]
| speakers = {{sigfig|144394|2}}
| date=2020 census
| ref=<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/hipertexto/todas_lenguas.htm |title=Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020 |publisher=INEGI |website=Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.}}</ref>
|familycolor=American
|fam1=[[Oto-Manguean languages|Oto-Manguean]]
|fam2=Western
|fam3=Oto-Pame–Chinantecan
|lc1=cco|ld1=[[Comaltepec Chinantec]]
|lc2=chj|ld2=[[Ojitlán Chinantec]]
|lc3=chq|ld3=[[Quiotepec Chinantec]]
|lc4=chz|ld4=[[Ozumacín Chinantec]]
|lc5=cle|ld5=[[Lealao Chinantec]]
|lc6=cnl|ld6=[[Lalana Chinantec]]
|lc7=cnt|ld7=[[Tepetotutla Chinantec]]
|lc8=cpa|ld8=[[Palantla Chinantec]]
|lc9=csa|ld9=[[Chiltepec Chinantec]]
|lc10=cso|ld10=[[Sochiapan Chinantec]]
|lc11=cte|ld11=[[Tepinapa Chinantec]]
|lc12=ctl|ld12=[[Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec]]
|lc13=cuc|ld13=[[Usila Chinantec]]
|lc14=cvn|ld14=[[Valle Nacional Chinantec]]
|glotto=chin1484
|glottorefname=Chinantecan
|ELP=9873
|ELPname=Central Chinantec
|map=Otomanguean Languages.png
|mapcaption=The Chinantecan languages, number 9 ([[Chartreuse (color)|chartreuse]]), east.
}}

The '''Chinantec''' or '''Chinantecan''' languages constitute a branch of the [[Oto-Manguean languages|Oto-Manguean]] family. Though traditionally considered a single language, ''[[Ethnologue]]'' lists 14 partially [[mutual intelligibility|mutually unintelligible]] varieties of Chinantec.<ref name="Palancar2014">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Palancar |first=Enrique L. |year=2014 |title=Revisiting the Complexity of the Chinantecan Verb Conjugation Classes |editor-first=Jean-Léo |editor-last=Léonard |editor-first2=Alain |editor-last2=Kihm |encyclopedia=Patterns in Mesoamerican Morphology |pages=77–102 |id=HAL 01100738 |url=https://hal.science/hal-01100738}}</ref> The languages are spoken by the indigenous Chinantec people who live in [[Oaxaca]] and [[Veracruz]], [[Mexico]], especially in the districts of Cuicatlán, [[Ixtlán de Juárez]], Tuxtepec and Choapan, and in [[Staten Island]], New York.<ref>{{Cite news
| first = Claudio
| last = Torrens
| title = Some NY immigrants cite lack of Spanish as barrier
| work = UTSanDiego.com
| access-date = 2015-03-02
| date = 2011-05-28
| url = http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/may/28/some-ny-immigrants-cite-lack-of-spanish-as-barrier/
}}</ref>

==Internal classification==
Egland and Bartholomew (1978)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Egland |first1=S. |last2=Bartholomew |first2=D. |year=1978 |title=La inteligibilidad inter-dialectal en Mexico: Resultados de algunos sondeos |location=Mexico, D.F. |publisher=Instituto Linguistico de Verano |url=https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/11/04/82/110482507210623574493487625846127772082/G038b_SondeosInteligibilidad.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211202052048/https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/11/04/82/110482507210623574493487625846127772082/G038b_SondeosInteligibilidad.pdf |archive-date=2021-12-02}}</ref> established fourteen Chinantec languages on the basis of 80% mutual intelligibility. ''[[Ethnologue]]'' found that one that had not been adequately compared (Tlaltepusco) was not distinct, but split another (Lalana from Tepinapa). At a looser criterion of 70% intelligibility, [[Lalana-Tepinapa Chinantec|Lalana–Tepinapa]], Quiotepec–Comaltepec, Palantla–Valle Nacional, and geographically distant [[Chiltepec-Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec|Chiltepec–Tlacoatzintepec]] would be languages, reducing the count to ten. [[Lealao Chinantec]] (Latani) is the most divergent.

{| class="wikitable" width="65%" style="border-collapse:collapse;"
|-
|+
!70%
! align="left" bgcolor="#778899" | <span style="color:#000000">Language (80% intelligibility)</span>
! align="left" bgcolor="#778899" | <span style="color:#000000">Distribution</span>
|-
|*
|[[Lealao Chinantec|Chinantec of Lealao]]
|Northeastern [[Oaxaca]], San Juan Lealao, Latani, Tres Arroyos, and La Hondura
|-
|rowspan=2|*
|[[Chiltepec-Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec|Chinantec of Chiltepec]]
|[[San José Chiltepec]], [[Oaxaca]]
|-
|[[Chiltepec-Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec|Chinantec of Tlacoatzintepec]]
|Northern [[Oaxaca]]
|-
|rowspan=2|*
|[[Highland Chinantec language|Chinantec of Comaltepec]]
|[[Santiago Comaltepec|Comaltepec]], Northern [[Oaxaca]]
|-
|[[Highland Chinantec language|Chinantec of Quiotepec]] <br>(Highland Chinantec)
|[[San Juan Quiotepec]] and surrounding towns, [[Oaxaca]]
|-
|rowspan=2|*
|[[Lalana-Tepinapa Chinantec|Chinantec of Lalana]]
|25 towns on the border between [[Oaxaca]] and [[Veracruz]]
|-
|[[Lalana-Tepinapa Chinantec|Chinantec of Tepinapa]]
|Northern [[Oaxaca]], [[Choapan District]]. Very remote area.
|-
|*
|[[Chinantec of Ojitlán]]
|Northern [[Oaxaca]] and [[Veracruz]] municipios of [[Minatitlán, Veracruz|Minatitlán]] and [[Hidalgotitlán]]
|-
|*
|[[Chinantec of Ozumacín]]
|San Pedro Ozumacín and surrounding towns, [[Oaxaca]]
|-
|rowspan=2|*
|[[Palantla Chinantec|Chinantec of Palantla]]
|[[San Juan Palantla]] and surrounding towns, [[Oaxaca]]
|-
|[[Palantla Chinantec|Chinantec of Valle Nacional]]
|[[Yetla]], North [[Oaxaca]]
|-
|*
|[[Sochiapam Chinantec|Chinantec of Sochiapan]]
|Northern [[Oaxaca]]
|-
|*
|[[Chinantec of Tepetotutla]]
|Northern [[Oaxaca]]
|-
|*
|[[Usila Chinantec|Chinantec of Usila]]
|[[Oaxaca]] one town in [[Veracruz]]
|}

==Phonology==
[[Image:Chinantec.png|200px|right|thumb| the register-tone inventory of Usila Chinantec]]
Chinantecan languages have [[ballistic syllable]]s, apparently a kind of [[phonation]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Merrifield |editor-first1=William |editor-last2=Rensch |editor-first2=Calvin R. |year=1990 |title=Syllables, Tone, and Verb Paradigms |series=Studies in Chinantec Languages |volume=4 Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington. |url=https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/13/54/18/135418946756544887149911671152189434120/24341.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171212024221/https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/13/54/18/135418946756544887149911671152189434120/24341.pdf |archive-date=2017-12-12 |isbn=0-88312-105-0 |lccn=90-71408}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last=Mugele |first=R. L. |year=1982 |title=Tone and Ballistic Syllables in Lalana Chinantec |type=Ph.D. dissertation |location=Austin |publisher=University of Texas}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Rensch |first=Calvin |year=1978 |title=Ballistic and controlled syllables in Otomanguean Languages |editor-first1=Alan |editor-last1=Bell |editor-first2=Joan B. |editor-last2=Hooper |encyclopedia=Syllables and Segments |pages=85–92 |location=Amsterdam |publisher=North Holland Publishing Company}}</ref>

All Chinantec languages are [[Tone (linguistics)|tonal]]. Some, such as [[Usila Chinantec]] and [[Ojitlán Chinantec]], have five register tones (in addition to contour tones), with the extreme tones deriving historically from ballistic syllables.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Edmondson |first1=Jerold A. |last2=Gregerson |first2=Kenneth J. |year=1992 |title=On Five-level Tone Systems |editor-first1=Shin Ja J. |editor-last1=Hwang |editor-first2=William R. |editor-last2=Merrifield |encyclopedia=Language in Context: Essays for Robert E. Longacre |pages=555–576 |location=Dallas, TX |publisher=Summer Institute of Linguistics}}</ref>

==Grammar==
Grammars are published for Sochiapam Chinantec,<ref>{{cite book |last=Foris |first=David Paul |year=2000 |title=A grammar of Sochiapam Chinantec |series=Studies in Chinantec languages
|volume=6 |location=Dallas, TX |publisher=SIL International and The University of Texas at Arlington}}</ref> and a grammar and a dictionary of Palantla (Tlatepuzco) Chinantec.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Merrifield |first=William R. |year=1968 |title=Palantla Chinantec grammar |encyclopedia=Papeles de la Chinantla 5 |series=Serie Científica |volume=9 |location=México |publisher=Museo Nacional de Antropología}}</ref><ref name=MA2007>{{cite book |last1=Merrifield |first1=William R. |last2=Anderson |first2=Alfred E. |year=2007 |url=https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/68/87/13/68871389972094178491111684785589164634/cpa_diccionario_ed2.pdf |title=Diccionario Chinanteco de la diáspora del pueblo antiguo de San Pedro Tlatepuzco, Oaxaca |edition=2nd |series=Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves” |volume=39 |location=Mexico DF |publisher=Summer Linguistic Institute}}</ref>

Example phrase:
:''ca¹-dsén¹=jni chi³ chieh³''
:‘I pulled out the hen (from the box).<ref name=MA2007/>

The parts of this sentence are: ''ca¹'' a [[prefix]] which marks the [[past tense]], ''dsén¹'' which is the [[verb stem]] meaning "to pull out an animate object", the [[suffix]] -''jni'' referring to the [[Grammatical person|first person]], the [[noun classifier]] ''chi³'' and the [[noun]] ''chieh³'' meaning chicken.

==Whistled speech==
The Chinantec people have practiced [[Whistled language|whistled speech]] since the [[pre-Columbian era]]. The rhythm and pitch of normal Chinantec speech allow speakers of the language to have entire conversations only by whistling. The sound of whistling carries better than shouting across the canyons of mountainous Oaxaca. It enables messages to be exchanged over a distance of up to {{convert|1|km|spell=in}}. Whistled speech is typically only used by Chinantec men, although women also understand it. Use of the whistled language is declining, as modern technology such as [[walkie-talkie]]s and [[loudspeakers]] have made long-distance communication easier.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schachar |first1=Natalie |title=The decline of Chinantec whistled speech in Mexico |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/08/decline-chinantec-whistled-speech-mexico-170829080342078.html |publisher=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]] |access-date=15 July 2019 |date=8 September 2017}}</ref>

==Media==
Chinantec-language programming is carried by the [[National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples|CDI]]'s radio stations [[XEOJN]], broadcasting from [[San Lucas Ojitlán]], [[Oaxaca]], and [[XEGLO]], broadcasting from [[Guelatao de Juárez]], [[Oaxaca]].
<gallery>
File:Doctr crist leng chinanteca persignum.pdf|Example of Chinantec in written form from the [[Biblioteca Cervantina]]
File:Doctr crist leng chinanteca (1).pdf|Example of Chinantec in written form from the [[Biblioteca Cervantina]]
</gallery>
==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commonscat|Chinatecan languages}}
{{sister project |project=wiktionary |text=[[Wiktionary]] has a list of reconstructed forms at '''''[[Wiktionary:Appendix:Proto-Chinantec reconstructions|Appendix:Proto-Chinantec reconstructions]]'''''}}
* The Chinantec language family [http://www.sil.org/mexico/chinanteca/00i-chinanteca.htm (SIL-Mexico)]
* Feist, Timothy & Enrique L. Palancar. (2015). [http://www.oto-manguean.surrey.ac.uk/Info/CPA ''Oto-Manguean Inflectional Class Database: Tlatepuzco Chinantec'']. University of Surrey. [[doi:10.15126/SMG.28/1.01]]
{{Chinantecan languages}}
{{Oto-Manguean languages}}
{{Languages of Mexico}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Indigenous peoples in Mexico]]
[[Category:Chinantec languages| ]]