Tarascan languages
| Purépecha | |
|---|---|
| Tarascan | |
| P'urhépecha | |
| Pronunciation | [pʰuˈɽepet͡ʃa] |
| Native to | Mexico |
| Region | Michoacán |
| Ethnicity | Purépecha |
|
Native speakers
|
125,000 (2010 census) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either: tsz – Eastern pua – Western |
| Glottolog | tara1323 |
Distribution of Purépecha in the Mexican state of Michoacán
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Purépecha AKA P'urhépecha [pʰuˈɽepet͡ʃa] (Phorhé, Phorhépecha), more popularly known as Tarascan (Spanish: Tarasco), is a language isolate or small language family spoken by a quarter million Purépecha in the highlands of the Mexican state of Michoacán.
Purépecha was the main language of the pre-Columbian Tarascan state and became widespread in northwestern Mexico during its heyday in the late post-classic period (ca. 1400–1521).
Even though it is spoken within the boundaries of Mesoamerica, Purépecha does not share many of the traits defining the Mesoamerican language area.
Purépecha has long been classified as a language isolate, unrelated to any other known language. This judgement is repeated in Campbell's authoritative classification.Greenberg assigned it to the Chibchan language family, but like the rest of his American classification, this proposal is rejected by specialists.
There are a number of dialects, which SIL International divides into two languages, but Campbell (1997) considers Purépecha to be a single language.
The Purépecha language is mostly spoken in rural communities in the highlands of Michoacán. The former center of the Tarascan state was around Lake Pátzcuaro and this remains an important center of the Purépecha community. Ethnologue counts Purépecha as two languages: a central language spoken by approximately 40,000 people (2005) around Pátzcuaro, and a western highland language spoken by 135,000 speakers (2005) around Zamora, Los Reyes de Salgado, Paracho de Verduzco, and Pamatácuaro, all of which are in the vicinity of the volcano Parícutin. Due to recent migration, there are also communities of speakers in the cities of Guadalajara, Tijuana and Mexico City and in the United States. The total population of speakers is rising (from 58,000 in 1960 to 96,000 in 1990 and 120,000 in 2000), but the percentage of speakers relative to non-speakers is falling, and the degree of bilingualism is rising - making it an endangered language. Today the percentage of monolingual speakers is below 10%.
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Wikipedia