Totonacan languages
| Totonacan | |
|---|---|
| Totonac–Tepehua | |
| Geographic distribution |
Mexico |
| Linguistic classification |
Totozoquean ?
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | toto1251 |
The Totonacan languages (also known as Totonac–Tepehua languages) are a family of closely related languages spoken by approximately 290,000 Totonac (approx. 280,000) and Tepehua (approx. 10,000) people in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo in Mexico. At the time of the Spanish conquest Totonacan languages were spoken all along the gulf coast of Mexico (Reid & Bishop 1974). During the colonial period Totonacan languages were occasionally written and at least one grammar was produced (Anonymous 1990). In the 20th century the number of speakers of most varieties have dwindled as indigenous identity increasingly became stigmatized encouraging speakers to adopt Spanish as their main language (Lam 2009).
The Totonacan languages have only recently been compared to other families on the basis of historical-comparative linguistics, though they share numerous areal features with other languages of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area, such as the Mayan languages and Nahuatl. Recent work suggests a possible genetic link to the Mixe–Zoque language family (Brown et al. 2011), although this has yet to be firmly established.
The family is divided into two branches, Totonac and Tepehua. Of the two, Tepehua is generally considered to consist of three languages—Pisaflores, Huehuetla, and Tlachichilco—while the Totonac branch is considerably more diverse. MacKay (1999) divides Totonac into four divisions, based on García Rojas (1978):
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