Zacatepec Chatino
| Zacatepec Chatino | |
|---|---|
| Chatino de San Marcos Zacatepec | |
| Cha’ jna’a | |
| Native to | Mexico |
| Region | Oaxaca, Southern Central Mexico |
|
Native speakers
|
300 (2015) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog |
zaca1242 (Zacatepec Chatino)
|
Zacatepec Chatino is an indigenous Mesoamerican language, one of the Chatino family of the Oto-Manguean languages. It is often referred to as Chatino de San Marcos Zacatepec or Chatino de Zacatepec as it is distinct from other Chatino languages in the region. Unfortunately, it is not intelligible with other Chatino languages, but is closely related to Highland Chatino. It is spoken in the town of San Marcos Zacatepec, a town of approximately 1,000 people and inhabited by an indigenous group known as the Chatino people. The language was once spoken in the village of Juquila, but is now virtually extinct with two surviving speakers in the area (Villard 2015).
Zacatepec Chatino is a highly endangered language as it is spoken by about 300 Chatino's whom are all above 50 years of age.
Chatino refers to three closely related languages; the three being Eastern Chatino, Tataltepec Chatino, and Zenzontepec Chatino of the Zapotecan branch. Zacatepec Chatino falls under the Eastern Chatino branch.
Zacatepec Chatino, being part of Chatino language family, has shallow orthography. It is more conservative then its Chatino counterparts as it conserves the penultimate syllables of disyllabic roots.
Little is known about the history of Zacatepec Chatino but according to Stéphanie Villard who studied and presented her thesis on the language, it has been on a decline for the past 40 years as natives continue to expand their ties with non-Chatino communities. With the help of the Zacatepec Chatino Documentation Project, Villard has uncovered some of the remnants of the language with the help of many natives from the area. The project includes visits in 2005 and 2006 by Hilaria Cruz, Emiliana Cruz, Megan Crowhurst as well as preliminary analysis of tones in H. Cruz y Woodbury in 2006. It also includes intensive work since 2006 by Stéphanie Villard, including 150 hours of audio, a sketch, papers on sandhi and inflection and grammar as well as short visits concentrating on textual documentation, tone, & morphology
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Wikipedia