Mazahua language

Not to be confused with Mazatec language.

The Mazahua language is an indigenous language of Mexico, spoken in the country's central states by the ethnic group widely known as the Mazahua but who refer to themselves as Hñatho. Mazahua is a Mesoamerican language and shows many of the traits which define the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. Along with some 62 other indigenous languages, it is recognised by a statutory law of Mexico as an official language in the Federal District and the other administrative divisions in which it is spoken, and on an equal footing with Spanish. The largest concentration of Mazahua is found in the municipality of San Felipe del Progreso, State of México, near Toluca.

The closest relatives of the Mazahua language are the Otomi, Matlatzinca and Ocuilteco/Tlahuica languages, which together with Mazahua form the Otomian subgroup of the Oto-Pamean branch of the Oto-Manguean language family.

Mazahua is a tonal language and distinguishes high, low, and falling tones on all syllables except the final syllable of a word, on which the word stress falls predictably.

Mazahua's most distinctive feature is its abnormally large phoneme inventory, which totals around sixty phonemes, or twice the number in English. There are eight vowel phonemes, seven contrastive nasal vowels, and as many as forty-five consonants.

Amongst these are ejectives, implosives and contrastive voiceless sonorants. Along with Sindhi and Tukang Besi, Mazahua is a rare case of a language with true implosives far isolated from regions where implosives are commonly encountered. It is also one of the few languages with ejective fricatives.

Mazahua-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XETUMI-AM, broadcasting from Tuxpan, Michoacán.

Sounds

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
					plain	lab.
Nasal	glott.	m̰	n̰	ɲ̰
	voiceless	m̥	n̥	ɲ̥
	plain	m	n	ɲ
Plosive	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
	ejective		tʼ		kʼ	kʼʷ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		kʰ	kʷʰ
	tenuis	p	t		k	kʷ	ʔ
	voiced				ɡ	ɡʷ
Affricate	ejective		tsʼ	tʃʼ
	aspirated		tsʰ	tʃʰ
	tenuis		ts	tʃ
Fricative	ejective		sʼ
	aspirated		sʰ
	tenuis		s	ʃ			h
	voiced		z	ʒ
Approximant	glott.			j̰		w̰
	voiceless			j̊		w̥
	plain		l	j		w
Trill			r

Oral vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Mid	ə
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

Nasal vowels

	Front	Back
Close	ĩ	ũ
Close-mid	ẽ	õ
Open-mid	ɛ̃	ɔ̃
Open	ã

References

• Knapp Ring, Michael Herbert, Fonología del mazahua, Tesis de licenciatura, ENAH, México, 1996
• Michael Knapp, 2002 “Elementos de dialectología Mazahua" In Del Cora Al Maya Yucateco: Estudios Linguisticos Sobre Algunas Lenguas Indigenas Mexicanas Paulette Levy (Ed.), Universidad Nacional Autonoma De Mexico