| Amuzgo | |
|---|---|
| Amuzgoan | |
| Native to | Mexico |
| Region | Guerrero,Oaxaca |
| Ethnicity | Amuzgo people |
Native speakers | 60,000 (2020 census)[1] |
Oto-Manguean
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:amu – Northern (Guerrero) Amuzgoazm – Ipalapa Amuzgoazg – San Pedro Amuzgos (Oaxaca) Amuzgo |
| Glottolog | amuz1254 |
 The Amuzgo language, number 12 (darker blue), southwest | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Amuzgo is anOto-Manguean language spoken in the Costa Chica region of theMexican states ofGuerrero andOaxaca by about60,000 speakers.[2] Like other Oto-Manguean languages, Amuzgo is atonal language. From syntactical point of view Amuzgo can be considered as anactive language. The name Amuzgo is claimed to be aNahuatl exonym but its meaning is shrouded in controversy; multiple proposals have been made, including[amoʃ-ko] 'moss-in'.[3]
A significant percentage of the Amuzgo speakers aremonolingual; the remainder also speak Spanish.
Four varieties of Amuzgo are officially recognized by the governmental agency, the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI).[4] They are:
These varieties are very similar, but there is a significant difference between western varieties (Northern and Southern) and eastern varieties (Upper Eastern and Lower Eastern), as revealed by recorded text testing done in the 1970s.[5]
Three dictionaries have been published for Upper Eastern Amuzgo in recent years. For Northern Amuzgo, no dictionary has yet been published, yet it too is very actively written. Lower Eastern Amuzgo and Southern Amuzgo (spoken in Huixtepec (Ometepec), for example) are still not well documented, but work is underway.
While theMixtecan subdivision may indeed be the closest to Amuzgo within Oto-Manguean,[6] earlier claims that Amuzgo is part of it have been contested.[7]
The dialect presented in the following chart is Upper Eastern, as spoken in San Pedro Amuzgos as analyzed by Smith & Tapia (2002).
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Alveopalatal/ Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||||||
| Plosive | t | d | tʲ | dʲ | k | ɡ | ʔ | ||
| Affricate | t͡s | t͡ʃ | |||||||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | h | ||||||
| Approximant | j | w | |||||||
The following chart is based on Coronado Nazario et al. (2009) for the variety of Southern Amuzgo spoken in Huixtepec. The phonetic facts are very similar to that of other varieties, but the analysis is different.
| Bilabial | Apico-dental | Apico-lamino-/ alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | n | nʲ | |||||
| Plosive | (p) | t | tʲ | kkʷⁿk | ʔ | ||
| Affricate | t͡s | t͡ʃ | |||||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | h | ||||
| Lateral approximant | l | ||||||
| Central approximant | j | w | |||||
| Tap | (ɾ) |
In this analysis, the nasals and central approximants have distinctive allophones that depend on whether or not they precede a nasalized vowel. The approximant/w/, which is[b] before oral vowels or consonants in Huixtepec, is[m] before nasalized vowels. The approximant/j/ is likewise nasalized before nasalized vowels, and[j] elsewhere. The nasals are pronounced with an oral non-nasal release when they precede an oral vowel, and as such sound like[nd] in that context. Various other important details about the phonetics of Amuzgo are not presented in a simplified chart such as the one shown above.
Amuzgo distinguishes seven vowels with respect to quality. In all the documented dialects, all but the two close vowels may be nasalized. Some descriptions claim that Amuzgo also hasballistic syllables, a possible type of supra-glottalphonation. Ballistic syllables are also a feature of the phonology of another Oto-Manguean branch,Chinantec.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| oral | nasal | oral | nasal | oral | nasal | |
| Close | i | u | ||||
| Close-mid | e | ẽ | o | õ | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɛ̃ | ɔ | ɔ̃ | ||
| Open | a | ã | ||||
Amuzgo has three basic tones: high, mid, and low. But it also has several combinations of tones on single syllables. The contour high-low is a common one. The following words are apparently distinguished only by tone in Huixtepec: /ha/ 'sour' (low), /ha/ (mid) 'I', /ha/ (high-low) 'we (exclusive)', and /ha/ (high) 'we (inclusive)'. See also the set: /ta/ 'hill' (low), /ta/ 'thick' (mid), /ta/ ' father (vocative)' (high-low), /ta/ 'slice' (high).[8]
Nouns are pluralized by a prefix. The common plural prefix isn-. Compare/thã/ 'skin',/n-thã/ 'skins' (Northern and Southern Amuzgo). Typically the consonant/ts/ drops when the noun is pluralized:/tsʔɔ/ 'hand',/l-ʔɔ/ 'hands' (Northern Amuzgo),/n-ʔɔ/ 'hands' (Southern Amuzgo).
Animate nouns (most animals and insects, plus some other nouns) carry the classifier prefix/ka/. This classifier precedes the inflected noun, as in/ka-tsueʔ/ 'dog',/ka-l-ueʔ/ 'dogs' (Northern Amuzgo),/ka-n-ueʔ/ 'dogs' (Southern Amuzgo).
Amuzgo has been proposed to be anactive–stative language.[9] Like many otherOtomanguean languages, it distinguishes between first person inclusive plural and first person exclusive plural pronouns.
Amuzgo-language programming is carried by theCDI's radio stationXEJAM, based inSantiago Jamiltepec,Oaxaca, and by the community radio stationRadio Ñomndaa[1] inXochistlahuaca-Suljaa'.
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