Zacatepec Chatino is an indigenous Mesoamerican language, one of the Chatino family of the Oto-Manguean languages. It is often referred to as ChaqF tinyaJ KichenA tziC, Chatino de San Marcos Zacatepec, or Chatino de Zacatepec as it is distinct from other Chatino languages in the region. Zacatepec Chatino is part of the Eastern Chatino languages. 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 Chatinos whom are all above 50 years of age.
Classification
Chatino refers to three closely related modern 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 than many other varieties of Eastern Chatino as it conserves many non-final unstressed vowels which have been lost in other varieties.
History
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
Although Spanish is the official language in San Marcos Zacatepec, Oaxaca, many government officials communicate in Zacatepec Chatino. A study conducted by Villard revealed that majority of the younger population are monolingual Spanish speakers.
Geographic distribution
Zacatepec Chatino is only spoken in San Marcos Zacatepec, Oaxaca in the Sierra Madre region of Mexico.
Dialects/Varieties
Since Zacatepec Chatino is unintelligible with other Chatino varieties, it does not have any other dialects or varieties associated with it.
Phonology
There are nine vowel sounds both oral and nasal:
/o/ can be heard as [ɔ] when followed by a glottal /ʔ/.
Consonants in parentheses only exist as a result of Spanish loanwords. When following a nasal segment, the consonants /p, t, t̻, t͡s, t͡ʃ, k, kʷ/ can be voiced to [b, d, d̻, d͡z, d͡ʒ, ɡ, ɡʷ]. /l, l̻/ have rare voiceless allophones of [l̥, l̻̥], when following a glottal /h/. /w/ can have allophones of [β, b, ʍ]. [β] before front vowels, [b] before a /j/, and [ʍ] when following a /h/. /n/ can assimilate to a velar [ŋ], when preceding a velar /k, kʷ/.
Vowels
Villard (2015) reports that Zacatepec Chatino presents voicing of non-continuant after nasals, vowel harmony, and contrastive nasal vowels. It also lacks labial phonemes and has 4 levels of pitch ranging from low to high. It also presents 15 specific tonal sequences that can define 15 Lexical classes.
Its phonology presents a rich tonal system with a large inventory of phonemic tonal sequences as well as intricate sandhi patterns.
The vowels in Zacatepec Chatino are and may be oral or nasal.
/a/ does not present any restrictions in its distribution. /a/ is pronounced [a] and may be slightly nasalized. Here are some examples:
nǎ [na] thing
pa̋[pa] dad
kwā ́[kwa] already
mpaà ̋ [mba:] godfather
Wyàa̋[bja:] Santos Reyes Nopala, Oaxaca
chǎʔ [t͜ʃaʔ] word
/e/ does not occur after the nasal stop /n/. /e/ can be long in final syllables and short in non final syllables. Here are some examples:
traʔwē ́ [traʔwe] middle
tikèʔ [tikeʔ] aroused
siyěʔ [sijeʔ] dressed up
tsaʔwě [t͜saʔwe] good
nkyaseʔ [ŋgjaseʔ] it got deflated
nkyanè [ŋgjanɛ]̃ he/she sprayed it
nkyaʔwè [ŋgjaʔwe] it got split
/i/ occurs in final as well as non-final syllables of roots followed by a /ʔ/. It is slightly restricted in its distribution. Here are some examples: