Morelos Nahuatl includes varieties of the Nahuatl language that are spoken in the state of Morelos, Mexico. In Morelos, Nahuatl is spoken in the communities of Cuentepec, Hueyapan, Santa Catarina, Xoxocotla, Atlacholoayan and Tetelcingo. But Tetelcingo Nahuatl is usually considered a separate variety due to its highly innovative phonology, and has very low mutual intelligibility with the other Morelos variants. Ethnologue also considers the varieties of San Felipe Tocla and Alpanocan to belong to the Morelos Nahuatl group of dialects although they are located in the state of Puebla.[2] The dialects belong to the Central dialects closely related to Classical Nahuatl.[3]
| Morelos Nahuatl | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Mexico |
| Region | Morelos |
Native speakers | 19,000 (2000 census)[1] |
Uto-Aztecan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nhm |
| Glottolog | more1259 |
Phonology
editThe following description is that of the Santa Catarina Morelos dialect:[4]
Consonants
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral | plain | labial | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Plosive | p | t | k | kʷ | |||
| Affricate | ts | tɬ | tʃ | ||||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | h | ||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||
/n/ can be heard as [ŋ] when before velar consonants.
Vowels
edit| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i iː | |
| Mid | e eː | o oː |
| Low | a aː | |
References
edit- ^ Morelos Nahuatl at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Gordon, Raymond G. Jr., ed. (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (online version) (Fifteenth ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. OCLC 60338097. Retrieved 2006-12-06.
- ^ Canger, Una (1988). "Nahuatl dialectology: A survey and some suggestions". International Journal of American Linguistics. 54 (1). Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 28–72. doi:10.1086/466074. OCLC 1753556.
- ^ Betancourt, Ignacio Guzmán (2020). Gramática del Náhuatl de Santa Catarina, Morelos. México : Secretaría de Educación Pública, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
External links
edit- Morelos Nahuatl at SIL-MX
- Morelos Nahuatl alphabet
- Founding of Cuentepec in Nahuatl, in English
Further reading
edit- Dakin, Karen and Ryesky, Diana. 1990. Morelos Nahuatl Dialects: Hypotheses on their historical divisions. Morelos en una economia global. Proceedings of the Congress in Cocoyoc, Morelos, November 19023, 1989. Submitted in January 1990
- Barrios E., M. 1949. Textos de Hueyapan, Morelos. Tlalocan 3:53-75.
- Johansson, Patrick, Johansson, Patrick. 1989. El sistema de expression reverencial en Hueyapan, Morelos. Tlalocan XI. 149-162
- Pharao Hansen, Magnus (2010). "Polysynthesis in Hueyapan Nahuatl: The Status of Noun Phrases, Basic Word Order, and Other Concerns" (PDF). Anthropological Linguistics. 52 (3). University of Nebraska Press: 274–299. doi:10.1353/anl.2010.0017.
- Pequeño diccionario ilustrado; Náhuatl de Cuentepec, Morelos. 2005. 1st ed. Tlalpan, D.F. Mexico: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano. 32 pages