Huehuetla Tepehua

Huehuetla Tepehua is a moribund Tepehua language spoken in Huehuetla, northeastern Hidalgo, Mexico. There are fewer than 1,500 speakers left according to Susan Smythe Kung (2007).

Huehuetla Tepehua
Lhiimaqalhqama7
Native to	Mexico
Region	northeastern Hidalgo, Mexico
Native speakers	1,500 (2007)
Language family	Totonacan Tepehua Huehuetla Tepehua
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tee
Glottolog	hueh1236
ELP	Huehuetla Tepehua

Syntax

Word order tends to be VSO, although it can be SVO at times (Kung 2007).

Phonology

Consonants

Huehuelta Tepehua has 26 consonant phonemes.The following table lists these phonemes and uses Kung's practical orthography in angled brackets.

Consonant phonemes

		Labial	Alveolar			Post- alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
			plain	sibilant	lateral
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩
Stop/ Affricate	plain	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩	ts ⟨tz⟩		tʃ ⟨ch⟩	k ⟨k⟩	q ⟨q⟩	ʔ ⟨7⟩
	ejective	pʼ ⟨p'⟩	tʼ ⟨t'⟩	tsʼ ⟨tz'⟩		tʃʼ ⟨ch'⟩	kʼ ⟨k'⟩
	voiced	(b)	(d)				(g)
Fricative				s ⟨s⟩	ɬ ⟨lh⟩	ʃ ⟨x⟩			h ⟨j⟩
Approximant		w ⟨w⟩			l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩
Trill			r ⟨rr⟩
Flap			ɾ ⟨r⟩

The voiced stops /b/, /d/, and /g/, as well as the flap /ɾ/ and the trill /r/, appear only in loanwords and ideophones.

In younger speakers, the uvular /q/ has merged with the glottal stop /ʔ/. Based on fieldwork from previous linguists and interviews with modern speakers, Kung theorizes that /qʼ/ merged into /q/ between 1945 and 1984. When Kung began her fieldwork in 1999, /q/ was only consistently found in speakers over 65.

Vowels

Hueheutla Tepehua has ten phonemic vowels. Earlier stages of the language only had six, with /e, i/, /eː, iː/, /o, u/, and /oː, uː/ in complimentary distribution.

Vowel Phonemes

	Front		Central		Back
High	i ⟨i⟩	iː ⟨ii⟩			u ⟨u⟩	uː ⟨uu⟩
Mid	e ⟨e⟩	eː ⟨ee⟩			o ⟨o⟩	oː ⟨oo⟩
Low			a ⟨a⟩	aː ⟨aa⟩

Morphology

Huehuetla Tepehua has a large variety of affixes.

Valency-changing affixes

• Reflexive -kan
• Reciprocal laa-
• Dative -ni
• Causative maa-
• Instrumental puu-
• Comitative t'aa-
• Applicative lhii-

Aspectual derivational affixes

• Inchoative ta-
• Imminent ti-
• Roundtrip kii-
• Ambulative -t'ajun
• Begin -tzuku
• Desiderative -putun
• Repetitive -pala
• Again -choqo
• All -qoju
• Distal -chaa
• Proximal -chii

Derivative affixes

• Agent nominalizer –nV7
• Non-agentive nominalizers –ti and -nti
• Deverbalizer -n
• Instrumental paa- and lhaa-
• Locative puu-
• Applicative lhii-
• Comitative t'aa-

Further reading

• Zendejas, Esther Herrera (2021). "Mecapalapa Tepehua". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association: 1–17. doi:10.1017/S0025100321000098, with supplementary sound recordings.

Sources

• Kung, Susan Smythe (2007). A Descriptive Grammar of Huehuetla Tepehua (Ph.D. thesis). The University of Texas at Austin.