Ozumacín Chinantec (''Chinanteco de San Pedro Ozumacín'') is a
Chinantecan language
The Chinantec or Chinantecan languages constitute a branch of the Oto-Manguean family. Though traditionally considered a single language, '' Ethnologue'' lists 14 partially mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinantec.Palancar, Enrique L. (2014 ...
of Mexico, spoken in northern
Oaxaca
Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...
in the towns of San Pedro Ozumacín, Ayotzintepec, Santiago Progreso.
Phonology
Vowels
There are ten vowels, which may be oral or
nasal
Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination:
* With reference to the human nose:
** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery
** ...
. A
length
Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Interna ...
distinction is made in writing, but is based on comparison with other Chinantec languages; the distinction is apparently being lost from Ozumacín Chinantec.
[James Rupp (2017]
Propuesta de convenciones para escribir el chinanteco de Ozumacín.
(Stephen Marlett, ed., ''Propuestas de convenciones para escribir las lenguas originarias de México'' #04). Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, A.C.
Long vowels are written double.
Nasal vowels are written with an underscore, e.g. ''ji̱i̱ˊ'' 'bed'. This is not written after a nasal consonant, where there is no contrast with oral vowels.
The
front rounded vowel
A front rounded vowel is a particular type of vowel that is both front and rounded.
The front rounded vowels defined by the IPA include:
* , a close front rounded vowel (or "high front rounded vowel")
* , a near-close front rounded vowel (or "n ...
s arose historically from the influence of palatalized consonants on back vowels.
Consonants
Consonants and their orthography are as follows:
[
/p/ and /b/ are rare in native words. Apart from loans, /d/ occurs only in the enclitic ''daˊ'', which softens an imperative. The letters ''c'' and ''f'' are used for Spanish borrowings.
/h/ becomes before .
]
Tones
Ozumacín Chinantec has nine tones. They are written as follows:[
Ballistic syllables are marked by a steep drop in pitch.
]
Unicode support
The following diacritics are used to mark Ozumacín tones.
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
A sample with all tone marks:[
This orthography is used in the Ozumacín Bible.][Wycliffe Bible Translators. (2003). ''New Testament and Psalms in Chinantec, Ozumacín''. Retrieved 27 April 2019 from https://ebible.org/pdf/chzNTps/chzNTps_all.pdf]
References
Chinantec languages
{{Oto-Manguean-lang-stub