The Mazahua language ( maz, Jñatrjo) is an Oto-Pamean language spoken in the central states of Mexico by the ethnic group that is widely known as the Mazahua but calls itself the Hñatho. It is a

Mesoamerican language Mesoamerican languages are the languages indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador and Nicaragua. The area is characterized by extensive linguis ...

and has many of the traits of the

Mesoamerican Linguistic Area The Mesoamerican language area is a ''sprachbund'' containing many of the languages natively spoken in the cultural area of Mesoamerica. This sprachbund is defined by an array of syntactic, lexical and phonological traits as well as a number of ethn ...

. In 2003, along with some 62 other indigenous languages, it was recognised by a

statutory law Statutory law or statute law is written law passed by a body of legislature. This is opposed to oral or customary law; or regulatory law promulgated by the executive or common law of the judiciary. Statutes may originate with national, state ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

( General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples) as an

official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...

in the

Federal District A federal district is a type of administrative division of a federation, usually under the direct control of a federal government and organized sometimes with a single municipal body. Federal districts often include capital districts, and they ...

and the other administrative divisions in which it is spoken, and on an equal footing with

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

. The largest concentration of Mazahua is found in the municipality of San Felipe del Progreso,

State of México The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...

, near

Toluca Toluca , officially Toluca de Lerdo , is the state capital of the State of Mexico as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. With a population of 910,608 as of the 2020 census, Toluca is the fifth most populous city in Mexico. The city f ...

. The closest relatives of the Mazahua language are

Otomi The Otomi (; es, Otomí ) are an indigenous people of Mexico inhabiting the central Mexican Plateau (Altiplano) region. The Otomi are an indigenous people of Mexico who inhabit a discontinuous territory in central Mexico. They are linguisticall ...

, Matlatzinca, and Ocuilteco/Tlahuica languages, which together with Mazahua form the Otomian subgroup of the Oto-Pamean branch of the Oto-Manguean

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in his ...

. Mazahua is a

tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

and distinguishes high, low, and falling tones on all syllables except the final syllable of a word whose stress is predictable. Mazahua's most distinctive feature is its abnormally-large

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

inventory, around sixty phonemes, or twice the number in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

. There are eight vowel phonemes, seven contrastive

nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced with ...

s, and as many as forty-five consonants. Amongst them are ejective consonant, ejectives, implosive consonant, implosives and contrastive

voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...

sonorant In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels ar ...

s. Along with Sindhi and Tukang Besi, Mazahua is a rare case of a language with true implosives that is far from regions where implosives are commonly encountered. It is also one of the few languages with ejective fricatives. Mazahua-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station

XETUMI-AM XHTUMI-FM (''La Voz de la Sierra Oriente'' – "The Voice of the Eastern Mountains") is an indigenous community radio station that broadcasts in Spanish, Mazahua and Otomi from El Malacate, municipality of Tuxpan, in the Mexican state of Mic ...

, broadcasting from

Tuxpan, Michoacán Tuxpan is a small village in between Zitácuaro and Ciudad Hidalgo in the Mexican state of Michoacán. It is located 118 km (73 mi) from Morelia. Tuxpan is distinguished for its fantastic church dedicated to James, son of Zebedee, St ...

Phonology

Consonants

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Bilabial In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a labial consonant articulated with both lips. Frequency Bilabial consonants are very common across languages. Only around 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants altogether, including Tling ...

!rowspan="2" , Alveolar !rowspan="2" ,

Palatal The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly sepa ...

!colspan="2" ,

Velar Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive ...

!rowspan="2", Glottal , - ! plain ! lab. , - ! rowspan="3" , Nasal ! glott. , , , , , , , - ! voiceless , , , , , , , - ! plain , , , , , , , - ! rowspan="5" , Plosive !

implosive Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.''Phonetics for communication disorders.'' Martin J. Ball and Nicole Müller. ...

, , , , , , , - !

ejective In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. So ...

, , , , {{IPA link, kʼ , {{IPA link, kʼʷ , , - ! aspirated , {{IPA link, pʰ , {{IPA link, tʰ , , {{IPA link, kʰ , {{IPA link, kʷʰ , , - ! tenuis , {{IPA link, p , {{IPA link, t , , {{IPA link, k , {{IPA link, kʷ , {{IPA link, ʔ , - ! voiced , , , , {{IPA link, ɡ , {{IPA link, ɡʷ , , - ! rowspan="3" , Affricate !

, , {{IPA link, tsʼ , {{IPA link, tʃʼ , , , , - ! aspirated , , {{IPA link, tsʰ , {{IPA link, tʃʰ , , , , - ! tenuis , , {{IPA link, ts , {{IPA link, tʃ , , , , - ! rowspan="4" ,

Fricative A fricative is a consonant manner of articulation, produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two Place of articulation, articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the ba ...

, , {{IPA link, sʼ , , , , , - ! aspirated , , {{IPA link, sʰ , , , , , - ! tenuis , , {{IPA link, s , {{IPA link, ʃ , , , {{IPA link, h , - ! voiced , , {{IPA link, z , {{IPA link, ʒ , , {{IPA link, ɣ , , - ! rowspan="3" ,

Semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the ...

! glott. , , , {{IPA link, j̰ , , {{IPA link, w̰ , , - ! voiceless , , , {{IPA link, j̊ , , {{IPA link, w̥ , , - ! plain , , , {{IPA link, j , , {{IPA link, w , , - ! rowspan="2" ,

Liquid A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, an ...

lateral Lateral is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Healthcare *Lateral (anatomy), an anatomical direction * Lateral cricoarytenoid muscle * Lateral release (surgery), a surgical procedure on the side of a kneecap Phonetics *Lateral co ...

, , {{IPA link, l , , , , , - ! trill , , {{IPA link, r , , , ,

Oral vowels

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Front Front may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Front'' (1943 film), a 1943 Soviet drama film * '' The Front'', 1976 film Music *The Front (band), an American rock band signed to Columbia Records and active in the 1980s and e ...

Back The human back, also called the dorsum, is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral column r ...

, - !rowspan=2, Close ! oral , {{IPA link, i , {{IPA link, u , - ! nasal , {{IPA link, ĩ , {{IPA link, ũ , - !rowspan=2, Close-mid ! oral , {{IPA link, e , {{IPA link, o , - ! nasal , {{IPA link, ẽ , {{IPA link, õ , - !colspan=2, Mid , colspan="2", {{IPA link, ə , - !rowspan=2, Open-mid ! oral , {{IPA link, ɛ , {{IPA link, ɔ , - ! nasal , {{IPA link, ɛ̃ , {{IPA link, ɔ̃ , - !rowspan=2,

Open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (Y ...

! oral , colspan="2", {{IPA link, a , - ! nasal , colspan="2", {{IPA link, ã

Orthography

The orthography is based on the

Spanish alphabet Spanish orthography is the orthography used in the Spanish language. The alphabet uses the Latin script. The spelling is fairly phonemic, especially in comparison to more opaque orthographies like English, having a relatively consistent mapping ...

, with additional rules to account for the large phonetic inventory of Mazahua: *A diagonal strikethrough indicates a

reduced vowel In phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic ''quality'' of vowels as a result of changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word (e.g. for the Creek language), and which are perc ...

(these letters were added to

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

in 2016) *Underline indicates a

*An apostrophe indicates an ejective consonant or glottalic consonant *The letter ''j'' after a consonant indicates an aspirated consonant *The letter ''u'' after a consonant indicates

labialization Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involv ...

{{Cite web, url=https://www.omniglot.com/writing/mazahua.htm, title=Mazahua language, alphabet and pronunciation, website=www.omniglot.com {, class="wikitable" ! align="center",

Grapheme In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word ''grapheme'' is derived and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called ''graphemics' ...

! align="center",

Phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

, - ! align="center", a , align="center", {{IPAblink, a , - ! align="center", ⱥ , align="center", {{IPAblink, ə , - ! align="center", a̲ , align="center", {{IPAblink, ã , - ! align="center", b , align="center", {{IPAblink, ɓ , - ! align="center", c , align="center", {{IPAblink, k , - ! align="center", c' , align="center", {{IPAblink, kʼ , - ! align="center", cj , align="center", {{IPAblink, kʰ , - ! align="center", cu , align="center", {{IPAblink, kʷ , - ! align="center", c'u , align="center", {{IPAblink, kʼʷ , - ! align="center", cju , align="center", {{IPAblink, kʷʰ , - ! align="center", ch , align="center", {{IPAblink, tʃ , - ! align="center", ch' , align="center", {{IPAblink, tʃʼ , - ! align="center", chj , align="center", {{IPAblink, tʃʰ , - ! align="center", d , align="center", {{IPAblink, ɗ , - ! align="center", dy , align="center", {{IPAblink, dz , - ! align="center", e , align="center", {{IPAblink, e , - ! align="center", ɇ , align="center", {{IPAblink, ɛ , - ! align="center", e̲ , align="center", {{IPAblink, ɛ̃/{{IPAblink, ẽ , - ! align="center", g , align="center", {{IPAblink, ɡ , - ! align="center", gu , align="center", {{IPAblink, ɡʷ , - ! align="center", hu , align="center", {{IPAblink, w , - ! align="center", 'hu , align="center", {{IPAblink, w̰ , - ! align="center", i , align="center", {{IPAblink, i , - ! align="center", ɨ , align="center", {{IPAblink, ĩ , - ! align="center", j , align="center", {{IPAblink, j/{{IPAblink, h , - ! align="center", j' , align="center", {{IPAblink, j̰ , - ! align="center", jm , align="center", {{IPAblink, m̥ , - ! align="center", jn , align="center", {{IPAblink, n̥ , - ! align="center", jñ , align="center", {{IPAblink, ɲ̥ , - ! align="center", ju , align="center", {{IPAblink, w̥ , - ! align="center", jy , align="center", {{IPAblink, j̊ , - ! align="center", l , align="center", {{IPAblink, l , - ! align="center", m , align="center", {{IPAblink, m , - ! align="center", m' , align="center", {{IPAblink, m̰ , - ! align="center", n , align="center", {{IPAblink, n , - ! align="center", n' , align="center", {{IPAblink, n̰ , - ! align="center", ñ , align="center", {{IPAblink, ɲ , - ! align="center", ñ' , align="center", {{IPAblink, ɲ̰ , - ! align="center", o , align="center", {{IPAblink, o , - ! align="center", ø , align="center", {{IPAblink, ɔ , - ! align="center", o̲ , align="center", {{IPAblink, õ/{{IPAblink, ɔ̃ , - ! align="center", p , align="center", {{IPAblink, p , - ! align="center", pj , align="center", {{IPAblink, pʰ , - ! align="center", r , align="center", {{IPAblink, r , - ! align="center", s , align="center", {{IPAblink, s , - ! align="center", s' , align="center", {{IPAblink, sʼ , - ! align="center", sj , align="center", {{IPAblink, sʰ , - ! align="center", t , align="center", {{IPAblink, t , - ! align="center", t' , align="center", {{IPAblink, tʼ , - ! align="center", tj , align="center", {{IPAblink, tʰ , - ! align="center", ts , align="center", {{IPAblink, ts , - ! align="center", ts' , align="center", {{IPAblink, tsʼ , - ! align="center", tsj , align="center", {{IPAblink, tsʰ , - ! align="center", u , align="center", {{IPAblink, u , - ! align="center", ꞹ , align="center", {{IPAblink, ɨ , - ! align="center", u̲ , align="center", {{IPAblink, ũ , - ! align="center", x , align="center", {{IPAblink, ʃ , - ! align="center", z , align="center", {{IPAblink, z , - ! align="center", zh , align="center", {{IPAblink, ʒ , - ! align="center", ' , align="center", {{IPAblink, ʔ Sample text: ''Texe yo nte̱'e̱ chjetrjoji, angezeji ximi xo'oji ñeje k'inchiji, nesta ra ngara na jo'o k'o dyaja e nte̱'e̱.'' (All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.)

References

{{reflist

Sources

*Knapp Ring, Michael Herbert, ''Fonología del mazahua'', Tesis de licenciatura, ENAH, México, 1996 *Michael Knapp, 2002 “Elementos de dialectología Mazahua" In ''Del Cora Al Maya Yucateco: Estudios Linguisticos Sobre Algunas Lenguas Indigenas Mexicanas'' Paulette Levy (Ed.), Universidad Nacional Autonoma De Mexico {{Languages of Mexico {{Oto-Pamean languages {{Oto-Manguean languages {{Incubator, code= maz/Nrrangoxti Indigenous languages of Mexico Mesoamerican languages Oto-Manguean languages Oto-Pamean languages Mazahua