Tlapanec , or Meꞌphaa, is an indigenous Mexican language spoken by more than 98,000

Tlapanec people The Tlapanec , or Meꞌphaa, are an indigenous people of Mexico native to the state of Guerrero. The Tlapanec language is a part of the Oto-Manguean language family. The now extinct Subtiaba language of Nicaragua was a closely related language. T ...

in the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Guerrero Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...

. Like other

Oto-Manguean languages The Oto-Manguean or Otomanguean languages are a large family comprising several subfamilies of indigenous languages of the Americas. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the ...

, it is tonal and has complex inflectional morphology. The ethnic group themselves refer to their ethnic identity and language as ''Me̱ꞌpha̱a̱'' . Before much information was known about it, Tlapanec (sometimes written "Tlappanec" in earlier publications) was either considered

unclassified Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

or linked to the controversial

Hokan language The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families that were spoken mainly in California, Arizona and Baja California. Etymology The name ''Hokan'' is loosely based on the word for "two" in the various Hokan ...

family. It is now definitively considered part of the Oto-Manguean language family, of which it forms its own branch along with the

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

and very closely related

Subtiaba language Subtiaba is an extinct Oto-Manguean language which was spoken on the Pacific slope of Nicaragua, especially in the Subtiaba district of León. Edward Sapir established a connection between Subtiaba and Tlapanec. When Lehmann wrote about it in ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

. Meꞌphaa people temporarily move to other locations, including

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

Morelos Morelos (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cuer ...

and various locations in the United States, for reasons of work.

Varieties

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

distinguishes four Tlapanec languages: *Acatepec (dialects Acatepec proper, Huitzapula, Nanzintla, Teocuitlapa, Zapotitlán Tablas) *Azoyú *Malinaltepec (dialect Huehuetepec/Zilacayotitlán) *Tlacoapa (dialects Tlacoapa proper, Tenamazapa) Other sources of information, including native speakers and the

Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas The Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (National Indigenous Languages Institute, better known by its acronym INALI) is a Mexican federal public agency, created 13 March 2003 by the enactment of the Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de ...

of the Mexican government, identify eight or nine varieties, which have been given official status: Acatepec, Azoyú, Malinaltepec, Tlacoapa, Nancintla, Teocuitlapa, Zapotitlán Tablas (with Huitzapula sometimes considered distinct), Zilacayotitlán. These share

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

of 50% between Malinaltepec and Tlacoapa, though Acatepec has an 80% intelligibility of both. The Azoyú variety is the only

natural language In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...

reported to have used the pegative case, though it is

verbal case Verbal may refer to: People *Verbal (rapper) (born 1975), Japanese rapper and music producer * Verbal Kent (born 1978), alternative hip hop artist from Chicago * Verbal Jint (born 1980), South Korean musician, rapper and record producer Language ...

like other 'case' markers in Tlapanec.

Grammar

Tlapanec is an ergative–absolutive language. However, while most languages of this type have an overt

ergative case In grammar, the ergative case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that identifies the noun as the agent of a transitive verb in ergative–absolutive languages. Characteristics In such languages, the ergative case is typically marked (most ...

, Tlapanec is one of the rare examples of a marked absolutive language, that is, an ergative language that overtly marks the absolutive and leaves the ergative unmarked.

Phonology

The following presents one view of the phonology of the Malinaltepec Tlapanec language, but a view that looks at Tlapanec language with a broader view has resulted in a quite different analysis.

Vowels

Consonants

Allophones of the sounds include . In the existence of the cluster , an allophone may be heard. The glottal stop is written with a

saltillo Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and highwa ...

Media

Tlapanec-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station

XEZV-AM XEZV-AM (''La Voz de la Montaña'' – "The Voice of the Mountain") is an indigenous community radio station that broadcasts in Spanish, Nahuatl, Mixtec and Tlapanec from Tlapa de Comonfort in the Mexican state of Guerrero. It is run by th ...

, broadcasting from

Tlapa de Comonfort Tlapa de Comonfort, often shortened to Tlapa and known as Tinda'i in Mixtec, is a city in the mountain region of the Mexican state of Guerrero. It also serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name. "Tlapa" is a ...

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

SIL description of Tlapanecan languages

Listen to a sample of Acatepec Meꞌphaa from Global Recordings Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tlapanec Language Mesoamerican languages Indigenous languages of Mexico Oto-Manguean languages