Chichimeca or Chichimeca Jonaz is an indigenous language of Mexico spoken by around 200 Chichimeca Jonaz people in Misión de Chichimecas near San Luis de la Paz in the state of

Guanajuato Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city i ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. The Chichimeca Jonaz language belongs to the Oto-Pamean branch of the Oto-Manguean language family. The Chichimecos self identify as ''úza'' and call their language ''eza'r''.

Distribution

The language is currently spoken only in San Luis de la Paz (

), in the settlements of Berlín, Buenavista (El Cuernito), Cerro Blanco, Colonia Benito Juárez lan Benito Juárez Ejido Santa Ana y Lobos (Fracción de Lourdes), El Desmonte, El Sauz Tres, El Tepetate, Exhacienda de Ortega (Ejido Ortega), Garibaldi (El Cerrito), La Ciénega, La Curva, La Huerta, La Laguna (La Lagunita), La Leona, La Mesa de Jesús, La Norita, Los Dolores (Las Quince Letras), Lourdes (Estación de Lourdes), Maguey Blanco, Manzanares, Mesa de Escalante, Mesa de la Estacada, Mesa del Pueblo, Misión de Chichimecas, Norita del Refugio, Parajes, Paso Colorado, Piedras de Lumbre, Pozo Hondo (Exhacienda de Pozo Hondo), Puerto de la Virginita, Puerto del Gato, Rancho Nuevo de las Trojes, San Antonio Chiquito, San Antonio Primero, San Ignacio, San Isidro de Pozos (San Isidrito), San José del Carmen, and San Pedro de los Pozos (Mineral de Pozos). In 1934,

Jacques Soustelle Jacques Soustelle (3 February 1912 – 6 August 1990) was an important and early figure of the Free French Forces, a politician who served in the French National Assembly and at one time served as Governor General of Algeria, an anthropologist s ...

counted 452 chichimecas, 63 of which were children which attended the local school. Prior to that point the language was spoken in five other locations: # Misión Arnedo (Guanajuato) to the east of San Luis, near Villa Victoria. # Misión de las Palmas (

Querétaro Querétaro (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro, links=no; Otomi: ''Hyodi Ndämxei''), is one of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities. Its cap ...

), along the Etorax river, which arises near Victoria. # Misión de Santa Rosa, to the north of Victoria. # San Pedro Tolimán, where a mission was established in the 18th century, which failed, however, and the chichimecas abandoned the area. It was later repopulated with Otomís. # Villa Colón (Querétaro), to the south of Tolimán.

Phonology

Chichimeca Jonaz is a tonal language and distinguishes high and low level tones.Suaréz 1983 p. 51 In addition, Chichimeca Jonaz has nasal counterparts of these vowels, which are .Lastra 1984 p. 23 There are also fortis-lenis versions of the nasal consonants: m and n.

Notes

References

* * Mesoamerican languages Indigenous languages of Mexico Oto-Pamean languages Endangered Oto-Manguean languages {{Oto-Manguean-lang-stub