Mazahua language

Not to be confused with Mazatec language.

The Mazahua language (Central Mazahua: Jñatrjo, [ɲ̥atrjo]) 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 and has many of the traits of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. In 2003, along with some 62 other indigenous languages, it was recognised by a statutory law of Mexico (General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples)^[2] as an official language in the Federal District and the other administrative divisions in which it is spoken, and on an equal footing with Spanish. The largest concentration of Mazahua is found in the municipality of San Felipe del Progreso, State of México, near Toluca.

Mazahua
Jñatjo (Toluca Mazahua) Jñatrjo (Central Mazahua)
Region	Mexico: State of Mexico, Toluca
Ethnicity	Mazahua
Native speakers	150,000 (2020 census)[1]
Language family	Oto-Manguean Oto-Pamean Otomian Mazahua
Official status
Regulated by	Secretaría de Educación Pública
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: mmc – Toluca Mazahua maz – Central Mazahua
Glottolog	maza1293
Extent of the Mazahua language in Mexico
The Mazahua language, number 4 (darker blue), northwest
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The closest relatives of the Mazahua language are Otomi, Matlatzinca, and Ocuilteco/Tlahuica languages, which together with Mazahua form the Otomian subgroup of the Oto-Pamean branch of the Oto-Manguean language family.

Mazahua is a tonal language 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 inventory, around sixty phonemes, or twice the number in English. There are eight vowel phonemes, seven contrastive nasal vowels, and as many as forty-five consonants.

Amongst them are ejectives, implosives and contrastive voiceless sonorants. 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.^[3]

Mazahua-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XETUMI-AM, broadcasting from Tuxpan, Michoacán.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
					plain	lab.
Nasal	glott.	m̰	n̰	ɲ̰
	voiceless	m̥	n̥	ɲ̥
	plain	m	n	ɲ
Plosive	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
	ejective		tʼ		kʼ	kʼʷ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		kʰ	kʷʰ
	tenuis	p	t		k	kʷ	ʔ
	voiced				ɡ	ɡʷ
Affricate	ejective		tsʼ	tʃʼ
	aspirated		tsʰ	tʃʰ
	tenuis		ts	tʃ
Fricative	ejective		sʼ
	aspirated		sʰ
	tenuis		s	ʃ			h
	voiced		z	ʒ		ɣ
Semivowel	glott.			j̰		w̰
	voiceless			j̊		w̥
	plain			j		w
Liquid	lateral		l
	trill		r

Oral vowels

		Front	Back
Close	oral	i	u
	nasal	ĩ	ũ
Close-mid	oral	e	o
	nasal	ẽ	õ
Mid		ə
Open-mid	oral	ɛ	ɔ
	nasal	ɛ̃	ɔ̃
Open	oral	a
	nasal	ã

Orthography

The orthography is based on the Spanish alphabet, with additional rules to account for the large phonetic inventory of Mazahua:

• A diagonal strikethrough indicates a reduced vowel (these letters were added to Unicode in 2016)^[4]
• Underline indicates a nasal vowel^[5]
• 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^[6]

Grapheme	Phoneme
a	[a]
ⱥ	[ə]
a̱	[ã]
b	[ɓ]
c	[k]
cꞌ	[kʼ]
cj	[kʰ]
cu	[kʷ]
cꞌu	[kʷʼ]
cju	[kʷʰ]
ch	[tʃ]
chꞌ	[tʃʼ]
chj	[tʃʰ]
d	[ɗ]
dy	[dz]
e	[e]
ɇ	[ɛ]
e̱	[ɛ̃]/[ẽ]
g	[ɡ]
gu	[ɡʷ]
hu	[w]
ꞌhu	[w̰]
i	[i]
i̱	[ĩ]
j	[j]/[h]
jꞌ	[j̰]
jm	[m̥]
jn	[n̥]
jñ	[ɲ̥]
ju	[w̥]
jy	[j̊]
l	[l]
m	[m]
mꞌ	[m̰]
n	[n]
nꞌ	[n̰]
ñ	[ɲ]
ñꞌ	[ɲ̰]
o	[o]
ø	[ɔ]
o̱	[õ]/[ɔ̃]
p	[p]
pj	[pʰ]
r	[r]
s	[s]
sꞌ	[sʼ]
sj	[sʰ]
t	[t]
tꞌ	[tʼ]
tj	[tʰ]
ts	[ts]
tsꞌ	[tsʼ]
tsj	[tsʰ]
u	[u]
ꞹ	[ɨ]
u̱	[ũ]
x	[ʃ]
z	[z]
zh	[ʒ]
ꞌ	[ʔ]

Sample text

The following the first Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) into Mazahua:

Texe yo nte̱ꞌe̱ chjetrjoji, angezeji ximi xoꞌoji ñeje kꞌinchiji, nesta ra ngara na joꞌo kꞌo dyaja e nte̱ꞌe̱.

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

1. INALI (2012) México: Lenguas indígenas nacionales
2. "Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas" [General Law of the Linguistic Rights of Indigenous peoples] (in Spanish). 13 March 2003. Archived from the original on 8 February 2007.
3. Ian Maddieson (with a chapter contributed by Sandra Ferrari Disner); Patterns of sounds; Cambridge University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-521-26536-3
4. "Proposal to encode two Latin characters for Mazahua" (PDF). Unicode. 22 January 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
5. Ferguson, Carol (19 February 2005). God's Mimic: The Biography of Hazel Page. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 9781412044288 – via Google Books.
6. "Mazahua language, alphabet and pronunciation". www.omniglot.com.

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