Sierra Puebla Nahuatl

Sierra Puebla Nahuatl is one of the Eastern Peripheral varieties of Nahuatl, spoken by ethnic Nahua people in northwestern Puebla state in Mexico.

Sierra Puebla Nahuatl
masehual tla’tol (ncj)
Native to	México
Region	Puebla
Native speakers	(200,000 cited 1983–2007)[1]
Language family	Uto-Aztecan Aztecan (Nahuan) Nahuatl Eastern Peripheral Nahuatl Sierra Puebla Nahuatl
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: azz – Highland Puebla Nahuatl (Zacapoaxtla) ncj – Northern Puebla Nahuatl (Naupan) nhi – Tenango Nahuatl (Zacatlán–Ahuacatlán–Tepetzintla)
Glottolog	high1278  Highland Puebla nort2957  Northern Puebla zaca1241  Zacatlan–Ahuacatlan–Tepetzintla
ELP	Eastern Nahua ([azz)]

Phonology

The following description is that of the Sierra Puebla dialects:^[2][3]

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
			central	lateral		plain	labial
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k	kʷ	ʔ
	voiced					ɡ
Affricate			ts	tɬ	tʃ
Fricative			s		ʃ			h
Approximant	voiced			l	j		w
	voiceless						(w̥)

• /t, n, l/ may also freely be heard as dental [t̪, n̪, l̪] among dialects.
• /n/ can be heard as [ŋ] when before velar consonants.
• /w̥/ is of limited distribution.

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i iː
Mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

• Short vowels /i, e/ may vary freely to [ɪ, ɛ].
• /a/ may be heard as [ɔ] when before /w/.

References

1. Highland Puebla Nahuatl (Zacapoaxtla) at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Northern Puebla Nahuatl (Naupan) at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Tenango Nahuatl (Zacatlán–Ahuacatlán–Tepetzintla) at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. Key, Harold & Mary R. (1953). The phonemes of Sierra Nahuat. International Journal of American Linguistics 19. pp. 53–56.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
3. Brockway, Earl (1963). The Phonemes of North Puebla Nahuatl. Anthropological Linguistics 5. pp. 14–18.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

• Mary Ritchie Key. "Nahuatl (Sierra de Zacapoaxtla), thematic wordlist". The Intercontinental Dictionary Series.