Amuzgo

Infobox language
name=Amuzgo
familycolor=American
states=Mexico
region=Guerrero, Oaxaca
speakers=>45,000
fam2=Oto-Manguean (MP)
fam3=Amuzgo

Amuzgo is an Oto-Manguean language spoken in the Costa Chica region of the Mexican states of Guerrero and Oaxaca.

Amuzgo is a tonal language like other Oto-Manguean languages. It has about 49,000 speakers [2000 census; the numbers are based on the number of total population (57,666) and the percentage of speakers (84.7%) given on the website of the Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas, http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=660, accessed 24 August 2008).] who speak a range of dialects through the adjacent regions of Oaxaca and Guerrero.

A significant percentage of the people are monolingual in Amuzgo; the others are bilingual in Spanish and Amuzgo.

The Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI) [Catálogo de las lenguas indígenas nacionales: Variantes lingüísticas de México con sus autodenominaciones y referencias geoestadísticas. [http://www.inali.gob.mx/catalogo2007/html/v_zapoteco.html] .] has registered four Amuzgo variants:
* (i) Northern Amuzgo (amuzgo del norte, commonly known as Guerrero or Xochixtlahuaca Amuzgo, ISO 639-3 code amu);
* (ii) Southern Amuzgo (amuzgo del sur, heretofore classified as a subdialect of Guerrero Amuzgo, no assigned ISO code);
* (iii) Upper Eastern Amuzgo (amuzgo alto del este, commonly known as Oaxaca Amuzgo or San Pedro Amuzgos Amuzgo. ISO 639-3 code azg);
* (iv) Lower Eastern Amuzgo (amuzgo bajo del este, commonly known as Ipalapa Amuzgo, ISO 639-3 code azm).

Upper Eastern Amuzgo is represented by three recent dictionaries and Northern Amuzgo is very actively written as well even though no dictionary has yet been published. Lower Eastern Amuzgo and Southern Amuzgo (spoken in Huixtepec (Ometepec), for example) are not well documented but work is underway.

The name Amuzgo is a Nahuatl exonym, from [IPA|amoʃ] 'moss' [ko] 'in'. [Campbell (1997:402)]

While Mixtecan may be the closest language family within the larger Oto-Manguean family, [Campbell (1997:158)] it has been shown that earlier claims that Amuzgo is part of the Mixtecan family are unfounded. [See Longacre (1961, 1966a, 1966b) and Longacre & Millon (1961) for the arguments against including Amuzgo in the Mixtecan family.]

Phonology

The phonemic analysis given here is from variant spoken in San Pedro Amuzgos (Smith & Tapia (2002)).

Consonants

Vowels

Amuzgo distinguishes seven vowels with respect to quality. Five of these vowels (in all documented dialects) may be nasalized. The close vowels only occur without this feature.

Tones

Some variants of Amuzgo have eight tones.

Grammar

Amuzgo is analyzed as an active-stative language. (Smith & Tapia 2002)

Media

Amuzgo-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEJAM, based in Santiago Jamiltepec, Oaxaca.

Notes

References

* Bauernschmidt, Amy. 1965. Amuzgo syllable dynamics. "Language" 41: 471-83.
* Campbell, Lyle. 1997. "American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America". Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Cuevas Suárez, Susana. 1977. "Fonología generativa del amuzgo de San Pedro Amuzgos, Oaxaca." Tesis de Licenciatura, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.
* Cuevas Suárez, Susana. 1985. "Fonología generativa del amuzgo." Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
* Cuevas Suárez, Susana. 1996. Fonología funcional-generativa de una lengua otomangue. In Susana Cuevas and Julieta Haidar (coords.) "La imaginación y la inteligencia en el lenguaje: Homenaje a Roman Jakobson." Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
* Herrera Zendejas, Esther. 2000. Descripción fonética del amuzgo de Xochistlahuaca, Guerrero. In María del Carmen Morúa Leyva and Gerardo López Cruz (eds.) "Memorias del V Encuentro Internacional de Lingüística en el Noroeste", volume 2, 97-116. Hermosillo: Universidad de Sonora.
* Longacre, Robert E. 1961. Swadesh’s Macro-Mixtecan hypothesis. "International Journal of American Linguistics" 27: 9-29.
* Longacre, Robert E. 1966a. The linguistic affinities of Amuzgo. In Antonio Pompa y Pompa (ed.), "Summa anthropologica: En homenaje a Roberto J. Weitlaner", 541-60. Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
* Longacre, Robert E. 1966b. On linguistic affinities of Amuzgo. "International Journal of American Linguistics" 32: 46-49.
* Longacre, Robert E. and René Millon. 1961. Proto-Mixtecan and Proto-Amuzgo-Mixtecan vocabularies: a preliminary cultural analysis.‭ "Anthropological Linguistics" 3(4): 1-44.
* Smith, Thomas C, & Fermin Tapia. 2002, Amuzgo como lengua activa. In Paulette Levy (ed.) "Del Cora al Maya Yucateco: estudios lingüisticos sobre algunas lenguas indigenas mexicanas". Mexico City: UNAM.
* Stewart, Cloyd & Ruth D. Stewart, compilers. 2000. "Diccionario Amuzgo de San Pedro Amuzgos Oaxaca".‭ Coyoacán, D.F.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
* Tapia García, L Fermín. 1999. "Diccionario amuzgo-español: El amuzgo de San Pedro Amuzgos, Oaxaca". Mexico City: Plaza y Valdés Editores.
* Tapia García, Fermín. 2000. "Diccionario amuzgo-español." Mexico City: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social.

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_family.asp?subid=91255 Ethnologue page on Amuzgo]
* [http://www.language-museum.com/a/amuzgo.php Sample of Amuzgo writing]