Cuicatec | |
---|---|
Native to | Mexico |
Region | Oaxaca |
Ethnicity | Cuicatec |
Native speakers | 13,000 (2020 census)[1] |
Oto-Manguean
| |
Latin | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Either:cux – Tepeuxilacut – Teutila |
Glottolog | cuic1234 |
ELP | Cuicatec |
Extent of the Cuicatec language: prior to contact (olive green) and current (red) | |
Cuicatec is an Oto-Manguean language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico. It belongs to the Mixtecan branch together with the Mixtec languages and the Trique language.[2] The Ethnologue lists two major dialects of Cuicatec: Tepeuxila Cuicatec and Teutila Cuicatec. Like other Oto-Manguean languages, Cuicatec is tonal.
The Cuicatecs are closely related to the Mixtecs. They inhabit two towns: Teutila and Tepeuxila in western Oaxaca. According to the 2000 census, they number around 23,000, of whom an estimated 65% are speakers of the language.[3] The name Cuicatec is a Nahuatl exonym, from [ˈkʷika] 'song' [ˈteka] 'inhabitant of place of'.[4]
Cuicatec-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEOJN, based in San Lucas Ojitlán, Oaxaca.
The Santa Maria Papalo dialect contains six vowel sounds both oral and nasal:
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i ĩ | u ũ |
Mid | e ẽ | o õ |
ɔ ɔ̃ | ||
Open | a ã |
Bilabial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | lab. | ||||||
Plosive | p | t | k | kʷ | ʔ | ||
Affricate | tʃ | ||||||
Fricative | voiceless | s | |||||
voiced | β | ð | ɣ | ɣʷ | |||
Nasal | m | n | |||||
Rhotic | ɾ, r | ||||||
Approximant | l | j | w |
Allophones of the following sounds /β ð ɣ n j t tʃ/ include [b d ɡ~x ŋ j̈ θ ʃ], respectively.