Tequistlatec languages

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Tequistlatec

Spoken in

Mexico ( Oaxaca )
speaker approx. 4000
Linguistic
classification
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639 -2

-

ISO 639-3

chd (highlands), clo (lowlands)

The Tequistlateco languages (Tequistlateco, Chontal de Oaxaca) are a family of languages in America with a total of about 4,000 speakers. It consists of three related but not mutually understandable languages ​​that are only spoken in the state of Oaxaca , Mexico . It is one of the indigenous American languages .

Tequistlatecan does not have an ISO-639-2 code. According to ISO 639-3 , it has two language codes: “chd” for the highland languages ​​and “clo” for the lowland languages.

Classification of the Tequistlatec languages

  • Tequistlatek (perhaps extinct, formerly in Tequisistlán , Oaxaca)
  • Huamelultek or Huamelula Chontal ( lowland Chontal of Oaxaca , also: Chontal de la Costa de Oaxaca ): 950 speakers in southern Oaxaca, Tehuantepec, San Pedro Huamelula and Santiago Astata according to SIL International
  • Highland Chontal of Oaxaca (also: Chontal de la Sierra de Oaxaca , sometimes also referred to as Tequistlatek ): 3600 speakers in southern Oaxaca, west of the isthmus of Tehuantepec , San José Chiltepec, San Lucas Ixcatepec and 15 other places according to SIL International

Some linguists assign the Tequistlatek languages ​​to the controversial language family of the Hoka languages .

Sociolinguistic situation today

Tequistlatek in the narrower sense is considered extinct. What remains are the two languages ​​known as " Chontal ", the speakers of which mostly also speak Spanish. The Huamelultek (lowland Chontal of Oaxaca) is classified as highly endangered because it is hardly spoken by children anymore. In the 2010 census in Mexico, 4412 people aged 3 and over gave “Chontal de Oaxaca” as their mother tongue. 4270 out of 4394 speakers over 5 years of age or 97.18% said they also speak Spanish. 224 children between 3 and 14 years (114 between 3 and 9 years) spoke "Chontal de Oaxaca", which makes up 5.08% of all speakers of "Chontal de Oaxaca" from 3 years, while 25.16% of the total population of Mexico from 3 years 3–14 years old (2.85% versus 14.71% for the 3 and 9 year olds).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ethnologue.com: Chontal, Lowland Oaxaca - A language of Mexico
  2. ^ Ethnologue.com: Chontal, Highland Oaxaca - A language of Mexico
  3. ^ INEGI 2010: Censo de Población y Vievienda 2010 , accessed on March 25, 2011

literature

  • Lyle Campbell , David Oltrogge: Proto-Tol (Jicaque). In: International Journal of American Linguistics. Vol. 46, No. 3, 1980, ISSN  0020-7071 , pp. 205-223, JSTOR 1264738 .
  • Lyle Campbell: Middle American Languages. In: Lyle Campbell, Marianne Mithun (Eds.): The Languages ​​of Native America. Historical and Comparative Assessment. University of Texas Press, Austin TX et al. 1979, ISBN 0-292-74624-5 , pp. 902-1000.
  • Lyle Campbell: American Indian Languages. The Historical Linguistics of Native America (= Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics. 4). Oxford University Press, New York NY et al. 1997, ISBN 0-19-509427-1 .

Web links