Cuitlatec language

Cuitlatec, or Cuitlateco, is an extinct language of Mexico, formerly spoken by an indigenous people known as Cuitlatec.

Not to be confused with the Cuicatec language.
Cuitlatec
Native toMexico
RegionGuerrero
Extinct1960s, with the death of Juana Can
Language codes
ISO 639-3cuy
Glottologcuit1236

Classification

Cuitlatec has not been convincingly classified as belonging to any language family. It is believed to be a language isolate. In their controversial classification of the indigenous languages of the Americas, Greenberg and Ruhlen include Cuitlatec in an expanded Chibchan language family (Macro-Chibchan), along with a variety of other Mesoamerican and South American languages.[1] Escalante Hernández suggests a possible relation to the Uto-Aztecan languages.[2]

Geographic distribution

Cuitlatec was spoken in the state of Guerrero. By the 1930s, Cuitlatec was spoken only in San Miguel Totolapan. The last speaker of the language, Juana Can, is believed to have died in the 1960s.[2] In 1979, only two elderly women, Florentina Celso and Apolonia Robles, were able to remember about fifty words of the language.[3]

Phonology

Consonants
Cuitlatec consonant phonemes
Labial Dental Palatal Velar Labio-velar Glottal
Plosive p b t d tʃ k ɡ kʷ ʔ
Fricative ɬ ʃ h
Approximant l j w
Nasal m n

Vowels
Cuitlatec vowel phonemes
  Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Low e a o

Grammar

Sentences generally follow SVO word order. Adjectives precede the nouns they modify.

References
  1. Greenberg, Joseph; Ruhlen, Merritt (2007-09-04). "An Amerind Etymological Dictionary" (PDF) (12 ed.). Stanford: Dept. of Anthropological Sciences Stanford University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-25. Retrieved 2008-06-27. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. Escalante Hernández, Robert (1962). El Cuitlateco. México, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
  3. Valiñas Coalla, Leopoldo; Cortina Borja, Mario; Mireles Padilla, Miguel (2010-03-11). "Notas sobre el cuitlateco". Anales de Antropología (in Spanish). 21 (1). doi:10.22201/iia.24486221e.1984.1.15915 (inactive 1 August 2023). ISSN 2448-6221.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2023 (link)

Bibliography
  • Susana Drucker, Roberto Escalante, & Roberto J. Weitlaner. 1969. The Cuitlatec. In Evon Z. Vogt, ed., Handbook of Middle American Indians, Ethnology: Vol 7, Chapter 30. University of Texas Press, Austin: 565–575
  • McQuown, Norman A. 1945. Fonémica del Cuitlateco. El México Antiguo 5: 239–254.
  • Weitlaner, Roberto J. 1939. Notes on the Cuitlatec language. El México Antiguo 4: 363–373.
Look up Appendix:Cuitlatec word list in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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