Amuzgo

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Amuzgo
Spoken in:	Mexico
Region:	Guerrero, Oaxaca
Total speakers:	>30,000
Language family:	American  Oto-Manguean (MP)   Amuzgo    Amuzgo
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	–
ISO 639-3:	amu
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

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 with a strong monosyllabic tendency. Amuzgo has about 30,000 speakers and according to Ethnologue it has three dialects around 40% of the speakers are monolingual, the rest are bilingual in Spanish and Amuzgo.

The name Amuzgo is of Nahuatl origin; the exact etymology, however, is not known with any certainty.

Contents 1 Phonology 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Vowels 2 Grammar 3 Media 4 References 4.1 External links

[edit] Phonology

The phonemic analysis given here is from variant spoken in the village of San Pedro Amuzgos given by Thomas C Smith and Fermin Tapia (2002).

[edit] Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental		Alveolar		Alveopalatal/ Palatal	Velar		Glottal
Nasal	m	n				ɲ
Plosive		t	d	tʲ	dʲ		k	g	ʔ
Affricate		ts				tʃ
Fricative		s				ʃ			h
Approximant						j	w

[edit] Vowels

Amuzgo has eight tones and distinguishes oral and nasal vowels.

	Front		Central		Back
	oral	nasal	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
Close	i				u
Close-mid	e	ẽ			o	õ
Open-mid	ɛ	ɛ̃			ɔ	ɔ̃
Open			ɑ	ɑ̃

[edit] Grammar

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

[edit] Media

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

[edit] References

• 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" UNAM, Mexico.

[edit] External links

• Ethnologue page on Amuzgo
• Sample of Amuzgo writing