Highland Oaxaca Chontal
Highland Oaxaca Chontal, or Chontal de la Sierra de Oaxaca, is one of the Chontal languages of Oaxaca. It is sometimes called Tequistlatec, but is not the same as Tequistlatec proper, which is extinct.
Background
Highland Oaxaca Chontal is one of three Tequistlatecan languages family groups. The other two are Huamelultec and Tequistlatec. They are spoken or once spoken by the Chontal people of Oaxaca State, Mexico. Tequistlatecan language is also referred to as the Chontal of Oaxaca. The distinct breakdown in the dialect of the Chontal of Oaxaca is as follows: Highland Chontal and Lowland Chontal. The best way to hear and remember Highland Chontal is through the beautiful myths that the native speakers share, a method used by the locals to converse the language.It was spoken by 4,400 people in 2010.
Phonology
Consonants
Highland Chontal has a medium-sized inventory of 23 native consonants, along with four borrowed consonants from Spanish /β ð ɾ r/. It distinguishes ejective consonants, including the cross-linguistically unusual ejective labiodental fricative /f'/.Turner transcribes the ejective lateral affricate as an ejective fricative //. It is not clear whether the ejective labiodental fricative // might likewise be a phonetic affricate or similar.
The placeless voiceless nasal /ɴ̥/ assimilates to the place of articulation of the consonant following it, e.g. /ɴ̥t/ > . Thus it has four allophones . Its place of articulation before glottal consonants, vowels or pause is unclear, if it occurs in these environments at all.
Highland Chontal Glottalized Phonemes:
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palato Alveolar | Velar | |
| Ejective Stop | k' | ||||
| Ejective Affricatives | ts' | tʃ' | |||
| Glottalized Fricatives | f' | ||||
| Glottalized Nasals | m' | n' | ŋ’ | ||
| Glottalized Lateral Fricatives | ɫ’ |
Highland Chontal Non-Glottalized consonant Phonemes:
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Alveolar | Palato-Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
| Plosives | p, b | t, d | k, g | ɂ | |||
| Affricates | ts | tʃ | |||||
| Fricatives | f | s | ʃ | ||||
| Nasals | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Lateral fricatives | ɫ | ||||||
| Lateral Approximants | l | ||||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Central Approximants | ʍ, w |
Vowels
Highland Chontal has an inventory of five vowels, an arrangement similar to Spanish and many other world languages:| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | |||
| Mid | |||
| Open |
The distinction between /e/ and /a/ is neutralized before /j/.
There is no vowel hiatus, nor any phonemic diphthongs.
In the Highland Chontal also has stressed vowels which are /í é á ó ú/.
Orthography
In Highland Chontal, phonemes correspond to orthographic conventions which are in angled brackets <>.| p | t, c | č | k | ||||||
| f' | c' | č' | k' | ʔ | t' | ||||
| f | s.N | š | W | h | t | ||||
| b | d | g | |||||||
| m | n | y | ŋ w | l |
Syntax
The structure for highland Chontal is formatted but, not limited to: Verb-Subject-Object or VSO another order is SVO. Rules for prefixes depend on the tense used,Example: in the first-person plural for an object, if it is present in a sentence, is does not allow subject prefix. The order for certain words like adjectives and nouns can change, the examples below can be used for reference:
la-pin-jla ijle l-ipa alfujka, iya
1s.obj-give-nm.imp dem lim-flower white 1.s
ka-pina-m-u lumshali k-ipa
1.s.npast-give-fut-2.s.obj. red lim-flower
‘Give me the white flower and I will give you the red flower.’
Suffixes
Identifying a singular person object in a sentence is marked by a suffix, plural objects in sentences are always suffixes.Morphemes
The morpheme in the sentence structure determines which roots are used by verb stems. Readers can identify nouns in sentences by “limiters” these are described as prefixes. Limiters can be in a sentence structures as initial words and also be present if possession prefixes are present.The Highland Chontal of Tequistlatecan has a complex system of verbal prefix system. According to Gregory Richter, the author of "Highland Chontal Morphology: Some New Perspectives", the current morphological structure for Highland Chontal is that there are distintct verb classes and they each have a set of corresponding prefixes. Highland Chontal can be differentiated from Lowland with its tense and subject prefixes, the sets of rules for prefixes in highland is not found with lowland chontal.
| 1sg | l-ayn-inu-ba | "when I ran" | |
| 2sg | l-om-inu-ba | "when you ran" | |
| 3sg | l-inu-ba | "when he ran" | |
| 1pl | l-al-inul-ba | "when we ran" | |
| 2pl | l-ol-inul-ba | "when you ran" | |
| 3pl | l-inul-ba | "when they ran" |
sg=singular
pl=plural
rec=recent
Morphological Structure for Run
| Recent indicative | Present Indicative | |
| 1sg | n-inu-ba | g-inu |
| 2sg | m-inu-ba | d-a-ynu |
| 3sg | inu-ba | d-inu |
| 1pl | l-inul-ba | l-inul-yi |
| 2pl | ol-inul-ba | d-ul-inul-yi |
| 3pl | inul-ba | d-inul-yi |
sg=singular
pl=plural
NPST=nonpast
Morphological structure: VERB--> ROOT
The tables above show the one to one correspondence between segments of a prefix and its underlying representation.
The table shows the changes in the paradigm of /inu/ when appended to the particle /l/.with yes/no are used by rising the pitch of speech in speaking. Examples:
inu gal-tejua?
hot lim-food
‘Is the food hot?’
o-tsewoh-ma al-plaza?
2s-go-impf lim-plaza
‘Did you go to the plaza?’
o-shim-pa jiwa jl-unga?
2s-see-past ahead lim-fire
‘Did you see the fire up ahead?’
Particles
Highland Chontal contains three main interrogative particles for inquiring more information, the particles are:be- ‘where’, nai- ‘who’, and te ‘what’
nai-li-shim-p-o
who-3.p.past-see-past-2.s.obj
‘Who saw you?’
nai-ko-shim-pa?
who-2.s.past-see-past
‘Who did you see?’
te-ko-na-juohma
what-2.s.past-buy-rct.past
‘What did you buy?’
be-go-paha
where-2.s.past-be
‘Where are you?’