Huasteca Nahuatl

Huasteca Nahuatl
Native to	Mexico
Region	La Huasteca (San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Puebla, Veracruz)
Native speakers	unknown (1.0 million cited 1991–2000)
Language family	Uto-Aztecan Aztecan (Nahuan) Nahuatl Huasteca Nahuatl
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: nhe – Eastern (Hidalgo) nch – Central nhw – Western (Tamazunchale)
Glottolog	huas1257

Huasteca Nahuatl is a Nahuan language spoken by over a million people in the region of La Huasteca in Mexico, centered in the states of Hidalgo (Eastern) and San Luis Potosí (Western), but also spoken in the northern part of Veracruz and the extreme north of Puebla. Ethnologue divides Huasteca Nahuatl into three languages, Eastern, Central, and Western, as they judge that separate literature is required, but notes that there is 85% mutual intelligibility between Eastern and Western. Half of Eastern speakers know no Spanish.

XEANT-AM radio broadcasts in Huasteca Nahuatl.

Demographics

Huasteca Nahuatl is spoken in the following municipalities in the states of Hidalgo, Veracruz, and San Luis Potosí (Rodríguez & Valderrama 2005:168).

Hidalgo (121,818 speakers)

• Huejutla Reyes (56,377 speakers)
• Huautla (18,444 speakers)
• Yahualica (14,584 speakers)
• Xochiatipan (12,990 speakers)
• Atlapexco (12,445 speakers)
• Jaltocan (6,978 speakers)

Veracruz (98,162 speakers)

• Chicontepec (41,678 speakers)
• Ixhuatlán de Madero (21,682 speakers)
• Benito Juárez (11,793 speakers)
• Ilamantlan (9,689 speakers)
• Ixcatepec (6,949 speakers)
• Zontecomatlán (6,371 speakers)

San Luis Potosí (108,471 speakers)

• Tamazunchale (35,773 speakers)
• Axtla de Terrazas (17,401 speakers)
• Xilitla (16,646 speakers)
• Matlapa (16,286 speakers)
• Coxcatlan (12,300 speakers)
• Chalchicuautla (10,065 speakers)

Phonology

The following description is that of Eastern Huasteca.

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i iˑ
Mid-high	e eˑ
Mid-low		o oˑ
Low	a aˑ

Consonants

Classical Nahuatl Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		central	lateral		plain	labialized
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p	t			k	kʷ	ʔ
Affricate		ts	tɬ	tʃ
Continuant		s		ʃ			h
Semivowel				j		w
Liquid			l, r

Orthography

Huasteca Nahuatl currently has several proposal for its orthography, mainly that of the Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas (IDIEZ), Mexican government publications and the Summer Institute of Linguistics.

IDIEZ

• Their orthography is based on the evolution of Classical Nahuatl. It is somewhat of a deep orthography based on morphology since it aims to provide a unified system across regions.
• uses ⟨ca⟩, ⟨que⟩, ⟨qui⟩, ⟨co⟩ for /k/
• takes morphology into account
• uses ⟨za⟩, ⟨ce⟩, ⟨ci⟩, ⟨zo⟩ for /s/
• uses ⟨h⟩ for /h/

Mexican government publications

• Is influenced by modern Spanish conventions and is a very surface-based orthography. It aims to provide easy literacy across regions but with a different writing system in each one.
• uses ⟨k⟩ for /k/
• does not take morphology into account
• uses ⟨s⟩ for /s/
• uses ⟨j⟩ for /h/

SIL

• Somewhat based on modern Spanish conventions, mostly surface-based orthography as well but does not completely dispose of Classical Nahuatl conventions.
• uses ⟨ca⟩, ⟨que⟩, ⟨qui⟩, ⟨co⟩ for /k/
• does not take morphology into account
• uses ⟨s⟩ for /s/
• uses ⟨j⟩ for /h/

Sample text: 'a book about my location.'

• IDIEZ: ce tlahcuilolli tlen campa niitztoc.
• Government: se tlajkuiloli tlej kampa niitstok
• SIL: se tlajcuiloli tlej campa niitztoc

References

• Rodríguez López, María Teresa, and Pablo Valderrama Rouy. 2005. "The Gulf Coast Nahua." In Sandstrom, Alan R., and Enrique Hugo García Valencia. 2005. Native peoples of the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

• Stiles, Neville Náhuatl in the Huasteca Hidalguense: A Case Study in the Sociology of Language (1983) PhD Thesis, University of St. Andrews, Scotland.