Huichol language

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Huichol
Wixárika Niukiyari[1]
Spoken in Mexico: parts of the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Durango
Total speakers approx. 20,000 (1990)
Language family
Official status
Official language in None
Regulated by Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI)
Language codes
ISO 639-1 None
ISO 639-2 –
ISO 639-3 hch
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Huichol language is an indigenous language of Mexico which belongs to the Uto-Aztecan language family. It is spoken by the ethnic group widely known as the Huichol (self-designation Wixaritari), whose mountainous territory extends over portions of the Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, and Durango, mostly in Jalisco. Under the 2003 law of language rights, the indigenous languages of Mexico along with Spanish are recognized as "national languages".[2]

In regard to language typology, the language has switch-reference, is about as agglutinative as any language in the world (a verb in Huichol can have more than 20 morphemes[3]), and is incorporating. Areally, it does not belong to the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area—contrary to old proposals.[4]

In recent years, at least two teaching grammars for Huichol have been produced in Mexico for nonnative speakers. In addition, a project to produce a reference grammar and dictionary of Huichol has been underway since the 1980s, conducted by a team of investigators in the Department of Indigenous Languages at the University of Guadalajara,[5] and the first volume of the reference grammar was published in 2006.

Contents

[edit] Genealogy

The Huichol and Cora languages (whose territories are contiguous) form the Coracholan subgroup of the Uto-Aztecan languages.

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Orthography

The alphabet currently in use to teach Huichol speaking children to be literate in their native language is
a e h i ɨ k kw m n p r t ts u w x y ʔ[6]
For x an older spelling rr is seen, even in recent linguistic scholarship and lay publications. When the IPA symbol for the glottal stop, ʔ is not available with the typing device being used, the apostrophe is substituted.[7]

[edit] Syllable structure

Syllables have one of the following structures (C = consonant, V = vowel, V^ = long vowel): CV; CV^; CVV (the two vowels differ in articulation), at least in the base form of words; in speech and sometimes in writing, the elision of vowels creates sequences in violation of these syllable canons. In syllables of the last type, the two vowels form a diphthong in which the first vowel is the most prominent. The language has a large number of diphthongs; both ascending diphthongs and descending diphthongs occur. Examples (period marks syllable boundary):

  • ʔɨi.tɨa 'to give';
  • niɨ.tɨa 'to lend';
  • xei.ya 'to see';
  • xie.te 'bee'

(the diphthongs are different in the initial syllables of ʔɨi.tɨa and niɨ.tɨa[8]). The sequences /wV/ are distinct from /uV/, likewise /yV/ is distinct from /iV/. /uV/ and /iV/ are diphthongs, and to form a valid syllable in Huichol, they must be preceded by a consonant.

[edit] Vowels

There are five vowel phonemes: /i, ɛ, a, u, ɨ/; /ɛ/ is spelled 'e'. /ɨ/ is phonetically [ɨ], a high, central, unrounded vowel as in the pronunciation of the 'ir' in the word 'first' in the Australian or South African dialects of English.

[edit] Details of the articulation of the vowel phonemes[9] [10]

[ɛ] is reported to be even more open than the similar half open front vowel of French, but less open than the [æ] of English 'cat'. [a] is low central (as opposed to the similar vowel of Spanish, which is said to be slightly fronted from central).

[edit] Suprasegmental phonemic contrasts

Length is phonemic for vowels. A long vowel is marked by a pair of identical vowel letters. Some minimal pairs:

  • ʔiiya 'to drink', ʔiya 'to chew';
  • ʔeetsiya 'to cook', ʔetsiya 'sown field';
  • pukuʔeewiene 'looking for a place to get out of the rain', pukuʔewiene 'walking around tending to things'.

Stress accent is phonemic.[11] [12] The default position for word stress in Huichol is the penultimate syllable (the next to last syllable),[13] as in Spanish and English. When a word has primary stress on the penult, the orthography does not mark it. When the primary stress of the word falls on a syllable other than the penult, the stress is marked with the acute accent (as in Spanish). When there is a need to mark stress on a long vowel, the acute accent is placed on the second vowel letter. Minimal pairs showing phonemic syllable stress:

  • tuaxa 'to shoot', tuaxá 'oak';
  • kɨpi 'close one's eyes', kɨpí 'butterfly'.

[edit] Consonants

There are thirteen consonant phonemes. /c/ has two allophones, the affricate, [ts] by default and the fricative, [s] when it immediately precedes another consonant. /h/, which Grimes (1955) groups with /w y/ for morphophonemic reasons, is phonetically the glottal voiceless fricative, [h]. The boldfaced symbols in parentheses are the symbols used in the Huichol orthography, where these differ from the linguists' symbols.[14]

Bilabial Apicoalveolar Palatal Velar Labiovelar Glottal
Occlusive p t k kʷ (kw) ʔ
Affricate c (ts; s)
Fricative z (x)
Flap r
Nasal m n
Approximant w y h

[edit] Details of the articulation of the consonant phonemes[15]

/k/ before /i/ is aspirated. /k/ before /ɛ/ is palatalized, hence the pronunication of /kɛ/ is /kjɛ/. /w/ is [w] before /a ü/, [β] (voiced bilabial fricative) before /e i u/. The sequence /wu/, 'vu' occurs only in loanwords from Spanish.

[edit] The precise description of the articulation of /c z r/

/z, r/, while basically alveolar, have a retroflex quality. The descriptions of the phonetic content of these two phonemes vacillated from McIntosh (1945:31-32) to Grimes (1955:31) to Grimes (1959:221, 223).

McIntosh described [c s] as "alveolar" and considered these two to be allophones of the same phoneme, with [c] being the main allophone. Grimes agreed with this: he never uses 's' in his list of 13 phonemes.

McIntosh described /r/ as "a voiced retroflex alveolar flap" and /z/ as "backed alveolar . . . somewhat retroflex"; "backed alveolar" seems to correspond to the term "postalveolar" in more modern phoneticians' jargon. Among phoneticians, the alveolar ridge is seen as a range, not a point, in the sagittal (front to back) dimension of the roof of the mouth. Phoneticians optionally distinguish between prealveolar and postalveolar (and likewise between prepalatal, midpalatal, and postpalatal). It must be understood that in the jargon, pre- and post- do not have their normal English meanings. Postalveolar means "the rear portion of the alveolar ridge", not "a region behind the alveolar ridge", while prepalatal means "the front portion of the palate (immediately behind the alveolar ridge)", not "a region in front of the palate". Thus, the descriptions "backed alveolar" and "somewhat retroflex" are consistent (perhaps even duplicative). Grimes (1955) described the allophone symbols [r] as "retroflex reverse flap" and [z s] as "retroflex", but he amended this[16] to "apicoalveolar affricate, fricative, and flap /c z r/ (the latter two with retroflex quality)". The description, "reverse flap" was not defined. By way of conjecture, it may mean that the tongue tip (apex) travels up and backward during the flap articulation instead of straight up or up and forward.

[edit] Intonation

Grimes (1959) investigated the affective use of intonation.

[edit] Media

Huichol-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEJMN-AM, broadcasting from Jesús María, Nayarit.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Iturrioz 2004:153
  2. ^ Leyco, Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas
  3. ^ Iturrioz 2004:171
  4. ^ Campbell 1997:344
  5. ^ Gaceta Universitaria, 2006.02.20
  6. ^ Iturrioz et al. 1999:43
  7. ^ Iturrioz et al. 1999:114
  8. ^ Iturrioz et al. 1999:59-60
  9. ^ Iturrioz et al. 1999:48
  10. ^ Grimes 1981:8-9
  11. ^ Iturrioz et al. 1999:103
  12. ^ Grimes (1959:232) alluded to previous, unpublished research in which he claimed that Huichol phonology includes phonemic tone and length. However, Grimes 1959 did not cite any examples; nor did he in his dissertation, published as Huichol syntax (1964), although in the latter work he marks high tone on syllables.
  13. ^ Iturrioz et al. 1999:153ff
  14. ^ Those consulting the works of Grimes on Huichol should take care to note that Grimes (1955) used 'q' for the glottal stop, but from 1959 on, he reassigned 'q' for the labiovelar stop.
  15. ^ Grimes 1981:8-9
  16. ^ Grimes 1959:223, fn. 6

[edit] Bibliography

(Coincidentally, McIntosh 1945 and Grimes 1955 have identical paginations, 31-35.)

  • Campbell, Lyle. 1997. American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America. Oxford University Press. Series: Oxford studies in anthropological linguistics; 4.
  • Grimes, Joseph E. 1955. Style in Huichol discourse. Language, 1955 Jan-March, 31(1):31-35.
  • Grimes, Joseph E. 1959. Huichol Tone and Intonation. International Journal of American Linguistics, 1959 October, 25(4):221-232.
  • Grimes, Joseph E. 1964. Huichol syntax. Mouton.
  • Iturrioz Leza, José Luis, Paula Gómez López, and Xitákame Ramírez de la Cruz. 2004. Morfología y sintaxis del nombre. In Iturrioz Leza, JL, ed. Lenguas y literaturas indígenas de Jalisco. Guadalajara: Secretaría de Cultura, Gobierno del Estado de Jalisco.
  • McIntosh, John B. 1945. Huichol phonemes. International Journal of American Linguistics, January 1945, 11(1):31-35.

[edit] Other sources (not consulted)

  • Iturrioz, José Luis & Paula Gómez López. 2006. Gramática Wixarika I. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics; 3. ISBN 3895860611. 268 pp. (Reference grammar)
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