Ethnicity Tepehuán | Native speakers 36,000 (2010 census) | |
Language family Uto-AztecanTepimanTepehuán |
Tepehuán (Tepehuano) is the name of three closely related languages of the Piman branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, both spoken in northern Mexico. The language is called O'otham by its speakers.
Contents
Northern Tepehuán
Northern Tepehuán is spoken by about 8,000 Tepehuán people (2005 census) in the south of the state of Chihuahua and north of Durango.
Southern Tepehuán
Southern Tepehuán is divided into the southeastern and southwestern group.
The extinct Tepecano language appears to have been a variety of Southern Tepehuán.
Media
Tepehuán-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio stations XEJMN-AM, broadcasting from Jesús María, Nayarit, and XETAR, based in Guachochi, Chihuahua.
Morphology
Tepehuán is an agglutinative language, in which words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.
Phonology
The following is representative of the Northern dialect of Tepehuan
Northern Tepehuan has 6 vowels and 3 common diphthongs.
Simple Tepehuan Text
Northern Tepehuan:
Southeastern Tepehuan: