Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 06:42, 22 August 2006

The Otomi language is an indigenous language of Mexico, spoken by the ethnic group widely known as the Otomi but who refers to themselves as Hñähñu. Otomi is a mesoamerican language and shows many of the traits defining the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area Under the "Law of Linguistic Rights" it is recognized as a "national language" along with 62 other indigenous languages and Spanish which have the same "validity" in Mexico .

Geographic Distribution

Variants of the Otomi language is spoken in the Valle de Mezquital and in the south of Querétaro, amounting to 300,000 speakers (some 5 to 6 percent is monolingual). The largest populations of Otomi speakers are found in the states of Hidalgo (Valle de Mezquital), México, Puebla, Querétaro, Tlaxcala, and Veracruz.

Genealogy

The closest relatives of the Otomi languages is the Mazahua language, the Matlatzinca language and Ocuilteco, which together with Otomi form the Otomian subgroup of the Oto-pamean branch of the ] linguistic family.

• Oto-manguean
  • Oto-pamean
    • Otomian
      • Otomi  •   • 350,000
        • Otomi de la Sierra  •  Hidalgo, Puebla, Vera Cruz
        • Otomi de la Valle de Mezquital  •  Hidalgo,
        • Otomi del Estado de Mexico  •  N México (state),
        • Otomi de Tlaxcala  •  Tlacala
        • Otomi de Texcatepec • Vera Cruz
        • otomi de queretaro y Guanajuato  • Querétaro ,Guanajuato,

Phonology

The phonology of Otomian languages are generally complicated and not well understood. The orthography for Otomi dialects has been a focus of controversy for many years. D. Bartholomew , is a leading advocate for the illustration of tone in any discussion of Otomi. H.R. Bernard on the other hand, has noted the desirability of vowels in a practical spelling/orthography of Otomi.Otomi is a tonal language, it has fairly asymmetric inventories of vowels and consonants e.g. with only some consonants contrasting in sonority and place of articulation. The phonemic inventory given below is based on the phonology of Otomi de la Sierra.

Consonants

Vowels

Tones and prosody

There are two tones: High and low which can also be combined to make a falling and a rising tone. Stress is not phonemic but falls predictably on every other syllable, this is because Otomi is also a rythmical language.

Grammar

Otomi is a VOS language: ho ka ra 'ngu, 'he makes the houses'. Its morphology is characterized by an extensive use of often portmanteauoid clitics. It has an inclusive exclusive distinction for first and second person plural forms. Because Otomi is a rythmic language many affixes have two different forms (one monosyllabic and one polysyllabic), the use of which is distinguished in order to achieve the rythmic effect. In Otomi the words are formed by adding two different terms together or the addition of an affix. Manual Orozco records ka-ye as the Otomi word for 'holy man'. This term is formed by ka 'holy' and ye 'man'. Another word is da-ma, 'mature woman'. This word is formed by ma, 'woman', and da, 'mature, ripe'.

References

• Bartholomew, D. ( ). Concerning the elimination of nasalized vowels in Mezquital Otomi. International Journal of American Linguistics, 34, 211-217.
• Bernard, H.R. ( ). Othography for whom. International Journal of American Linguistics, 50, 133-136.
• Neve y Molina, L. de. (1767). Reglas de ortografia , Diccionario y arte del idioma Otomi. Edicon facsimilar de la de 1767. Mexico Biblioteca Encilopedica del Estudo de Mexico.
• Voigtlander, Katherine and Artemisa Echegoyen, Luces Contemporaneas del Otomi: Grámatica del Otomi de la Sierra. SIL, Mexico, D.F. 1985

• Indigenous languages of Mexico
• Indigenous languages of Mesoamerica
• Otomanguean Languages