Cuitlatec language

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Cuitlatec, or Cuitlateco, is an extinct language isolate of Mexico, formerly spoken by an indigenous people known as Cuitlatec.

Classification

Cuitlatec has not been convincingly classified as belonging to any language family. It is believed to be a language isolate. In their controversial classification of the indigenous languages of the Americas, Greenberg and Ruhlen include Cuitlatec in an expanded Chibchan language family (Macro-Chibchan), along with a variety of other Mesoamerican and South American languages. Escalante Hernández suggests a possible relation to the Uto-Aztecan languages.

Geographic distribution

Cuitlatec was spoken in the state of Guerrero. In the 16th century, the Relaciones geográficas recorded Cuitlatec spoken in Ajuchitlán and Tetela del Rio, while it was also known to be spoken along much of the Costa Grande. By the 1930s, Cuitlatec was spoken only in San Miguel Totolapan. The last speaker of the language, Juana Can, is believed to have died in the 1960s. In 1979, only two elderly women, Florentina Celso and Apolonia Robles, were able to remember about fifty words of the language.

Phonology

Grammar

Sentences generally follow SVO word order. Adjectives precede the nouns they modify. Cuitlatec is agglutinative and mainly suffixing. It appears to use a vigesimal counting system. There do not appear to be relational nouns or directionals. The kinship system only distinguishes gender in the generation of the speaker and older generations.

Vocabulary

References

Bibliography

• Susana Drucker, Roberto Escalante, & Roberto J. Weitlaner. 1969. The Cuitlatec. In Evon Z. Vogt, ed., Handbook of Middle American Indians, Ethnology: Vol 7, Chapter 30. University of Texas Press, Austin: 565–575
• McQuown, Norman A. 1945. Fonémica del Cuitlateco. El México Antiguo 5: 239–254.
• Weitlaner, Roberto J. 1939. Notes on the Cuitlatec language. El México Antiguo 4: 363–373.
• Escalante Hernández, Robert (1962). El Cuitlateco . Mexico City: National Institute of Anthropology and History.

External links

Look up Appendix:Cuitlatec word list in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Cuitlatec word list on Wiktionary