Huasteca Nahuatl

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, Veracruz (Eastern) and San Luis Potosí (Western).

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. Though, variant differs by state and even by community.

The indigenous radio station XEANT-AM in Tancanhuitz de Santos, San Luis Potosí, broadcasts in Huasteca Nahuatl.

Demographics

Huasteca Nahuatl is spoken in the following municipalities in the states of Hidalgo, Veracruz, and San Luis Potosí.

Hidalgo (121,818 speakers)

• Huejutla de 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)
• Ilamatlán (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)
• Coxcatlán (12,300 speakers)
• Chalchicuautla (10,065 speakers)

Phonology

The following description is that of Eastern Huasteca.

Vowels

Consonants

Orthography

Huasteca Nahuatl currently has several proposed orthographies, most prominent among them those of the Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas (IDIEZ), Mexican government publications, and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL).

IDIEZ

• Their orthography is essentially the same as the ACK (Andrews, Campbell, Kartunnen) orthographic norm, which is heavily influenced by the de facto orthographies in colonial Nahuatl texts. 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/
• uses ⟨hu⟩ and ⟨cu⟩ for /w/ and /kw/, respectively.

Mexican government's Secretary of Public Education (SEP) orthography

• 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/
• uses ⟨u⟩ for /w/

Mexican government's National Institute of Indigenous Languages (INALI)

• uses ⟨k⟩ for /k/
• does not take morphology into account
• uses ⟨s⟩ for /s/
• uses ⟨h⟩ for /h/
• uses ⟨w⟩ for /w/

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 tleh campa niitztoc.
• SEP: se tlajkuiloli tlej kampa niitstok
• INALI: se tlahkwiloli tleh kampa niitstok
• SIL: se tlajcuiloli tlej campa niitztoc

Notes

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.