Chinantec of Ojitlán

Ojitlán Chinantec (Chinanteco de San Lucas Ojitlán) is a major Chinantecan language of Mexico, spoken in four towns in San Lucas Ojitlán of northern Oaxaca, and in the Veracruz municipos of Minatitlán and Hidalgotitlán.

Ojitlán Chinantec
Native to	Mexico
Region	Oaxaca, Veracruz
Ethnicity	Chinantecs
Native speakers	38,000 (2000)
Language family	Oto-Mangue Western Oto-Mangue Oto-Pame–Chinantecan Chinantec Ojitlán Chinantec
Language codes
ISO 639-3	chj
Glottolog	ojit1237
ELP	Northern Chinantec

Writing system

Several spellings of Chinantec of Ojitlán have been developed. The Institute National for Adult Education (INEA) and SIL International use different spellings.

In the spelling of INEA, the high tone is indicated using the acute accent of the letter of the vowel, the medium tone by the absence of a diacritic above or below it, the low tone using the underlined line, and the very low tone using the double underlined line. This spelling uses seven letters for the vowels: ‹ a, e, ɇ, i, ɨ, o, u ›.

Phonology

Vowels

There are only a few monomorphemic words that display contrastive vowel length, so this Chinantecan feature may be being lost from Ojitlán.

		Front	Central	Back
				unrounded	rounded
Close	oral	i		ɯ	u
	nasal	ĩ		ɯ̃	(ũ)
Mid	oral	e		ɤ	o
	nasal	(ẽ)		ɤ̃	õ
Open	oral		a
	nasal		ã

/i e o/ are freely realized as [ɪ ɛ ɔ]. /a/ is occasionally [æ].

/ɯ/ and /ɤ/ are difficult to distinguish, but there are a few minimal pairs.

Each vowel can be nasalized. /ẽ/ and /ũ/ are rare.

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Postalv. / Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k	ʔ
	voiced					ɡ ~ ɣ
Fricative			s		ʃ		h
Affricate			t͡s		t͡ʃ
Trill			r
Nasal	voiced	m	n			ŋ
	voiceless	m̥	n̥			ŋ̊
Lateral	voiced		l	ɭ
	voiceless			ɭ̥
Glide	voiced	w			j
	voiceless	w̥			j̊

/p/ is uncommon.

Some consonants are nearly in complementary distribution:

• /ɡ/ only occurs before /i/, whereas /k/ rarely occurs before /i/. Post-pausa /ɡ/ may be realized as [ŋg] or [ɣ], whereas intervocalic /ɡ/ is nearly always [ɣ].
• /tʃ/ occurs before front vowels and /a/, whereas /ts/ occurs before back vowels and /a/.

/r/ is occasionally a single-contract trill, and post-pausa may be [nr].

/l/ is apical alveolar.

/ŋ/ and /ŋ̊/ are [ɲ, ɲ̊] before /i/.

The voiceless sonorants are analyzed as /hC/ sequences in other Chinantecan languages, and in addition there is a series of /ʔC/ sequences /ʔm, ʔŋ, ʔw, ʔj/ in Ojitlán. The Ojitlán retroflex lateral corresponds to /ʔl/ in other Chinantec, and that is perhaps how it should be analized in Ojitlán as well.

Tones

Syllables may be unstressed or have normal stress. Normal stress involves increased length and amplitude of the vowel. What was historically ballistic stress is realized in Ojitlán as extra-high and extra-low tones (from ballistic high and ballistic falling, respectively), and tend to involve aspiration of the consonant, breathiness of the vowel and a sharp falling pitch but not the other correlates of Chinantecan ballistic syllables. There are also a number of phonemic (as opposed to just phonetic) contour tones, though the number had not been established as of Macaulay (1999).

Ojitlán tones

Tone	Example	Translation	Phonetic realization
Extra high	a̋ʔ	cricket	sharp falling contour
High	óʔ	broken	slight rising-falling contour
Mid	ɤ̄ʔ	measles	slight falling contour
Low	à	many	slight rising-falling contour
Extra low	ɯ̏ʔ	when	sharp falling contour
Low rising	kĩ́ʔo᷅ʔ	door
Mid rising	he᷄ːŋã̄	forest
High falling	ʔnã᷇	open
Mid falling	tʃi᷆ː	good