Sochiapam Chinantec

Sochiapam is a Chinantec language of Mexico. It is most similar to Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec, with which it has 66% intelligibility (intelligibility in the reverse direction is 75%, presumably due to greater familiarity in that direction).[2]

Sochiapam
Native toMexico
RegionOaxaca
Ethnicity6,300 Chinantecs (no date)[1]
Native speakers
3,600 (2000)[2]
Oto-Mangue
  • Western Oto-Mangue
Language codes
ISO 639-3cso
Glottologsoch1239
ELPWestern Chinantec[3]

Sochiapam has seven tones: high, mid, low, high falling, mid falling, mid rising, low rising.[4]

Like other Chinantec and Mazatec languages, Sochiapam Chinantec is noted for having whistled speech (produced only by men, but understood by all). More unusually, it has also been reported to have a rare marked absolutive case system.

Phonology

The following are sounds of Sochiapan Chinantec:[5]

Consonants
LabialInterdentalAlveolarRetroflexVelarLaryngeal
StopVoicelessptkʔ
Voiced(ɡ)
AffricateVoicelessts
FricativeVoiceless(ɸ)θsh
Voicedβðʐ
Nasalmnŋ
Laterall
Flap(ɾ)
1. Parenthesised sounds are loans, allophones, or free variants
2. /p, t, k/ tends to be slightly aspirated
3. Alveolar and velar consonants are palatalised before the semivowel /j/
Vowels
FrontCentralBack
Highiɨ • u
Mideɘ • o
Lowa
1. Vowels to the left of the bullet dot are unrounded; to the right rounded
Tones

References

  1. Sochiapam Chinantec at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
  2. Sochiapam at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  3. Endangered Languages Project data for Western Chinantec.
  4. Sochiapan Chinantec (SIL-Mexico)
  5. Foris, David. (1973). Sochiapan Chinantec Syllable Structure. International Journal of American Linguistics, 39(4), 232-235.
  • Foris, David Paul. 2000. A grammar of Sochiapam Chinantec. Studies in Chinantec languages 6. Dallas: SIL International and UT Arlington.
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