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 and San Luis Potosí.
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
;Veracruz
;San Luis Potosí

Phonology

The following description is that of Eastern Huasteca.

Orthography

Huasteca Nahuatl currently has several proposed orthographies, most prominent among them those of the Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, Mexican government publications, and the Summer Institute of Linguistics.
;IDIEZ
  • Their orthography is essentially the same as the ACK 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 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
  • 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