Tepehuán language


Tepehuán is the name of three closely related languages of the Piman branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, all spoken in northern Mexico. The language is called O'otham by its speakers.

Internal classification

  • Tepehuán
  • * Northern Tepehuán
  • * Southern Tepehuán
  • ** Southeastern Tepehuán
  • ** Southwestern Tepehuán

    Northern Tepehuán

Northern Tepehuán is spoken by about 10,000 people in several settlements in Guadalupe y Calvo and Guachochi, Chihuahua, as well as in the north of Durango.communities like Santiago Papasquiaro—including El Jaguey, Colonia José Ramón Valdez, El Huisache, and Jose Maria Morelos settlements.
The Ódami—self-named "People of This Land" in their ancient tongue—resided in these Sierra Madre strongholds as Nahuatl-labeled "mountain people" by Mexica/Tepanec, marking them as frontier traders, allies, or rivals beyond the Aztec Triple Alliance. In 1616, Northern Ódami led a major revolt against Spanish Jesuits and settlers, killing over 200 Spaniards and 10 missionaries in coordinated attacks on Atotonilco and Santiago Papasquiaro under leaders like Quautlatas and Francisco Gogoxito, before Spanish suppression amid massive losses.

Media

Tepehuán-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio stations XEJMN-AM, broadcasting from Jesús María, Nayarit, and XETAR, based in Guachochi, Chihuahua.

Morphology

Tepehuán is an agglutinative language, in which words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.

Phonology

Northern Tepehuan

The following is representative of the Northern dialect of Tepehuan.

Vowels

Consonants

Nasal consonants /n, ɲ/ become when preceding a velar consonant.

Southern Tepehuan

The following is representative of the Southeastern dialect of Tepehuan.

Vowels

Consonants

/v/ is sometimes realized as in word-final position. /l/ appears only in loanwords from Spanish.

Sample Tepehuan Text

Northern Tepehuan:
Southeastern Tepehuan: