Tlapanec language
Tlapanec, or Mephaa, is an indigenous Mexican language spoken by more than 98,000 Tlapanec people in the state of Guerrero. Like other Oto-Manguean languages, it is tonal and has complex inflectional morphology. The ethnic group themselves refer to their ethnic identity and language as Me̱pha̱a̱.
Before much information was known about it, Tlapanec was either considered unclassified or linked to the controversial Hokan language family. It is now definitively considered part of the Oto-Manguean language family, of which it forms its own branch along with the extinct and very closely related Subtiaba language of Nicaragua.
Mephaa people temporarily move to other locations, including Mexico City, Morelos and various locations in the United States, for reasons of work.
Varieties
Ethnologue distinguishes four Tlapanec languages:- Acatepec
- Azoyú
- Malinaltepec
- Tlacoapa
The Azoyú variety is the only natural language reported to have used the pegative case, though it is verbal case like other 'case' markers in Tlapanec.
Grammar
Tlapanec is an ergative–absolutive language. However, while most languages of this type have an overt ergative case, Tlapanec is one of the rare examples of a marked absolutive language, that is, an ergative language that overtly marks the absolutive and leaves the ergative unmarked.Phonology
There is wide variation in the reported phonology of Tlapanec, including from the following sources:- Weathers on the Malinaltepec variety
- Carrasco Zúñiga & Weathers and Black on the Malinaltepec variety
- Marlett & Weathers on multiple varieties
- Marlett & Neri Remigio on the Acatepec variety
Vowels
According to and, in addition to lengthening and nasalization, vowels may also be glottalized; they can be any combination of the three.Consonants
According to, the retroflexion of the voiceless postalveolar fricative varies, being before, fluctuating between ~ before, retaining slight retroflexion before consonants, and fully retroflexed elsewhere.Also according to, Allophones of the sounds include. In the existence of the cluster, an allophone may be heard.