Cuitlatec language

Extinct isolate language of Mexico From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cuitlatec, or Cuitlateco, is an extinct language of Mexico, formerly spoken by an indigenous people known as Cuitlatec.

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Cuitlatec
Cuitlateco
Native toMexico
RegionGuerrero
EthnicityCuitlatec people
Extinct1960s, with the death of Juana Can
Language codes
ISO 639-3cuy
qpb
Glottologcuit1236
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Classification

Cuitlatec has not been convincingly classified as belonging to any language family. It is believed to be a language isolate. In their controversial classification of the indigenous languages of the Americas, Greenberg and Ruhlen include Cuitlatec in an expanded Chibchan language family (Macro-Chibchan), along with a variety of other Mesoamerican and South American languages.[1] Escalante Hernández suggests a possible relation to the Uto-Aztecan languages.[2]

Geographic distribution

Cuitlatec was spoken in the state of Guerrero. By the 1930s, Cuitlatec was spoken only in San Miguel Totolapan. The last speaker of the language, Juana Can, is believed to have died in the 1960s.[2] In 1979, only two elderly women, Florentina Celso and Apolonia Robles, were able to remember about fifty words of the language.[3]

Phonology

Consonants

More information Labial, Dental ...
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Vowels

More information Front, Central ...
Cuitlatec vowel phonemes
  Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Low e a o
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Grammar

Sentences generally follow SVO word order. Adjectives precede the nouns they modify.

References

Bibliography

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