Jalisco Nahuatl

Jalisco Nahuatl, also known as Western Nahuatl or Western Mexican Nahuatl, is a variety of Nahuatl historically spoken in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Its endangerment status is unknown; INALI considered that there were still speakers in the municipality of Cuautitlán de García Barragán in 2008,^[1] although there is no modern linguistic study that describes it as spoken there. Bibliographic references commonly describe the variant as it was spoken in the municipality of Tuxpan, south of Zapotlán el Grande (formerly Ciudad Guzmán). In 2008, it was reportedly still spoken in Colima, which INALI calls "Western Low Mexicano".^[2] Valiñas Coalla (1979) had predicted its extinction before the year 2020.^[3] Ethnologue does not consider it in its general scheme, nor does Glottolog classify it in its descriptive scheme.

Jalisco Nahuatl
Native to	Mexico
Region	Jalisco
Native speakers	± 150
Language family	Uto-Aztecan Aztecan (Nahuan) Nahuatl (dialects) Western Peripheral Nahuatl Jalisco-Nayarit Jalisco Nahuatl
Language codes
ISO 639-3	?

Documentation

A grammar titled Arte de la lengua mexicana. Que fue usual entre los indios del obispado de Guadalajara y de parte de los de Durango y Michoacán was compiled in 1692 by Friar Juan Guerra. This is considered the first printed grammar to describe a variety besides Classical Nahuatl. In 1765 another friar, Jerónimo Tomás de Aquino Cortés y Zedeño, developed another, more detailed grammar that included a vocabulary and a confessional.

At the beginning of the 20th century, several scholars described ethnographic aspects of the indigenous people of the region^[4] and thus modern descriptions of the speech were gradually compiled, such as the studies of José María Arreola and the parish priest Melquiades Ruvalcaba, who also developed, although simple, another grammar of this variant. The most important studies took place in the late sixties and during the seventies, when the language was already in danger of extinction.

Phonology

Leopoldo Valiñas provided a phonemic inventory of the dialect of Tuxpan.^[5]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

There is no distinction in length, unlike many other Nahuatl varieties.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p	t			k, kʷ
Fricative			s	ʃ		h
Affricate			ts	tʃ
Lateral			l ~ ɬ
Nasal	m		n
Semivowel	w			j