Tabasco Nahuatl

Tabasco Nahuatl
Tabasco Nahuatl
Nawat
Native to	Mexico
Region	Tabasco
Native speakers	30 (2014)
Language family	Uto-Aztecan Aztecan (Nahuan) Nahuatl Eastern Nahuatl Pipil–Tabasco Tabasco Nahuatl; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nhc
Glottolog	taba1265

Tabasco Nahuatl or Nawat of Tabasco is a moribund Nahuan language spoken in Cupilco in the Mexican state of Tabasco.^[1]

The language belongs to the eastern branch of the Nahuan language family, and exhibits a number of divergent features.^[2]

Phonology

Consonant phonemes^[3]
		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Alveopalatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	Voiceless	p	t		k
Plosive	Voiced	bʷ
Affricate			ts	tɕ
Fricative			s	ɕ		h
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Tap			ɾ
Approximant		w	l	j

/p/ becomes [b] between two i's, e.g., suwapipil [suwapibil] 'girls'.
/t/ is dental [t̪]. It becomes [d̪] between vowels in rapid speech, e.g., nitati [nid̪at̪i] 'I burn'.
/k/ becomes [g] initially, between vowels, and after nasals, e.g., kahli [gahli] 'house'
/ts/ is dental [t̪s̪].
/s/ is alveolar.
/n/ is alveolar but becomes [ŋ] word-finally and before /k/.
/ɲ/ is alveopalatal [n̠ʲ].
Spanish loanwords include sounds such as [b], [g], [f], [r].^[4]

/o/ is not common but contasts with /u/, e.g., koit 'stick', xuit 'year'. It also appears in loans from Ayapa Zoque, e.g., ooyo 'shrimp' from óʼyok 'shrimp'.

Vowel length is contrastive, e.g., istat 'salt', istaat 'cotton'.

García de León G. uses the following orthography in his 1967 work.

Tabasco Nahuatl text^[6]
Tabasco Nahuatl	Literal translation	Spanish	English
en akél tiempo ibwak neemía nii chi tiopan tuguhkulwan... ginei pixtiwapa ienemigo tiopan... te ginei pa chichti pa unu tiopan iwaan tuguhkulwan yaha neeha pa teiti...	En aquel tiempo cuando andaban haciendo iglesia nuestros-abuelos... lo querían destruir su-enemigo iglesia... no lo-quería brujo que hay iglesia y nuestros-abuelos andar trabajando	En aquel tiempo, cuando andaban haciendo la iglesia nuestros abuelos, sus enemigos querían destruirla. Los brujos no querían que hubiera iglesia y nuestros abuelos seguían trabajando.	At that time, when our grandparents were building the church, their enemies wanted to destroy it. The sorcerers didn't want a church, but our grandparents kept working.

García de León G., Antonio (1967). "La lengua de los ancianos de Jalupa, Tabasco" [The Language of the Ancients of Jalupa, Tabasco]. Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl (in Spanish). 7: 267–281.