Huichol language

Indigenous language of Mexico

The Huichol language is an indigenous language of Mexico which belongs to the Uto Aztecan language family. It is spoken by the ethnic group widely known as the Huichol (self designation Wixaritari), whose mountainous territory extends over portions of the Mexican states of Jalisco, San Luis Potosí, Nayarit, Zacatecas, and Durango, mostly in Jalisco. United States: La Habra, California; Houston, Texas. Under the 2003 Law on Indigenous Language Rights, the indigenous languages of Mexico along with Spanish are recognized as "national languages". In regard to language typology, the language has switch reference, is highly polysynthetic and verbs may consist of as many as 20 different morphemes. In recent years, at least two teaching grammars for Huichol have been produced in Mexico for nonnative speakers. In addition, a project to produce a reference grammar and dictionary of Huichol has been underway since the 1980s, conducted by a team of investigators in the Department of Indigenous Languages at the University of Guadalajara, and the first volume of the reference grammar was published in 2006.

There are many dialects of Huichol, including Coyultita, Huichol del norte, Huichol del sur, San Andrés Cohamiata (Huichol del oeste, Western Huichol), San Sebastián Santa Catarina (Eastern Huichol, Huichol del este).

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), there were 35,724 speakers of Huichol as of 2005. Huichol has been classified by UNESCO as a "vulnerable" language. For x an alternative spelling rr is seen, even in recent linguistic scholarship and lay publications. When the IPA symbol for the glottal stop, ʔ, is not available with the typing device being used, the apostrophe is substituted.

There are five vowel phonemes: ; is spelled 'e'. is phonetically , a high central unrounded vowel, similar to the 'e' in the word 'roses' in English English.

is reported to be even more open than the similar half open front vowel of French, but less open than the [æ] of English 'cat'. [a] is low central.

There are thirteen consonant phonemes. /t͡s/ has two allophones, the affricate, [ts] by default and the fricative, [s] when it immediately precedes another consonant. /h/, which Grimes (1955) groups with /w y/ for morphophonemic reasons, is phonetically the glottal voiceless fricative, [h]. The boldfaced symbols in parentheses are the symbols used in the Huichol orthography, where these differ from the linguists' symbols. to "apicoalveolar affricate, fricative, and flap /t͡s r ɾ/ (the latter two with retroflex quality)". The description, "reverse flap" was not defined. By way of conjecture, it may mean that the tongue tip (apex) travels up and backward during the flap articulation instead of straight up or up and forward.

Grimes (1959) investigated the affective use of intonation.

Huichol language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEJMN AM, broadcasting from Jesús María, Nayarit. Popular Mexican music group Huichol Musical, made up of four Huichol men from Santa Catarina, Mezquitic, Jalisco, write songs that fuse the Huichol language and music style with Spanish lyrics and more current music trends. Their biggest hit, "Cuisinela" garnered attention worldwide and their album by the same name was Grammy nominated in the "Best Regional Mexican Album" category in 2008.

Vocabulario huichol (1954) McIntosh y Grimes. 121 p.

Iturrioz Leza, José Luis, Julio Ramírez de la Cruz, et al. 1999. Gramática Didáctica del Huichol: Vol. I. Estructura Fonológica y Sistema de Escritura (in PDF). Guadalajara: Departamento de Estudios en Lenguas Indígenas, Universidad de Guadalajara; Secretaría de Educación Pública. This is volume XIV of Función. Iturrioz, José Luis, ed. 2004. Lenguas y literaturas indígenas de Jalisco. Guadalajara: Secretaría de Cultura, Gobierno del Estado de Jalisco. The bulk of the book addresses the grammar of the Huichol language. Iturrioz, José Luis & Gómez López, Paula. 2006. Gramática Wixárika I. LINCOM Europa. Studies in Native American Linguistics; 3. 268 pp. (Reference grammar)
Iturrioz, José Luis & Gómez López, Paula. 2009. Gramática Wixárika II/III. München/Munich: LINCOM Europa. 280 pp. (Reference grammar)