Chontal, Lowland Oaxaca

A language of Mexico

ISO 639-3

Alternate Names

Chontal de la Costa de Oaxaca, Chontal de Oaxaca de la costa, Huamelula Chontal, Huamelulteco

Population

1,060 (2000 INALI). No monolinguals.

Location

South Oaxaca, Tehuantepec district, San Pedro Huamelula and Santiago Astata.

Language Status

8a (Moribund).

Classification

Typology

VSO; medium long words, affixes, clitics; nontonal

Language Use

Endangered. Simple greetings, ritual speech. Not learned by children as L1. Users are over 70 years old. Language area dominated by Spanish [spa].

Language Development

Literacy rate in L2: Most children and young adults in Spanish [spa]. Grammar. Bible portions: 1955.

Language Resources

Writing

Latin script.