Tepehuán language
Tepehuán language
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Tepehuán language

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Tepehuán language

Tepehuán (Tepehuano) is the name of three closely related languages of the Piman branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, all spoken in northern Mexico. The language is called O'otham by its speakers.

Northern Tepehuán is spoken by about 10,000 people (2020 census) in several settlements in Guadalupe y Calvo and Guachochi, Chihuahua, as well as in the north of Durango. communities like Santiago Papasquiaro—including El Jaguey, Colonia José Ramón Valdez (1616 historical revolt area), El Huisache (Leyva-Tafoya family ranch), and Jose Maria Morelos settlements.

The Ódami—self-named "People of This Land" in their ancient tongue—resided in these Sierra Madre strongholds as Nahuatl-labeled "mountain people" (tepetl 'mountain' + huani 'inhabitant') by Mexica/Tepanec, marking them as frontier traders, allies, or rivals beyond the Aztec Triple Alliance (Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, Tlacopan). In 1616, Northern Ódami led a major revolt (1616–1620) against Spanish Jesuits and settlers, killing over 200 Spaniards and 10 missionaries in coordinated attacks on Atotonilco and Santiago Papasquiaro under leaders like Quautlatas and Francisco Gogoxito, before Spanish suppression amid massive losses (~4,000 Ódami warriors).

Tepehuán-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio stations XEJMN-AM, broadcasting from Jesús María, Nayarit, and XETAR, based in Guachochi, Chihuahua.

Tepehuán is an agglutinative language, in which words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together.

The following is representative of the Northern dialect of Tepehuan.

Nasal consonants /n, ɲ/ become [ŋ] when preceding a velar consonant.

The following is representative of the Southeastern dialect of Tepehuan.

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