The Huastec (also spelled Wasteko or Huasteco ) language , now commonly known by the endonym Téenek , of Mexico is spoken by the Téenek people living in rural areas of San Luis Potosí and northern Veracruz . Though relatively isolated from them, it is related to the Mayan languages spoken further south and east in Mexico and Central America. According to the 2005 population census, there are about 200,000 speakers of Huasteco in Mexico (some 120,000 in San Luis Potosí and some 80,000 in Veracruz ). The language and its speakers are also called Teenek , and this name has gained currency in Mexican national and international usage in recent years.
7-706: The now-extinct Chicomuceltec language , spoken in Chiapas and Guatemala , was most closely related to Wasteko. The first linguistic description of the Huasteco language accessible to Europeans was written by Andrés de Olmos , who also wrote the first grammatical descriptions of Nahuatl and Totonac . Wasteko-language programming is carried by the CDI 's radio station XEANT-AM , based in Tancanhuitz de Santos , San Luis Potosí . Huasteco has three dialects, which have
14-624: A Roman Catholic confession, the manuscript contains eight sentences written in Chicomuceltec. It also mentions that the language was then referred to as "Cotoque". The geographical distribution of Wastek and Chicomuceltec in relation to the rest of the Mayan languages —with Wastek centered on the northern Gulf Coast region away from the others lying south and east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec — led Kroeber to also propose that Chicomuceltec
21-503: A time depth of no more than 400 years (Norcliffe 2003:3). It is spoken in a region of east-central Mexico known as the Huasteca Potosina . Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía, e Informática (INEGI) (an agency of the government of Mexico). 2005. 2005 Mexican population census, last visited 22 May, 2007 Chicomuceltec language Chicomuceltec (also Chikomuselteko or Chicomucelteco ; archaically, Cotoque )
28-688: Is a Mayan language formerly spoken in the region defined by the municipios of Chicomuselo , Mazapa de Madero , and Amatenango de la Frontera in Chiapas , Mexico , as well as some nearby areas of Guatemala . By the 1970s–80s it had become extinct , with recent reports in Mayanist literature finding that there are no living native speakers. Communities of contemporary Chicomucelteco descendants, numbering approximately 1500 people in Mexico and 100 in Guatemala are Spanish speakers. Chicomuceltec
35-514: Was either a remnant population left behind after the Huastec people's migration north from the Chiapas highlands region, or alternatively represented a return of a Huastec subgroup to their earlier homelands. By the early 20th century it was clear the language was in decline, and when in 1926 Franz Termer visited the community of Chicomucelo, he reported finding only three individuals (all over 60 years of age) who could speak Chicomuceltec, out of
42-510: Was established in the late 1930s (Kroeber 1939), which concluded via word-list comparisons with other Mayan languages that it bore a higher degree of affinity with Wastek than other Mayan language branches. A two-page document dated to 1775 which was retrieved from the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris is the oldest-known testament of the Chicomuceltec language. Taking the form of
49-505: Was formerly sometimes called Cakchiquel Mam, although it is only distantly related to the Cakchiquel or Mam , being much closer to Wastek (Huastec) . The Chicomuceltec language was first documented in modern linguistic literature as a distinct language in the late 19th century, where it appeared in an account published by linguist Karl Sapper of his travels in northern Mesoamerica 1888–95. Chicomuceltec's relationship with Wastek
#88911