Sochiapam (/soʊˈtʃiːəpæm/ soh-CHEE-ə-pam) is a Chinantec language of Mexico. It is most similar to Tlacoatzintepec Chinantec, with which it has 66% intelligibility (intelligibility in the reverse direction is 75%, presumably due to greater familiarity in that direction).

Sochiapam has seven tones: high, mid, low, high falling, mid falling, mid rising, low rising. [verification needed]

Like other Chinantec and Mazatec languages, Sochiapam Chinantec is noted for having whistled speech (produced only by men, but understood by all). More unusually, it has also been reported to have a rare marked absolutive case system.[citation needed]

Phonology

The following are sounds of Sochiapan Chinantec:

Consonants
LabialInterdentalAlveolarRetroflexVelarLaryngeal
Nasalmnŋ
Stopvoicelessptkʔ
voiced(ɡ)
Affricatets
Fricativevoiceless(ɸ)θsh
voicedβðʐ
Liquidlaterall
rhotic(ɾ)

1. Parenthesised sounds are loans, allophones, or free variants

2. /p, t, k/ tends to be slightly aspirated

3. Alveolar and velar consonants are palatalised before the semivowel /j/

Vowels
FrontCentralBack
unroundedrounded
Highiɨu
Mideɘo
Lowa

Tones

  • Foris, David Paul. 2000. A grammar of Sochiapam Chinantec. Studies in Chinantec languages 6. Dallas: SIL International and UT Arlington.

External links

  • A whistled conversation in
  • A documentary on Sochiapam Chinantec Whistled Speech
  • at the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America