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'Amuzgo' is an Oto-Manguean language spoken in eastern Guerrero and western Oaxaca in Mexico.
Amuzgo is a tonal language with a strong monosyllabic tendency. Amuzgo has about 30,000 speakers and according to Ethnologue it has three dialects around 40% of the speakers are monolingual, the rest are bilingual in Spanish and Amuzgo.
The name Amuzgo is of Nahuatl origin, the exact etymology however is not known with any certainty.

Contents

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Grammar

References

External links

Phonology

The phonemic analysis given here is from variant spoken in the village of San Pedro Amuzgos given by Thomas C Smith and Fermin Tapia (2002).

Consonants

	Bilabial	Laminodental		Apicodentialveolar		Alveopalatal-Palatal	Velar		Glottal
Plosives
Nasals
Fricatives
Affricates
Semivowels

Vowels

Amuzgo has 8 tones and distinguish oral and nasal vowels.

	Front		Central		Back
	oral	nasal	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
Close (high)
Open Mid
Mid
Open (low)

Grammar

Amuzgo is analyzed as an Active-stative language. (Smith & Tapia 2002)

References

★ Smith, Thomas C, & Fermin Tapia, 2002, ''Amuzgo como lengua activa''. In Paulette Levy Ed. "Del Cora al Maya Yucateco: estudios lingüisticos sobre algunas lenguas indigenas mexicanas" UNAM, Mexico.

External links

★ Ethnologue page on Amuzgo

★ Sample of Amuzgo writing