Branch of the Oto-Manguean languages of Mexico
The Oto-Pamean languages are a branch of the Oto-Manguean languages that includes languages of the Otomi-Mazahua, Matlatzinca, and Pamean language groups all of which are spoken in central Mexico. Like all Oto-Manguean languages, the Oto-Pamean languages are tonal languages, though most have relatively simple tone systems.[1] Unlike many Oto-Manguean languages that tend towards an isolating typology, they are morphologically complex headmarking languages with complex systems of conjugational classes both for verbs and nouns, and in the Pamean languages there are highly complex patterns of suppletion.
Classification
Proto-language
Four vowels with nasalization contrast are reconstructed for Proto-Oto-Pamean by Bartholomew (1989):[5]
- *a, *e, *i, *o
- *ã, *ẽ, *ĩ, *õ
Lexical reconstructions of Proto-Oto-Pamean by Bartholomew (1989) are given below, along with synchronic Oto-Pamean languages:[5]
References
Wiktionary has a list of reconstructed forms at
Appendix:Proto-Oto-Pamean reconstructions Wiktionary has a list of reconstructed forms at
Appendix:Proto-Central Otomian reconstructions - ^ Arellanes, F., Carranza, L., Peón, M. E. C., Fidencio, V., Guerrero, A., Knapp, M., & Romero, A. Hacia una tipología tonal de las lenguas otopames. RAÍCES, 1(2), 3.
- ^ Palancar, Enrique L. 2016. Oto-Pamean
- ^ Bartholomew, Doris. 1965. The Reconstruction of Oto-Pamean (Mexico). PhD Dissertation. Tulane University.
- ^ Soustelle, J., 1937. La Famille Otomi-Pame du Mexique Central. Travaux et Mémoires de l̂Institut d̂Ethnologie. Paris: Université de Paris.
- ^ a b Bartholomew, Doris A. 1989. The Proto Otopamean vowel system and the development of Matlatzinca. In Mary Ritchie Key and Henry M. Hoenigswald (eds.), General and Amerindian ethnolinguistics: in remembrance of Stanley Newman, 345–363. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
