Chatino Language - Phonology and Orthography

Phonology and Orthography

Yaitepec Chatino has the following phonemic consonants (Pride 1965):

There are five oral vowels, /i e a o u/, and four nasal vowels, /ĩ ẽ õ ũ/.

Rasch (2002) reports ten distinct tones for Yaitepec Chatino. The level tones are high /1/, mid /2/, low-mid /3/, and low /4/. There are also two rising tones (/21/ and /32/) and three falling tones (/12/, /23/, /34/) as well as a more limited falling tone /24/, found in a few lexical items and in a few Completive forms of verbs.

There are a variety of practical orthographies for Chatino, most influenced by Spanish orthography. In the examples below, ⟨x⟩ represents /ʃ/, ⟨ch⟩ = /tʃ/, and /k/ is spelled ⟨c⟩ before back vowels and ⟨qu⟩ before front vowels.