Pame languages

The Pame languages are a group of languages in Mexico that is spoken by around 10,000 Pame people in the state of San Luis Potosí. It belongs to the Oto-Pamean branch of the Oto-Manguean language family.

Pame
Native to	Mexico
Region	San Luis Potosí, Puebla
Ethnicity	Pame people
Native speakers	11,000 (2010 census)[1]
Language family	Oto-Manguean Oto-Pame Pame
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: pbs – Central Pame pmq – Northern Pame pmz – Southern Pame
Glottolog	pame1260
The Pame language, number 1 (azure), north.

Distribution and languages

Ethnologue notes two living varieties of Pame both spoken in the state of San Luis Potosí: Central Pame, in the town of Santa María Acapulco,[2] and Northern Pame,[3] in communities from the north of Río Verde to the border with Tamaulipas.

The third variety, Southern Pame, was last described in the mid 20th century, is assumed to be extinct, and is very sparsely documented. It was spoken in Jiliapan, Hidalgo, and Pacula, Querétaro.[4]

• Northern Pame (Ñãʔũ) (~6,000[5])
• Central Pame (Šiʔúi) (~6,000)
• Southern Pame (Šiyúi) (†)

Classification

The Pame languages are part of the Oto-Pamean branch of the Oto-Manguean language family. They are most closely related to the Chichimeca Jonaz language, spoken in Guanajuato, and together, they form the Pamean language groups. During the colonial period, two grammatical descriptions were written.

Phonology

Consonants

Berthiaume (2004) report a complex phonology for Northern Pame with contrasts between plain, voiced, aspirated, and glottalized consonants both for the stops, nasals, affricates and approximants.

		Bilabial			Alveolar				Palatal			Velar			Glottal
		plain	aspirated	glottalized	plain	aspirated	glottalized	palatalized	plain	aspirated	glottalized	plain	aspirated	glottalized
Nasal		m	mʱ	mˀ	n	nʱ	nˀ		ɲ	ɲʱ	ɲˀ
Stop	voiceless	p	pʰ		t	tʰ	tʼ					k	kʰ	kʼ	ʔ
	voiced	b			d							g
Fricative	voiceless				s			ʃ							h
	voiced				z
Affricate	voiceless				t͡s	t͡sʰ	t͡sʼ		t͡ʃ	t͡ʃʰ	t͡ʃʼ
	voiced								d͡ʒ
Approximant	central								j			w
	lateral				l	lʱ	lˀ		ʎ	ʎʱ	ʎˀ
Flap					ɾ			ɾʲ

Pame languages are tonal but the exact number of tonal contrasts is a matter of debate. Avelino, Gibson and Manrique have analyzed the language as having three tones: high and low level tones and a falling contour tone (Suárez 1983, pg. 51). However, Berthiaume (2004) argues that only a high and a rising tone exist, no low, level tone.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə
Open	æ		ɑ

Grammar

Pame grammar is characterized by complex morphophonemics and suppletion. Many grammatical categories are marked by exchanging consonants in patterns that are not fully predictable. The morphology is head-marking, marking agreement with possessors on nouns and with the participants in actions on verbs. Its personal system distinguishes between singular, dual and plural number in all persons, and there is also has an exclusive first-person category ("we but not you").

Pame has an octal (base-8) counting system, as the Pame keep counting their knuckles, rather than the fingers.[6][7]

Examples

The following table shows the numbers and some basic words in different varieties of Pame:[8]

GLOSS	Southern Pame		Central Pame[9]	Northen Pame[10]	PROTO- PAME
	(Jiliapan)	(Tilaco)	(Santa María)	(Alaquines)
1	nna	nna	ndɑ	sɑnte	*^nda
2	ti	ti-yii	nui	nuyi	*nui
3	niyũ	ti-ñũn	rɑnhũʔ	rnuʔ	*-nũʔ
4	tipiyã	tyipya	ki-ñui	giriui	*ki-nui
5	špitũnt	šputun	kik^ʔɑi	gič^ʔɑi	*kik^ʔɑi
6	tikiyen	taken	tiliyɑ	teriɑ	*te-
7	tekiti	ki-yii	tiliñũhũñ	teriuhiñ	*te-?i+2
8	teiniyun	kyidinũn	ndɑ ntsɑwʔ	tenhiuñ	*te-?-nũʔ
9	nahwẽn	nawẽ	nda ntsawʔ nda	kɑrɑ tenhiuñ santa	?
10	stut^ʔu	štusu	seskɑʔɑi	kɑrɑ tenhiuñ nuji	?
'head'	kiñãu	keyãw	ganãw	ganãu	*kənaw
'eye'	nta	ndao	gotao	ntao	*^nta
'nose'	šiñũ	šiyõa	ʦiñowa	šiñõã	*šiñũ(?)
'mouth'	kine	kane	kona	kteye	*
'pie'	nogua	nigowa	mok^wa	mok^wa	*mok^wa
'corn'	ʦ^ʔiũ	t^yõã	gu-d^hwã	t^ʔwã	*t^ʔwã
'metate'	mbot	nab^ʔot^ʔ	k^ʔyi	k^ʔiyn	?
'chile'	bihi	mahi	mahi	l^ʔu	*-hi
'tomato'	mpia	rumbay	lapay	dbipay	*-pay
'bean'	tio	t^ʔawuʔ	gu-k^ʔwe	k^ʔwi	*k^ʔwi(?)
'meat'	migu	magiybi	pakas	pakas	*^mpak-(?)
'eat'	dii, nii	nii	sihin	sey	*si-
'maguey'	ši-nʤia	p^ʔi-doa	go-doa	^ndwa	*^ndoa
'alcohol'	pink^ʔi	pingi	ke-pi	ki-pint	?
'forest'	mipwi	set^ʔa	mabwo	kwãn	*mikwV (?)
'flower'	ntu	nd^ʔow	go-tun	nkyun	*^ndo-ni
'dog'	nn^ʔow	nn^ʔow	nadu	dyo	*^nd^ʔo-
'horse'	pahan	bhãn	wahil	pahal	*pahal-(?)
'stone'	kido	kudo	kotu	gitu	*ki-^nto
'sun'	mpãẽ	nimbay	kunhu	mpa	*^mpay
'moon'	m^ʔõ	m^ʔãũ	m^ʔau	m^ʔãũ	*m^ʔau
'water'	bisa	masa	kwote	kãnte	*^nte
'mountain'	t^ʔoe	t^ʔi	go-loe	toe	*t^ʔoe
'salt'	t^ʔiũs	t^ʔũs	l^ʔũs	t^ʔũs	*t^ʔũs
'market'	tityawt	tetãwn	kekywãw	kik^ʔyič	*teta-
'year'	špo	šop^ʔaw	ningyihin	čyii	?
'week'	nimpya	nembẽ	nembẽyn	pyẽy	*^mpyẽ(y)
'night'	sãu	nasaw	gu-sãw	digun	*sãw
'cold'	ʦe	ʦe	ʦee	ʦee	*ʦe(e)
'hot'	pa	mapa	mapa	mpa	*(ma)pa

Media

Pame-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEANT-AM, based in Tancanhuitz de Santos, San Luis Potosí.

References

1. INALI (2012) México: Lenguas indígenas nacionales
2. Central Pame
3. Ethnologue: Northern Pame
4. SouthernPame
5. Berthiaume 2004
6. Avelino, Heriberto (2006). "The typology of Pame number systems and the limits of Mesoamerica as a linguistic area" (PDF). Linguistic Typology. 10 (1): 41–60. doi:10.1515/LINGTY.2006.002.
7. Ascher, Marcia (1994), Ethnomathematics: A Multicultural View of Mathematical Ideas, Chapman & Hall, ISBN 0-412-98941-7
8. Soustelle, 1937, p. 364-365
9. Los numerales 1-10 no proceden de Soustelle sino de Dr. Heriberto Avelino, 5 November 2008, Northern Pame
10. Los numerales 1-10 no proceden de Soustelle sino de Dr. Heriberto Avelino, 5 November 2008, Central Pame

Bibliography

• Suaréz, Jorge A. 1983. The Mesoamerican Indian Languages. Cambridge: CUP
• Berthiaume, S. C. (2004). A phonological grammar of Northern Pame (Doctoral dissertation, PhD thesis, University of Texas at Arlington).
• Avelino, H. (2006). The typology of Pame number systems and the limits of Mesoamerica as a linguistic area. Linguistic Typology, 9, 493–513.
• Gibson, L. F. (1956). Pame (Otomi) phonemics and morphophonemics. International Journal of American Linguistics, 22(4), 242–265.
• Gibson, Lorna, and Doris Bartholomew. "Pame noun inflection." International Journal of American Linguistics 45, no. 4 (1979): 309–322.
• Manrique Castañeda, Leonardo. "Análisis preliminar del vocabulario pame de Fray Juan Guadalupe Soriano." In Anales de Antropología, vol. 12, no. 1. 2009.
• Castañeda, L. M. (1960). Dos gramáticas pames del siglo XVIII. Anales del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, sexta época (1945-1967), 11, 283–287.
• Lastra, Y. (2015). Tratado del arte y unión de los idiomas otomí y pame; Vocabularios de los idiomas pame, otomi, mexicano y jonaz de Fray Juan Guadalupe Soriano.
• Manrique Castañeda, Leonardo. 1967. Jiliapan Pame. The Handbook of Middle American Indians, ed. by Robert Wauchope, general editor, Norman McQuown, volume editor, vol. 5, 331–48. Austin: University of Texas Press.
• Soustelle, Jacques [1937] (1992): La familia Otomí-Pame de México Central, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México DF, ISBN 968-16-4116-7.

External links

• A Phonological Grammar of Northern Pame