The Mazatecan languages are a group of closely related indigenous languages spoken by some 200,000 people in the area known as the Sierra Mazateca, which is in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, as well as in adjacent areas of the states of Puebla and Veracruz.
The group is often described as a single language called Mazatec, but because several varieties are not mutually intelligible, they are better described as a group of languages. The languages belong to the Popolocan subgroup of the Oto-Manguean language family. Under the General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, they are recognized as "national languages" in Mexico, along with Spanish and other indigenous languages.
The Mazatec language is vigorous in many of the smaller communities of the Mazatec area, and in many towns, it is spoken by almost everyone. But in some of the larger communities, such as Huautla de Jiménez and Jalapa de Díaz, more people are beginning to use Spanish more frequently.
Like other Oto-Manguean languages, the Mazatecan languages are tonal; tone plays an integral part in distinguishing both lexical items and grammatical categories. The centrality of tone to the Mazatec language is exploited by the system of whistle speech, used in most Mazatec communities, which allows speakers of the language to have entire conversations only by whistling.
Classification
The Mazatecan languages are part of the Oto-Manguean language family and belong to the family's Eastern branch. In that branch, they belong to the Popolocan subgroup, together with the Popoloca, Ixcatec and Chocho languages. Daniel Garrison Brinton was the first to propose a classification of the Mazatec languages, which he correctly grouped with the Zapotec and Mixtec languages. In 1892 he second-guessed his own previous classification and suggested that Mazatec was related to Chiapanec-Mangue and Chibcha.
Early comparative work by Morris Swadesh, Roberto Weitlaner and Stanley Newman laid the foundations for comparative Oto-Manguean studies. Weitlaner's student, María Teresa Fernandez de Miranda, was the first to propose reconstruction of the Popolocan languages. While the work cited Mazatec data, she left Mazatecan out of the reconstruction.
Subsequent work by Summer Institute linguist Sarah Gudschinsky gave a full reconstruction first of Proto-Mazatec (Gudschinsky 1956). She next reconstructed what she called Proto-Popolocan-Mazatecan (Gudschinsky 1959) (it was referred to as Popotecan, but this term was not widely adopted.)
Languages
The ISO 639-3 standard enumerates nine Mazatecan languages. They are named after the villages where they are commonly spoken (with the exception of Puebla Mazatec): Chiquihuitlán Mazatec (2500 speakers in San Juan Chiquihuitlán. Quite divergent from other varieties.) Central Huautla Mazatec (50,000 speakers. The prestige variety of Mazatec, spoken in Huautla de Jiménez). Ayautla Mazatec (3500 speakers in San Bartolome Ayautla. Quite similar to Huautla.) Mazatlán Mazatec (13,000 speakers in Mazatlán and surrounding villages. Somewhat similar to Huautla.) Eloxochitlán Mazatec ( or Jerónimo Mazatec (34,000 speakers in San Jerónimo Tecóatl, San Lucas Zoquiapan, Santa Cruz Acatepec, San Antonio Eloxochitlán, and many other villages. Somewhat similar to Huautla.) Ixcatlán Mazatec (11,000 speakers in San Pedro Ixcatlán, Chichicazapa, and Nuevo Ixcatlán. Somewhat similar to Huautla.) Jalapa Mazatec (16,000 speakers in San Felipe Jalapa de Díaz. Somewhat similar to Huautla.) Soyaltepec Mazatec (23,000 speakers in San Maria Jacaltepec and San Miguel Soyaltepec. Somewhat similar to Huautla.) Puebla and Northeastern Mazatec (33,800 speakers in both Oaxaca and Puebla states.)
Studies of mutual intelligibility between Mazatec-speaking communities revealed that most are relatively close but distinct enough that literacy programs must recognize local standards. The Huautla, Ayautla, and Mazatlán varieties are about 80% mutually intelligible; Tecóatl (Eloxochitlán), Jalapa, Ixcatlán, and Soyaltepec are more distant, at 70%+ intelligibility with Hautla or with each other. Chiquihuitlán is divergent.
In 2020, there were 237,000 speakers of Mazatecan languages according to INEGI. Approximately 80% of the speakers know and use Spanish for some purposes. Many Mazatec children know little or no Spanish when they enter school.