Trique languages

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Language family

title: "Trique languages" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["mesoamerican-languages", "indigenous-languages-of-mexico", "verb–subject–object-languages", "oto-manguean-languages", "mixtecan-languages", "trique-language"] description: "Language family" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trique_languages" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Language family ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language family"]

FieldValue
nameTriqui
regionMexico
familycoloroto-manguean
ethnicityTrique
speakersin Mexico
date2020 census
ref
fam1Oto-Manguean
fam2Mixtecan
child1Copala Triqui
child2Chicahuaxtla Triqui
child3San Martín Itunyoso Triqui
glottotriq1251
glottorefnameTrique
mapTriqui_map.svg
mapcaptionDistribution of Triqui languages
::

| name = Triqui | region = Mexico | familycolor = oto-manguean | ancestor = | ethnicity = Trique | speakers = in Mexico | date = 2020 census | ref = | fam1 = Oto-Manguean | fam2 = Mixtecan | child1 = Copala Triqui | child2 = Chicahuaxtla Triqui | child3 = San Martín Itunyoso Triqui | glotto = triq1251 | glottorefname = Trique | map = Triqui_map.svg | mapcaption = Distribution of Triqui languages

The Triqui (), or Trique, languages are a family of Oto-Manguean spoken by 30,000 Trique people of the Mexican states of Oaxaca and the state of Baja California in 2007 (due to recent population movements). They are also spoken by 5,000 immigrants to the United States. Triqui languages belong to the Mixtecan branch together with the Mixtec languages and Cuicatec.

Internal classification

Ethnologue lists three major varieties:

Mexico's federal agency for its indigenous languages, Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI), identifies four varieties of Trique in its Catálogo de las lenguas indígenas nacionales published in early 2008. The variants listed by INALI are:

::data[format=table title="Varieties of Triqui (''trique''), per INALITable data source: see [http://www.inali.gob.mx/catalogo2007/html/v_triqui.html "triqui" ], online extract reproduced from Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (2008), p.5 [third section/''Tercera Sección'']."]

Variant (name in Spanish)AutonymLocalities
Triqui de San Juan Copalaxnánj nu̱ aOaxaca: Santiago Juxtlahuaca
Triqui de La Mediasnáánj nìOaxaca: San Martín Itunyoso
Triqui de La Altanánj nïïnOaxaca: Putla Villa de Guerrero
Triqui de La Bajatnanj niinjOaxaca: Constancia del Rosario, Putla Villa de Guerrero
::

Use

As of 2012, the Natividad Medical Center of Salinas, California, was training medical interpreters bilingual in one of the Oaxacan languages (including Trique, Mixteco, or Zapotec), as well as in Spanish. In March 2014, Natividad Medical Foundation launched Indigenous Interpreting+, "a community and medical interpreting business specializing in indigenous languages from Mexico and Central and South America," including Trique, Mixteco, Zapotec, and Chatino.

A Trique-speaking community has also settled in Albany, New York, as well as in northwestern Washington.

Phonology

The following phonology is based on Hollenbach (1984) and DiCanio (2008):

Vowels

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FrontBackCloseMidOpen
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Consonants

::data[format=table] | Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | plain | labial | Plosive | voiceless | voiced | prenasal | Affricate | Fricative | voiceless | voiced | Nasal | Rhotic | Lateral | Glide | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | () | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::

Itunyoso Triqui may tend to have ten geminated consonants; /mː, βː, tː, nː, lː, tːʃ, jː, ʈːʂ, kː, kːʷ/.

Tones

All varieties of Triqui are tonal and have complex phonologies. The tone system of Copala Triqui is the best described and has eight tones.

Tones in Triqui languages are typically written with superscript numbers, so that chraa⁵ 'river' indicates the syllable chraa with the highest (5) tone, while cha³na¹ 'woman' has the middle (3) tone on the first syllable and the lowest (1) tone on the second syllable.

Of the Triqui languages, the Copala dialect has undergone the most vowel loss, with many non-final syllables losing their vowels. The result, as in many other Oto-Manguean languages, is a complex set of consonant clusters. So, for instance, the word si⁵kuj⁵ 'cow' in Itunyoso Triqui corresponds to skuj⁵ in Copala Triqui.

The tonal phonology of other Triqui languages is more complex than Copala Triqui. The tone system of Itunyoso Triqui has nine tones. The tone system of Chicahuaxtla Triqui has at least 10 tones but may have as many as 16.

Orthography

Triqui has been written in a number of different orthographies, depending on the intended audience. Linguists typically write the language with all tones fully marked and all phonemes represented. However, in works intended for native speakers of Triqui, a practical orthography is often used with a somewhat simpler representation.

Morphology

Triqui bound morphology is fairly limited. Verbs take a /k-/ prefix (spelled c- or qu-) to show completive aspect:

Amiie³² izo¹. 'You are speaking'.

C-amii³² zo¹. 'You spoke'.

The same /k-/ prefix plus a tonal change shows the potential aspect:

C-amii² zo¹. 'You will speak.'

The tonal changes associated with the potential aspect are complex but always involve lowering the tone of the root (Hollenbach 1984).

There are also complex phonological processes that are triggered by the presence of root-final clitic pronouns. These pronouns (especially the first- and the second-person singular) may change the shape of the stem or alter its tone.

As a language subfamily, Triqui is interesting for having a large tonal inventory, complex morphophonology, and interesting syntactic phenomena, much of which has yet to be described.

Media

Triqui-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio stations XEQIN-AM, based in San Quintín, Baja California, and XETLA, based in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca.

Notes

Bibliography

References

  1. [http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/hipertexto/todas_lenguas.htm Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020] INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.
  2. The proposal to group Mixtec, Trique and Cuicatec into a single family (none more closely related to one than to the other) was made by Longacre (1957) with convincing evidence.
  3. The catalogue is the result of a project completed by INALI in 2007 in fulfillment of its obligations under Mexican federal law to document and enumerate the indigenous languages of Mexico. The catalogue was published in the federal government's [[public journal. official gazette]], the ''[[Diario Oficial de la Federación]]'' (DOF).
  4. Table data source: see [http://www.inali.gob.mx/catalogo2007/html/v_triqui.html "triqui" ], online extract reproduced from Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (2008), p.5 [third section/''Tercera Sección''].
  5. Melissa Flores. (2012-01-23). "Salinas hospital to train indigenous-language interpreters". HealthyCal.org.
  6. (2014-03-07). "Natividad Medical Foundation Announces Indigenous Interpreting+ Community and Medical Interpreting Business". Market Wired.
  7. Claudio Torrens. (May 28, 2011). "Some NY immigrants cite lack of Spanish as barrier". UTSanDiego.com.
  8. Carleo-Evangelist, Jordan. (April 14, 2014). "Keeping a language alive: Dictionary project aims to save native tongue of the Triqui community". [[Times Union (Albany)]].
  9. Hollenbach, Barbara. The Phonology and Morphology of Tone and Laryngeals in Copala Trique. Ph.D Thesis, University of Arizona. 1984
  10. DiCanio, Christian. [http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~cdicanio/pdfs/DiCanio_dissertation_papersaver.pdf The Phonetics and Phonology of San Martín Itunyoso Trique]. Ph.D Thesis, University of California, Berkeley. 2008.
  11. Good, Claude. Diccionario Triqui, volume 20 of Serie de Vocabularios Indigenas. Summer Institute of Linguistics, Mexico. 1979.
  12. Longacre, Robert E. Proto-Mixtecan. In Indiana University Research Center in Anthropology, Folklore, and Linguistics, volume 5. Indiana University Research Center in Anthropology, Folklore, and Linguistics, Bloomington. 1957
  13. Hollenbach, Barbara. Vocabulario breve del triqui de San Juan Copala. 2005

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mesoamerican-languagesindigenous-languages-of-mexicoverb–subject–object-languagesoto-manguean-languagesmixtecan-languagestrique-language