Pochutec

Infobox Language
name=Pochutec
region=Pochutla, Oaxaca, Mexico
extinct=20th century
familycolor=American
fam1=Uto-Aztecan
fam2=Southern
fam3=Aztecan
script=Latin alphabet
iso2=
iso3=xpo

Pochutec is an extinct Uto-Aztecan language of the Aztecan branch which was spoken in around the town of Pochutla on the pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico.

In 1917 it was documented in a short article by Franz Boas, who already at that time considered the language nearly extinct. In the 1970s Tim Knab found two speakers around Pochutla who still remembered a few of the words documented by Boas, and Knab suggests that there may have been some actual speakers well into the 20th century.

Judging from the data collected by Boas, Pochutec was the most divergent of the known Nahuan dialects. Although it has been a matter of some discussion in Nahuatl dialectology, Pochutec is currently classified as constituting a separate branch among the Nahuatl dialects.

Bartholomew (1980) suggests that some of the divergent traits, for example last syllable stress, are due to influence from Chatino, an Oto-Manguean language. She argues that at the time of the 16th century Spanish conquest of Mexico the settlement of Pochutla did not fall under the Aztec Empire's domain, but instead was part of the Mixtec state centered at Tututepec. Thus, the Chatino linguistic influences stemmed from the trade and communication routes between Pochutla and Tututepec passing through Chatino territory.

References

*Bartholomew, Doris. 1980. "Otomanguean influence on Pochutla Aztec". IJAL 46.2
*Boas, Franz. 1917. "El dialecto mexicano de Pochutla, Oaxaca". IJAL 1. 9-44.
*Dakin, Karen. 1983. "Proto-Aztecan Vowels and Pochutec: An Alternative Analysis", IJAL, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Apr., 1983), pp. 196-203
*Knab, Tim. 1980. "When Is a Language Really Dead: The Case of Pochutec" IJAL Vol. 46, No. 3 (Jul., 1980), pp. 230-233