# Otomi: The language of Mexican Indians



## TStadt

Does anyone out there know any Otomi words.  It is the old language of the Otomi indians of Mexico.  Thanks


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## suzzzenn

Otomi is still a spoken language in Mexico. It is in the same language family of a language I am studying and I have some papers written about it around the house somewhere. Is there anything in particular you want?


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## suzzzenn

well, since I don't know what you want to say, I'll give you a few phrases. Otomi is a tonal language, but I haven't marked tones here due to keyborad constraints. 

This is Sierra Otomi (from Voigtlander):

ma hotho = It is pretty
shisu =woman
ra shisu bi zóhni = The woman called him


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## TStadt

Suzzzenn, thank you for your reply.  My request was a bit too vague; I apologize.  The information you provided helps.  (I guessed it was a tonal language.) I have a good friend whose parents speak Otomi and I would like to say something to them in their language when I eventually meet them.  Do you know how to say "Hello, it is nice to meet you." ?  Thanks so much for replying to my thread.  -TStadt


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## suzzzenn

I looked through the grammars I have and they don't have those phrases. There are plenty of other grammatical descriptions and text, but no greetings. When school starts again at the end of January, I will have access to the library and have a friend who has studied Otomi. I can ask him then and do a little research for you. Otomi has nine dialects and some of them are only 40%- 50% mutually intelligible. Looking at the list below, do you know which dialect your friend's parents speak? Otherwise, it might be a lot of work for nothing. 
(This is a link to the ethnologue website) Otomian  (11) Otomi (9) Otomi, Eastern Highland  [otm] (Mexico) Otomi, Estado de México  [ots] (Mexico) Otomi, Ixtenco  [otz] (Mexico) Otomi, Mezquital  [ote] (Mexico) Otomi, Querétaro  [otq] (Mexico) Otomi, Temoaya  [ott] (Mexico) Otomi, Tenango  [otn] (Mexico) Otomi, Texcatepec  [otx] (Mexico) Otomi, Tilapa  [otl] (Mexico) Language Family Index


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## TStadt

I do not know the dialect his parents speak.  I will ask him and post another message on this thread.  I will check out the link you have provided--thank you.  Thanks for the information you have provided.


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## suzzzenn

Hi, 
It should be pretty easy to determine which dialect they speak if you know what town they come from. 

Susan


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## TStadt

Hello, they come from the Toluca area near Mexico City.  Does this help?


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## suzzzenn

Hi 
I spoke to my friend who is studying *Sierra Otomi* but he didn't know how to say it's nice to meet you. He did give me a few greetings though:

Good Morning = *Hátzí* (two high tones..the "a" is soft, more like the Spanish "a" than the English one)
Good Afternoon = *unTéh *or simply *téh* (short vowel high tone)
Hasta manana (see you tomorrow)= *mìshí ontíí* (first vowel low and the rest are high) Sorry I am not sure how the words divide up or what their individual meanings are.

Sierra Otomi is spoken near Veracruz. The dialect of Otomi spoken in the city you mentioned is Tilapa Otomi. It is a very endangered language and a survey in 1990 could only locate *400 *adult native speakers of this dialect! The speakers are almost all over 50 years old. It is a "linguistic island" according to one source and will soon be extinct. If your friend's parents are 2 of those 400, it will be very difficult to get more information in the US because in addition to its being endangered, I can find nothing that has ever been written about that language. There are no academic papers, or dictionaries. Somewhere in the library there are reference books on other dialects. I'll look there when I get a chance, but as with the Sierra Otomi above, I don't know if greetings will be the same.

EDIT: I spoke too soon about resources! here is a link that mentions a book in which tilapa otomi is discussed. . 
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0403&L=otomanguean-l&D=1&P=536


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## TStadt

suzzzenn said:
			
		

> Hi
> I spoke to my friend who is studying *Sierra Otomi* but he didn't know how to say it's nice to meet you. He did give me a few greetings though:
> 
> Good Morning = *Hátzí* (two high tones..the "a" is soft, more like the Spanish "a" than the English one)
> Good Afternoon = *unTéh *or simply *téh* (short vowel high tone)
> Hasta manana (see you tomorrow)= *mìshí ontíí* (first vowel low and the rest are high) Sorry I am not sure how the words divide up or what their individual meanings are.
> 
> Sierra Otomi is spoken near Veracruz. The dialect of Otomi spoken in the city you mentioned is Tilapa Otomi. It is a very endangered language and a survey in 1990 could only locate *400 *adult native speakers of this dialect! The speakers are almaost all over 50 years old. It is a "linguistic island" according to one source and will soon be extinct. If your friend's parents are 2 of those 400, it will be very difficult to get more information in the US because in addition to its being endangered, I can find nothing that has ever been written about that language. There are no academic papers, or dictionaries. Somewhere in the library there are reference books on other dialects. I'll look there when I get a chance, but as with the Sierra Otomi above, I don't know if greetings will be the same.
> 
> EDIT: I spoke too soon about resources! here is a link that mentions a book in which tilapa otomi is discussed. .
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0403&L=otomanguean-l&D=1&P=536


 
Hello - Thank you for the additional information.  It appears that my friend's parents would be among the roughly 400 remaining Tilapi Otomi speakers.  I will "test" the above phrases with my friend's sister (who is a younger woman who still speaks some of the old language).  I appreciate the information you have provided.  I will post a reply to this thread at a later date.  Thanks again, Susan.  -T.Stadt


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## Missmichele81

Suzzzenn, this is a very late reply to the thread hut I just stumbled upon this! I'm wondering if you can help me out! I have Otomi ancestry but unfortunately my grandfather who is the only person who knew the details passed years ago.  I know that I have ancestry in Veracruz which I understand would be highland/Sierra Otomi.... But what I want to know is which Otomi dialect is spoken from those Otomi peoples of the Guanajuato region? Would it still be the Sierra Otomi or a completely different dialect? I want to learn the language but want to be sure I learn the proper dialect of my ancestry. I appreciate anything you can give me. 

Sincerely,
Natalie


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