File:Precontact_Otomanguean.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Oto-Manguean
Sign in to saveAlso known as Oto-Manguean languages, Otomanguean languages, Oto Manguean languages, Otomanguean
language family
Key facts
- Geographic distribution
- Currently Mexico ; previously Mesoamerica and Central America
- Linguistic classification
- One of the world's primary language families
- Subdivisions
- Oto-Pamean Chinantecan Tlapanecan Manguean † Popolocan Zapotecan Amuzgo Mixtecan
- Iso 639 5
- omq
- Glottolog
- otom1299
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- language family
- Has part
- Oto-Pamean
- Location
- Mesoamerica
Show 4 more facts
- start time
- 2000-00-00
- topic's main category
- Category:Oto-Manguean languages
- Commons category
- Oto-manguean languages
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~29 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Oto-Manguean or Otomanguean (/ˌoʊtoʊˈmæŋɡiːən/ OH-to-MANG-ghee-ən) languages are a large family comprising several subfamilies of indigenous languages of the Americas. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the family, which is now extinct, was spoken as far south as Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Oto-Manguean is widely viewed as a proven language family.
The highest number of speakers of Oto-Manguean languages today is in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, where the two largest branches, the Zapotecan and the Mixtecan languages, are spoken by almost 1.5 million people combined. In central Mexico, particularly in the states of Mexico, Hidalgo, and Querétaro, the languages of the Oto-Pamean branch are spoken: the Otomi and the closely-related Mazahua have over 500,000 speakers combined. In the linguistic world of Mesoamerica, the Otomanguean family stands out as the most diverse and extensively distributed.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Oto-Manguean” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.