Purépecha
Sign in to saveAlso known as P'urhépecha, Tarascan, Tarasco, Phorhé, Phorhépecha, Purepecha language, Phorhe, Phorhepecha
language isolate or small language family spoken by a quarter million Purépecha in the highlands of the Mexican state of Michoacán
Key facts
- Pronunciation
- [pʰuˈɽepet͡ʃa]
- Native to
- Mexico
- Region
- Michoacán
- Ethnicity
- Purépecha
- Native speakers
- 142,469 (2020 census)
- Language family
- Language isolate
- Iso 639 3
- Either:, tsz – Eastern, pua – Western
- Glottolog
- tara1323
- Elp
- Purepecha
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- modern language
- Country
- Mexico
Show 8 more facts
- number of speakers, writers, or signers
- 175000
- topic's main category
- Category:Purépecha language
- indigenous to
- Michoacán
- linguistic typology
- language isolate
- P13311
- Würenlingen
- Wikimedia language code
- pua
- Wikimedia Incubator URL
- incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/pua
Sources (7)
via Wikidata · CC0
~19 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Purépecha (autonym: Pʼurhépecha [pʰuˈɽepet͡ʃa] or Phorhé(pecha)), often called Tarascan (Spanish: Tarasco), a term coined by Spanish settlers that can be seen as pejorative to some, is a language isolate or small language family that is spoken by some 140,000 Purépecha in the highlands of Michoacán, Mexico.
Purépecha was the main language of the pre-Columbian Purépecha Empire and became widespread in the region during its heyday in the late post-Classic period. The small town of Purepero got its name from the indigenous people who lived there.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Purépecha” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.