Northern Tepehuan

Abstract

Northern Tepehuan (ISO 639-3: ntp) is one of the 68 native linguistic groups1 currently spoken in Mexico according to the National Institute of Indigenous Languages (INALI 2008). As is the case with many indigenous languages, Northern Tepehuan is under serious threat of disappearance during the next decades as it is spoken by fewer than 9000 people (Carrillo 2011: 6) whose historical background has been one of social and linguistic marginalization. The Ódami – as the speakers of the language call themselves – live in the alpine valleys of an isolated region known as Sierra Tarahumara, a section of the Sierra Madre Occidental, in Chihuahua State, Mexico. Saucedo Sánchez de Tagle (2004: 6–9) indicates that the heart of the current Ódami territory is in some sections of the Guadalupe y Calvo municipality, in the southernmost tip of Chihuahua (see Figure 1) but speakers also can be found in the surrounding municipalities of Balleza, Guachochi and Batopilas. Approximately 80% of Northern Tepehuan speakers live in small villages and rural settlements around the population nuclei of Baborigame, Nabogame, Llano Grande, Barbechitos and El Venadito (Saucedo Sánchez de Tagle 2004: 7). There are also some scattered speakers living in the region’s big cities of Chihuahua and Hermosillo.