Tarascan language family

E602966

The Tarascan language family is a small, unique group of indigenous languages of western Mexico, best known for its primary member, Purépecha, which is notable for having no proven genetic relationship to other language families in the region.

Try in SPARQL Jump to: Surface forms Statements Referenced by

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Tarascan language family canonical 1

Statements (44)

Predicate Object
instanceOf language family
alternativeName Purépecha language family
Tarascan NERFINISHED
associatedEthnicGroup Purépecha people NERFINISHED
Tarascan people NERFINISHED
belongsTo Mesoamerican languages
indigenous languages of the Americas
classificationStatus genetic affiliation unproven
sometimes treated as a language isolate family
contactWith Nahuatl language NERFINISHED
Otomanguean languages NERFINISHED
Uto‑Aztecan languages NERFINISHED
country Mexico
culturalImportance central to Purépecha identity
educationUse bilingual education programs in parts of Michoacán
endangermentStatus vulnerable
geographicDistribution neighboring areas of Guanajuato
neighboring areas of Jalisco
state of Michoacán, Mexico
grammaticalFeature use of suffixes to mark case and relations in Purépecha
hasDocumentation grammars and dictionaries of Purépecha
hasLinguisticResearch described in detail by 20th‑century field linguists
hasLivingLanguage Purépecha language NERFINISHED
hasMember Purépecha language NERFINISHED
hasStandardizedOrthography yes
historicalRegion Michoacán NERFINISHED
historicalStatus language of the pre‑Columbian Tarascan state
iso639FamilyCode tar
lexicalBorrowingFrom Spanish language NERFINISHED
linguisticTypology agglutinative language family
head‑marking language family
morphologicalFeature rich verbal morphology in Purépecha
notableCharacteristic considered a language isolate by many linguists
no proven genetic relationship to other language families in Mesoamerica
phonologicalFeature contrastive vowel length in Purépecha
primaryLanguage Purépecha language
recognizedBy Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (Mexico) NERFINISHED
region western Mexico
syntacticFeature basic word order often described as VSO or VOS in Purépecha
timeDepth pre‑Columbian origin
usedFor local administration in some municipalities
oral tradition
usedIn traditional Purépecha communities
writingSystem Latin alphabet
surface form: Latin script

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Mesoamerican linguistic area includesLanguageFamily Tarascan language family