Totonacan Languages

Totonacan languages, also called Totonac-Tepehua, a small language family of two branches, Totonac and Tepehua. The languages are spoken in the Mexican states of Hidalgo, Puebla, and Veracruz.

Opinions vary with respect to how many distinct languages there are in each branch and about which dialects belong to which languages. One tentative classification has four languages for Totonac: Highland Totonac (also called Sierra Totonac), with about 118,000 speakers; Lowland Totonac (also called Papantla Totonac), with about 50,000 speakers; Juárez Totonac, with 3,000 speakers; and Southeastern Totonac (also called Misantla Totonac), with 325 speakers. The last-mentioned group is considered the most divergent.

For Tepehua there is general agreement that there are at least two distinct languages: Tlachichilco Tepehua, with about 2,500 speakers, and Huehuetla Tepehua, with about 1,500 speakers. Many consider Pisaflores Tepehua, with about 3,000 speakers, a third, separate Tepehua language, though others do not distinguish it from Huehuetla Tepehua.

Totonacan has sometimes been grouped with Mayan and Mixe-Zoquean in the Macro-Mayan hypothesis. This is a plausible but inconclusive classification.

It has been argued that speakers of Totonac are the strongest candidates for the builders of Teotihuacán (200–650 ce), the most influential of ancient Mesoamerican cities. If true, the Totonac speakers would have played a very significant role in the prehistory of the region.