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Mazatlán Mazatec (Spanish Mazateca de Mazatlán) is a Mazatecan language spoken in the state of Oaxaca in south-western Mexico, in the town of Mazatlán Villa de Flores. This town was originally named Mazatlán de Flores back in 1922, but was later changed in 1942 to the present day name Mazatlan Villa de Flores after a decree for name change was passed. The name Mazatlán in Mazatec translates to "deer people" due to the terrain and the abundant amount of deer in that area. Known to be the most conspicuous urban centre part of "The Canada Connection", more often associated with North Western Dialect rather than dialects from neighboring Mazatlán areas. Mazatlán Mazatec is defined as a Low Land Dialect in the Southern Valley, yet shares unique traits from Western High Land Dialect. Mazatec languages uses a specific type of pre-aspirated in word initial position. Mazatlán dialect is 80% mutually intelligible with the Low Land Dialects of Huautlan and Ayautla. A census recorded back in 2005 estimated 12,000 speakers spoke Mazatlán. Due to relocation in recent years many Mazatec speakers have relocated to Mexico City and Puebla.

Dialect
Mazatlán is part of a central dialect that shares 80% mutually intelligible with Huautla and Ayautla. Mazatec language has 3 tones, low, medium, and high. Mazatlán is categorized as a Southern Valley lowland dialect, yet Mazatlán shares vowel properties that are integrated into Eastern Highland dialect. Mazatlán dialect specifically required an innovation where it needed an intermediate stage where *ty fell together with *t. This innovation allowed *tyk and *tk to make the sound *hk>hk. Eastern dialect had a separate innovation that made *t in cluster with *k to make the sound *h>h. Chronologically it is believe that Mazatlán Dialect have made their innovation before it was introduce into the Highland Eastern Dialect. This unique sound is what seprates Mazatlán Dialect from Southern Valley Lowland dialects.

Sounds/Phonology
Mazatec language has a total of 18 vowel, 5 of which are simple vowels and contained 29 consonants. Each dialect has it's own tone and depending how the vowels are said will determine their use in context. Mazatlán doesn't have an official alphabet which makes it difficult to determine what consonants and vowels were used. The 5 simple vowels used in mazatlan dialect are (a,e,i,o,u). Long vowels are common, but come with the exception that they never appear at the beginning; they only appear in the middle or the end of a segment. Another unique trait in the mazatec vowel system was their pronunciation for nasalize and re-articulated vowels. To produce a nasalized vowel one would curve their tongue upwards from the palate, so that the back of the mouth touches the soft palate. The result if done correctly would produced a nasally sound. A re-articulated vowel would sound as if the first vowel is cutoff and repeated again with a very brief interruption between each vowel.

Grammar
Mazatlán is a subcategory from the popolocan branch that is known for having a majority of it's speakers being bilingual in Spanish and Mazatlán. It is believe that Mazatlán dialect follows Spanish syntax in the order of SVO. However, the popolocan branches in the past were known for having an VSO order where the verb comes before the subject.The shift in grammar adds onto the complexity of solidifying the main syntax order for mazatec dialects, since each individual dialect adapts differently to the shift in syntax from neighboring countries. In Mazatec dialect nouns do not have have gender, the reasoning behind this is believe to be due to Spanish language influence. Below are a few charts that show the translation of what nouns that are used in Mazatec dialect overall which includes Mazatlán. However, it should be noted that these charts cannot be solidified since this dialect was passed down verbally and never officially written down by original speakers.