User:Cornsnek/sandbox/Matlatzinca language

The Matlatzinca languages are a group of Otomanguean languages spoken in western-central Mexico, closely related to Ocuiltec. They are classified into two major agrupations: Matlatzinca proper and Pirinda. Once spoken across the Toluca Valley and eastern Michoacán respectively, all but one have become dormant in the present.

Early descriptions of Pirinda were written in the early colonial period, and at least one other sketch was written about another variant in 1938.

Modern Matlatzinca
Fot'una, designated as San Francisco Matlatzinca in most academic sources, is the only language of the group known to have survived, though it is moribund. Once spoken in a large swath of territory west of the Toluca valley, it is now reduced to a single locality, San Francisco Oxtotilpan. In 2020 Matlatzinca was spoken by around 1,200 people. At any one time, about half the population is in the village of San Francisco Oxtotilpan and half away in Mexico City.

Pirinda
Pirinda (also Pirinta) is the name for the varieties of Matlatzinca spoken along eastern and northeastern Michoacán, divided into two clusters: Charense, the variety in the Cuitzeo basin and Guayangareo valley, and Huétama, around the eponumous locality. The name may be an areal rather than genetic grouping, as though they can be traced back to a single point of origin, certain settlements are known to have harboured different social groups.

History
Beginning in the 15th century, tensions rose between the Purépecha Empire and the emergent Triple Alliance as both states' desires for trade and territorial control had begun to conflict with one another. By 1476, these culminated in Axayacatl's invasion of the Valley of Toluca that Tsïtsïspandakwarhi had conquered the prior decade. Meeting little resistance, the army continued west until being met by Tsïtsïspandakwarhi's own forces in Taximaroa, resulting in a humilliating defeat for the Triple Alliance, forcing them to flee all the way to their heartland. Axayacatl later returned in 1478 to retake the Valley, and ordered the destruction of the city of Tollocan, causing waves of Matlatzinca refugees to arrive at the Irechecua.

Tsïtsïspandakwarhi granted land first to the former nobility, which became the city of Charo-Matalcingo, and the surrounding area was given to the commoners. Huétamo and Cutzeo also became a recipient of this migration, as did the more distant Patámbaro.

Charense
add word list etc

Huétama
Huétama has no known surviving records, and only its namesake, Hue tamu (four are coming), is supposed to come from the specific variety.

Unattested forms
References exist to either Matlatzinca or similar-sounding names spoken in nearby areas of Guerrero and down to the Balsas river, in the form of matlame, and in Morelos, specifically Cuauhnahuac/Cuernavaca, though the latter one was likely a form of Tlahuica and is called such by the last report of it. Temazcaltepec similarly had speakers of Matlatzinca.

Similarly, Azcapotzalco, Tlacopan and Coyoacán are mentioned as harbouring speakers of guata, another name for the Matlatzinca. Three Matlatzinca people from the first city are known by name, and it is possible that the Tepaneca were both Matlatzinca and Nahua in some capacity; these are, however, more likely to be migrants, as Tepaneca might have simply been a hyperonym for all people inside the subject to Azcapotzalco and later Tlacopan, referring to the ruling class of Nahua-Tepaneca and to the province of Tepanecapan.