When you think of indigenous Mexican languages, you’re likely to picture Nahuatl and Mayan languages—after all, they’re the most famous. But in fact, Mexico is jam-packed with more than 300 indigenous languages, many of which still boast healthy communities of speakers to this day—and they extend far beyond Nahuatl and Yucatec Maya. One of Mexico’s smaller indigenous languages—although still relatively big—is Sierra Totonac.
Sierra Totonac comprises around 120,000 native speakers—plus an additional 48,000 speakers of the closely related Coyutla Totonac variety, which is sometimes considered a separate language. Sierra Totonac is easily the biggest language in the Totonacan family, with Coyutla Totonac coming in third—the second-biggest is Papantla Totonac, with 80,000 speakers. But despite the size of Sierra Totonac, it’s still threatened by Spanish, which makes it difficult to find translation services for the indigenous language. At TranslatoinServices.com, we’re passionate about minority languages like Sierra Totonac, which is why we proudly present our new Sierra Totonac translation services.
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So, what kind of language is Sierra Totonac?
Let’s first look at where Sierra Totonac is spoken. The language is native to central Mexico, specifically the states of Puebla and Veracruz. Also known as Highland Totonac, it’s concentrated in the rugged, mountainous region of northwestern Puebla, and it consists of several varieties that are sometimes considered separate languages. The main varieties of Sierra Totonac are Zapotitlán Totonac, Coyutla Totonac, Olintla Totonac, Ozelonacaxtla Totonac, and Huehuetla Totonac. Together, they all come from the Totonacan language family, a small group of languages native to central Mexico.
Although Sierra Totonac is not related to many of the other indigenous languages in Mexico, including Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya, and Zapotec, it exhibits many of the features common to Mesoamerican languages, including extensive inflection and a verb-initial word order. Another common Mesoamerican feature that Sierra Totonac includes is a heavy use of body part morphemes—prefixes representing body parts are added to verbs to indicate which part of a person is affected by an action or, alternatively, to specify the shape of a given noun. More unique to Sierra Totonac (and other Totonacan languages) is sound symbolism, where speakers can change specific consonants in a verb to indicate a more forceful or energetic action. Multiple such sound patterns exist, making Sierra Totonac a highly unique and tricky language. But if you’re looking for reliable Sierra Totonac translation services, you can always rely on our team of native-speaking translators.
Our Sierra Totonac translation services are for everyone.
We understand that every client requiring Sierra Totonac translation services will have different needs—and that’s why we’ve recruited a diverse crew of native-speaking translators to assist our many different clients. Hailing from different areas of both Puebla and Veracruz, our Sierra Totonac translators can assist you with translation both to and from the indigenous Mexican language. They’re always proud to help bridge communication between the Sierra Totonac people and the rest of the world.
Our Sierra Totonac translators are skilled in different areas of translation, which makes our team versatile in handling various types of translation projects. Among our specialties are academic translation, business translation, and literary translation. So, if you’re an academic who needs a research survey to collect data from Sierra Totonac speakers, a business owner setting up shop in northern Puebla who wants to engage with the local population, a native Sierra Totonac speaker who wants to share their stories with the world, or an international content creator looking to carve out a new market in central Mexico, allow our team of Sierra Totonac translators to assist you.
Let’s get started with Sierra Totonac translation services today! Reach out with your translation documents and place your first order!