Cuicatec refers to a group of languages spoken in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca in Mexico. Cuicatec is related to Mixtec and Triqui, with the three groups forming the Mixtecan branch of the Otomanguean language family. Cuicatec is assumed to be more closely related to Mixtec than to Triqui based on geographical closeness and linguistic similarities.
The Cuicatec language family remains one of the least documented and described Otomanguean subgroups. The region where Cuicatec is spoken, referred to as the Cañada, is multilingual. Most people are also fluent in Spanish. Santos Reyes Pápalo (SRP) is a Cuicatec-speaking village located about one hour by car from the district capital Cuicatlán.
I started working with the Cuicatec in April 2023 and received support from the community leadership and local authorities. Our goals are developing an audio-visual corpus and improving the practical orthography. A collective of young adults in SRP produced a booklet of stories in Díbaku and Spanish.
The practical orthography is not standardized, which makes writing difficult. My visit focused on tone and phonological contrasts. We now have a first tonal analysis and created an illustrated alphabet. We also recorded narratives about village history and culture.