Alternate Names: Highland Mazatec, Mazateco de Huautla de Jimenez, Mazateco de la Sierra, Mazateco del centro
Dialects: Mazateco de presa alto, Mazateco del norte, San Mateo, San Miguel. 90% intelligibility of San Jerónimo Tecóatl , (most similar, but less in outlying areas), 60% of Mazatlán, 35% of Jalapa ,. Lexical similarity: 94% with San Miguel, 93% with San Mateo, 80% with Soyaltepec, 78% with San Pedro Ixcatlán, 74% with Jalapa de Díaz.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 74,600 (2000 INALI). Over 100,000 Mazatec speakers live outside the Mazatec homeland, mostly in major cities (2005 census). Probably at least half speak L1. 22,400 monolinguals.
Language Use: Vigorous. Mazatec is needed and used locally, but use Spanish [spa] for prestige. All domains. All ages. Also use Spanish [spa], increasingly in Huautla City.
Language Development: Grammar. NT: 1961.
Typology: Short words; tonal; whistle speech, distinguishing tones of the spoken language (Cowan 1948, 1952).
Writing System: Latin
Nation of Origin: Mexico
Other Comments: Traditional religion, Christian.