View source for Mayo language

{{Short description|Uto-Aztecan language of the Americas}}
{{distinguish|Yessan-Mayo language|Mayo language (Brazil)}}
{{more footnotes|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Mayo
| states           = [[Sonora]], [[Sinaloa]], and parts in [[Durango]], [[Mexico]]
| ethnicity        = 100,000 [[Mayo people|Mayo]] (1983)<ref name=e24>{{ethnologue24|mfy}}</ref>
| speakers         = {{sigfig|38507|2}}
| date             = 2020 census
| ref              = <ref name=inegi2020>[http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/hipertexto/todas_lenguas.htm Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020] INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.</ref>
| familycolor      = Uto-Aztecan
| fam1             = [[Uto-Aztecan languages|Uto-Aztecan]]
| fam2             = [[Cáhita languages|Cáhita]]
| iso3             = mfy
| glotto           = mayo1264
| glottorefname    = Mayo
| map              = Lang Status 20-CR.svg
| mapcaption       = {{center|{{small|Mayo is classified as Critically Endangered by the [[UNESCO]] ''[[Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]]''}}}}
| nation           = [[Mexico]]
}}

'''Mayo''' is an [[Uto-Aztecan languages|Uto-Aztecan]] language. It is spoken by about 40,000 people, the Mexican [[Mayo people|Mayo]] or ''Yoreme'' Indians, who live in the South of the [[Mexican state]] of [[Sonora]] and in the North of the neighboring state of [[Sinaloa]]. Under the [[Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas|General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples]], it is recognized as a "national language" along with 62 other indigenous languages and [[Spanish language|Spanish]] which all have the same validity in Mexico. The language is considered 'critically endangered' by UNESCO.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/|title=UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger|website=www.unesco.org}}</ref>

The Mayo language is partially intelligible with the [[Yaqui language]], and the division between the two languages is more political, from the historic division between the Yaqui and the Mayo peoples, than linguistic.

Programming in both Mayo and Yaqui is carried by the [[National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples|CDI]]'s radio station [[XEETCH]], broadcasting from [[Etchojoa, Sonora]].

== Phonology ==

=== Consonants ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!
![[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]
![[Dental consonant|Dental]]
![[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[Velar consonant|Velar]]
![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
![[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
|{{IPA link|m}}
|{{IPA link|n}}
|
|
|
|
|-
![[Plosive]]
|{{IPA link|p}}, {{IPA link|bʷ}}
|{{IPA link|t}}
|
|{{IPA link|t͡ʃ}}
|{{IPA link|k}}
|{{IPA link|ʔ}}
|-
![[Fricative]]
|{{IPA link|β}}
|
|{{IPA link|s}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|h}}
|-
![[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|
|{{IPA link|r}}
|
|
|
|-
![[Lateral consonant|Lateral]] 
|
|
|{{IPA link|l}}
|
|
|
|-
![[Semivowel]]
|{{IPA link|w}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|j}}
|
|
|}

=== Vowels ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA link|i}} {{IPAlink|iː}}
| {{IPA link|u}} {{IPAlink|uː}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPA link|e}} {{IPAlink|eː}}
| {{IPA link|o}} {{IPAlink|oː}}
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|a}} {{IPAlink|aː}}
|}
<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mayo de los Capomos, Sinaloa|last=Freeze|first=Ray A.|year=1989}}</ref>

==Morphology==
Mayo is an [[agglutinative]] language, where words use suffix complexes for a variety of purposes with several [[morpheme]]s strung together.

==External links==
{{Incubator|code=mfy}}[http://www.maestriaenlinguistica.uson.mx/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/26-Trmrv.pdf Nominal and Adjectival Predication in Yoreme/Mayo of Sonora and Sinaloa]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
*Collard, Howard and Collard, Elisabeth Scott. 1962. Vocabulario Mayo, Vocabularios Indigenas Marianno Silva y Aceves. Num. 6. 
*Aguilar Zeleny, Alejandro S. 1995. "Los mayos," In Etnografía contemporánea de los pueblos indígenas de México. México: Región Noroeste Instituto Nacional Indigenista.
*Acosta, Roberto. 1983. Apuntes históricos sonorenses: la conquista temporal y espiritual del Yaqui y del Mayo Imprenta Aldina. Mèxico (1a. ediciòn). México: Gobierno del Estado de Sonora.
* Hagberg, Larry. 1989. "Stress and Length in Mayo." In Shipley, William, (ed.). In Honor of Mary Haas: From the Haas Festival Conference on Native Essays in Honor to Mary Hass. Halle: Mouton.
*Lionnet, Andres S.J. 1977. Los elementos de la lengua cahita (yaqui-mayo) México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. 
*Spicer, Edward Holland. 1969. "The Yaqui and the Mayo." In Wauchope, R., editor. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol 8. Austin: University of Texas Press.
*Hagberg, Larry and Zamarrón, José Luis Moctezuma. 2001. "Investigaciones sobre la lengua mayo." In Zamarrón, José Luis Moctezuma and Hill, Jane H. (eds), Avances y balances de lenguas yutoaztecas; homenaje a Wick R. Miller p.&nbsp;195–206. Serie Lingüística. Mexico, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia.

{{Uto-Aztecan languages}}
{{Languages of Mexico}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayo Language}}
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]
[[Category:Mayo people]]
[[Category:Southern Uto-Aztecan languages]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of Mexico]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of the North American Southwest]]
[[Category:Subject–object–verb languages]]