page_title: Chinantecan languages
section_title: Phonological features
hierarchical_section_title: Chinantecan languages / Phonology / Phonological features
caption_attribution_description: English: Usila Chinantec has five level tones and no contour tones
context_page_description: The Chinantec or Chinantecan languages constitute a branch of the Oto-Manguean family. Though traditionally considered a single language, Ethnologue lists 14 partially mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinantec. The languages are spoken by the indigenous Chinantec people who live in Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico, especially in the districts of Cuicatlán, Ixtlán de Juárez, Tuxtepec and Choapan, and in Staten Island, New York.
context_section_description: All Chinantec dialects are tonal. Some of its dialects, such as Usila Chinantec, have five register tones, which is an uncommon trait in the world's languages.
  Chinantec also has ballistic syllables, apparently a kind of phonation.
caption: the tonal system of Usila Chinantec
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