The language

UNTMap

Upper Necaxa Totonac (iso639-3 tku, a.k.a. Patla-Chicontla Totonac) is spoken in four villages in the Necaxa River valley in the Sierra Norte of Puebla—Patla, Chicontla, Cacahuatlán, and San Pedro Tlaolantongo. In all there are around 3,000 speakers, most in their 40s or older. It is still spoken by school-aged children in Patla and Cacahuatlán, but is probably only being learned as a unique mother tongue by a small number of children in the latter community.

Upper Necaxa Totonac is a member of the Northern group of Totonacan languages. It can be easily differentiated from other Northern Totonac languages in terms of its phonology, grammar, and lexicon, but within Upper Necaxa, there is also dialectical variation in pronunciation and lexicon among the speech of the four communities.