Introduction

 
This is a dictionary of the Tepehuan language as spoken in the community of Santa María Ocotán, municipality of El Mezquital, state of Durango. It is a dictionary that is still in process, so it should not be taken as a final or complete work. However, this second edition represents the result of our research regarding the meanings of more than five thousand common words used in the daily speech of this community.
 
The purpose of this dictionary is to show some of the richness of the vocabulary and grammar of the Tepehuan language. We hope that all who know or live in the Tepehuan region, whether they are speakers of Tepehuan or Spanish, will consider Tepehuan as a form of communication of which one can feel pride, and which is worth preserving.
 
This dictionary consists of three main parts:
 
1. The first part is the Tepehuan–Spanish dictionary in which the words in Tepehuan are presented in alphabetical order. After each word, its grammatical category is indicated, followed by its senses in different contexts and the irregular or special forms that are frequently used. Most of the senses are accompanied by an illustrative sentence, along with its translation into Spanish.
 
2. The second part is the Spanish–Tepehuan index where the Spanish words that are used as translations of the Tepehuan words cited in the first part are listed. This list is useful to discover the words in Tepehuan that correspond to many common Spanish words.
 
3. The third part is a summary of the grammar of the Tepehuan language. This provides a guide to the different types of words and sentences used in Tepehuan so that the reader can understand how the illustrative sentences that we cite in the dictionary are formed. It also describes the complexity of the verbal expression that is possible in this language.
 
The first four chapters of grammar explain the system of the sounds of Tepehuan and include an explanation of the alphabet that is currently used to write these sounds. The purpose of these chapters is to show what are the phonetic realities that form the basis for pronouncing words in Tepehuan and how they are written in their different variants.
 
At the end, some appendices are included in which several words and phrases are presented in Tepehuan that are frequently used in different areas of daily life.