The Pame language is an indigenous language of Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 spoken by around 10.000 Pame

Pame

The Pame are an indigenous people of central Mexico living in the state of San Luis Potosí. They call themselves Xi'úi. They speak the Pame language, which belongs to the Oto-Pamean group of the Oto-Manguean language family....

 people in the state of San Luis Potosí

San Luis Potosí

San Luis Potosí officially Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is San Luis Potosí....

. The Pame language belongs to the Oto-Pamean branch of the Oto-manguean

Oto-Manguean languages

Oto-Manguean languages are a large family comprising several families of Native American languages. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the family, which is now extinct, was spoken as far south as Nicaragua and Costa Rica.The...

 linguistic family. The Ethnologue

Ethnologue

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...

 counts two living varieties of Pame: Central Pamehttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pbs spoken in the town of Santa María Acapulco, and Northern Pamehttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pmq spoken in communities from the north of Río Verde

Río Verde

Rioverde is a city and its surrounding municipality located in the south-central part of the state of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, behind San Luis Potosí, Soledad de Graciano Sánchez, Ciudad Valles, and Matehuala...

 to the border with Tamaulipas

Tamaulipas

Tamaulipas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 43 municipalities and its capital city is Ciudad Victoria. The capital city was named after Guadalupe Victoria, the...

. Pame languages are tonal

Tone (linguistics)

Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...

 and distinguish high and low level tones and a high-low contour tone(Suaréz 1983, pg 51).

Pame-language programming is carried by the CDI

National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples

The National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples is a decentralized agency of the Mexican Federal Public Administration. It was founded in 2003 as a replacement for the National Indigenist Institute . It has its headquarters in Mexico City and, since 15 December 2006, has been...

's radio station XEANT-AM

XEANT-AM

XEANT-AM is an indigenous community radio stationthat broadcasts in Spanish, Nahuatl, Pame and Huastecfrom Tancanhuitz de Santosin the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí....

, based in Tancanhuitz de Santos

Tancanhuitz de Santos

Tancanhuitz de Santos is a town and one of the 58 municipalities of the state of San Luis Potosí in central Mexico. Its name comes from the Wastek language, and means Place of Flowers or Canoe of yellow flowers. It is located in the southeastern part of the state, approximately from the city of...

, San Luis Potosí

San Luis Potosí

San Luis Potosí officially Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is San Luis Potosí....

.