Yatzachi Zapotec is an Oto-Manguean language of the Zapotecan branch, spoken in northern central Oaxaca, Mexico.

The degree of mutual intelligibility between Yatzachi and the San Bartolomé Zoogocho dialect is estimated to be around 90 percent.

In the modern Yatzachi dialect, both the o and the u sound exist, although the u is only found in Spanish loanwords.

In Yatzachi Zapotec, it is easier to think of consonants as having a distinction between fortis and lenis rather than voiced and voiceless.

A distinction between aspirated and non-aspirated sounds occurs on the consonants ch, x, l, and n. Yatzachi Zapotec also contains many Spanish loanwords, and thus borrows letters from Spanish orthography to write these sounds, such as ñ and ll [ʎ].

The saltillo, or glottal stop, is found after vowels or the sound n and counts as a distinct phoneme, as illustrated with the minimal pairs ga "new," and ga´ "green."

The Villa Alta Zapotec dialects have three tones: high /1/, mid /2/, and low /3/.

The idea of contrastive sets is similar to the use of minimal pairs to identify phonemes.

Certain nouns in Zapotec have the ability to use affixes that indicate possession; however, there are others that are invariable in this respect.

For example, the word bia In the second case, the preposition chʰe, "of" carries an inseparable pronoun that indicates that "of" is being used to show possession of the third person singular.

This is also the case with certain nouns that are obligatorily possessive, such as body parts or family members, which technically must always belong to someone.

All verbs in the continuative aspect begin with the morpheme ch, which refers to an action that is still occurring while the speaker is talking.

It can also refer to an action that will continue at some time in the future, for example, Chexa šə ba-ch-əsə'ətase' catə' əžina' liža'aque'?

Stative verbs describe the state of being of the person, place, animal, or thing that is being spoken about.

Note how it is difficult to see an underlying pattern among the verbs due to the high degree of allomorphy, seen in the following examples: Bseda'.

In this aspect, the verb expresses, hope, doubt, uncertainty, desire, or an unrealized action in the future, such as: Chene'ebo šeʝbo' tiend.

In the table below, the verb chsedbo', "to study," is shown in its simple form and the approximation aspect: The verbs with roots that begin with a vowel do not change except when used with the approximative, frequentative, and repetitive aspects.

ba- "already" ze- "only", "have just", "not yet" nʰe "yet" lʰe "later" Grammatical mood is used to express modality, or the speaker's attitude toward whatever he/she is saying.

Some negative commands are formed with the word cuidad, from the Spanish word cuidado, or "be careful," followed by a verb in the potential aspect, in the sense of "You're not going to..." or "Careful that you don't..." Another way to express obligation also uses verbs in the indicative instead of the imperative.

In Zapotec, the word cheyalʰə' or "must" is used as an auxiliary without the inseparable pronoun, followed by a verb in the potential aspect with its own subject.

This form consists of the letters lʰedo- or do- placed before the root of the verb in the secondary aspect of approximation and is equivalent to a command in the first person plural.

The verbs of this group begin with a weak consonant in the simple form of the continuative aspect of the neutral voice.

The following examples show the shift from neutral to causative in the simple form of the continuative of the verb "to bathe."

Some verbs use the same forms of the secondary frequentative or repetitive aspects to indicate the causative voice.

Direct In Zapotec, the complement can be a noun, pronoun, or in third person, or incorporated as a suffix of the verb.

The indirect object represents the person or thing to which the action of the verb is directed.

The reflexive construction in Zapotec uses only one pronoun to indicate the agent of the action and the patient at the same time.

To ask a question in Zapotec, it is enough to put the indicator ə before the first word of the sentence or interrogative phrase.

This question indicator is written as a capital letter E and is pronounced with the high tone.

The following are the prepositions of place in Yatzachi Zapotec: lao (face of) "on top of, on, to, before, of" cho'a (mouth of) "to, on, in front of, on the bank of" cožə (back of) "behind, to the other side of" yichʰʝ (head of) "above, on the top part of" xni'a (foot of) "at the foot of, on the bottom part of, under the authority of" xan (buttocks of) "under, beneath, behind, in the depths of" lʰe'e (belly of) "on, top of" cuit (ribcage of) "next to" cho'alao (mouth-face of) "around, near"