The Mixe–Zoque (also Mixe–Zoquean, Mije–Soke, Mije–Sokean) languages are a

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...

whose living members are spoken in and around the

Isthmus of Tehuantepec The Isthmus of Tehuantepec () is an isthmus in Mexico. It represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Before the opening of the Panama Canal, it was a major overland transport route known simply as the T ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. The Mexican government recognizes three distinct Mixe–Zoquean languages as official: Mixe or ''ayook'' with 188,000 speakers, Zoque or ''o'de püt'' with 88,000 speakers, and the Popoluca languages of which some are Mixean and some Zoquean with 69,000 speakers. However, the internal diversity in each of these groups is great.

Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is an open-access online bibliographic database of the world's languages. In addition to listing linguistic materials ( grammars, articles, dictionaries) describing individual languages, the database also contains the most up-to-d ...

counts 19 different languages, whereas the current classification of Mixe–Zoquean languages by Wichmann (1995) counts 12 languages and 11 dialects.

Extinct languages An extinct language or dead language is a language with no living first-language, native speakers. A dormant language is a dead language that still serves as a symbol of ethnic identity to an ethnic group; these languages are often undergoing ...

classified as Mixe–Zoquean include Tapachultec, formerly spoken in Tapachula, along the southeast coast of

Chiapas Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...

History

Historically the Mixe–Zoquean family may have been much more widespread, reaching into the

Soconusco Soconusco is a region in the southwest corner of the state of Chiapas in southeastern Mexico along its border with Guatemala. It is a narrow strip of land wedged between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It is the sout ...

region and the Guatemalan Pacific coast. It has been hypothesized that Mixean speakers were present, and perhaps represented ruling classes, at the preclassic sites of Kaminaljuyu, Takalik Abaj, and Izapa.

Terrence Kaufman Terrence Kaufman (1937 – March 3, 2022) was an American linguist specializing in documentation of unwritten languages, lexicography, Mesoamerican historical linguistics and language contact phenomena. He was an emeritus professor of linguistic ...

and

Lyle Campbell Lyle Richard Campbell (born October 22, 1942) is an American scholar and linguist known for his studies of indigenous American languages, especially those of Central America, and on historical linguistics in general. Campbell is professor emeri ...

have argued, based on a number of widespread loanwords in other

Mesoamerican languages Mesoamerican languages are the languages Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The ar ...

, that it is likely that the

Olmec The Olmecs () or Olmec were an early known major Mesoamerican civilization, flourishing in the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco from roughly 1200 to 400 Before the Common Era, BCE during Mesoamerica's Mesoamerican chronolog ...

people, generally seen as the earliest dominating culture of

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

, spoke a Mixe–Zoquean language. Kaufman and John Justeson also claim to have deciphered a substantial part of the text written in Isthmian script (called also by them and some others 'Epi-Olmec') which appears on La Mojarra Stela 1, based upon their deciphering of the text as representing an archaic Mixe–Zoquean language. Both of these claims have been criticized:

Michael D. Coe Michael Douglas Coe (May 14, 1929 – September 25, 2019) was an American archaeologist, anthropologist, epigraphy, epigrapher, and author. He is known for his research on pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya civilization, Maya, an ...

and David Stuart argue that the surviving corpus of the few known examples of Isthmian inscriptions is insufficient to securely ground any proposed decipherment. Their attempt to apply Kaufman's and Justeson's decipherments to other extant Isthmian material failed to produce any meaningful results. Wichmann (1995) criticizes certain proposed Mixe–Zoquean loans into other Mesoamerican languages as being only Zoquean, not Mixean, which would put the period of borrowing much later than the Proto-Mixe–Zoquean time-frame in which the Olmec culture was at its height. The date of the Mixe–Zoque split has however since been pushed back, and the argument is therefore much weaker than it once was thought to be.Wichmann, Beliaev & Davletshin, in press (Sept 2008). Later, Kaufman (2001), again on the basis of putative loans from Mixe–Zoque into other Mesoamerican languages, argued a Mixe–Zoquean presence at

Teotihuacan Teotihuacan (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'', ; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is ...

, and he ascribed to Mixe–Zoquean an important role in spreading a number of the linguistic features that later became some of the principal commonalities used in defining the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. The so-called "", which was used by some of the nobility and priesthood of the postclassic Yucatan region, may have been a Mixean language.

Genetic relations with other families

The Mixe–Zoque languages have been included in several long-range classification proposals, e.g. in

Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist-linguistics, linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States ...

's "Mexican Penutian" branch of his proposed

Penutian Penutian is a proposed grouping of language family, language families that includes many Native Americans in the United States, Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington ( ...

linguistic superfamily, or as part of the Macro-Mayan proposal by Norman McQuown which groups together the Mixe–Zoque languages with the

Mayan languages The Mayan languages In linguistics, it is conventional to use ''Mayan'' when referring to the languages, or an aspect of a language. In other academic fields, ''Maya'' is the preferred usage, serving as both a singular and plural noun, and a ...

and the Totonacan languages. At the end of the last century,

dismissed most earlier comparisons as methodologically flawed, but considered the Macro-Mayan proposal the most promising, but yet unproven hypothesis. In two more recently published articles, evidence is presented for linking the Mixe–Zoque languages either with the Totonacan languages (" Totozoquean"), or with the

Classification

Wichmann (1995)

The following internal classification of the Mixe–Zoquean languages is by

Søren Wichmann Søren Wichmann (born 1964) is a Danish linguist specializing in historical linguistics, linguistic typology, Mesoamerican languages, and epigraphy. Since June 2016, he has been employed as a University Lecturer at Leiden University Centre for L ...

(1995). *Proto-Mixe-Zoquean **Proto- Mixean *** Tapachultec *** Sayula Popoluca ( Sayultec) *** Oluta Popoluca ( Olutec) ***Proto- Oaxaca Mixean **** North Highland Mixe **** South Highland Mixe **** Midland Mixe, Lowland Mixe **Proto- Zoquean ***Proto-Gulf Zoquean *** Chimalapa Zoque *** Chiapas Zoque

Kaufman & Justeson (2000)

The following internal classification of the Mixe–Zoquean languages is by Kaufman & Justeson (2000), cited in Zavala (2000).Zavala Maldonado, Roberto. 2000. ''Inversion and other topics in the grammar of Olutec (Mixe)''. Ph.D. Dissertation: University of Oregon. Individual languages are marked by ''italics''. *Mixe-Zoque ** Mixe ***'' Tapachultec'' ***'' Olutec'' ***Mixe Proper ****'' Sayultec'' ****(branch) *****'' Lowland Mixe'' *****''Highland Mixe'' ** Zoque ***Gulf Zoquean ****'' Soteapan Zoque ( Sierra Popoluca)'' ****(branch) *****'' Texistepec Zoque'' *****'' Ayapanec Zoque'' ***Zoque ****'' Chiapas Zoque'' ****'' Oaxaca Zoque'' Justeson and Kaufman also classify the language represented in the Epi-Olmec script as an early Zoquean language.Justeson, John S., and Terrence Kaufman (2001
''Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing and Texts''
.

Phonology

The phoneme inventory of Proto-Mixe–Zoquean as reconstructed by Wichmann (1995) can be seen to be relatively simple, but many of the modern languages have been innovative; some have become quite vowel rich, and some also have introduced a fortis–lenis contrast in the stop series. Although the lateral phoneme is found in a few words in some of the languages, these are probably of onomatopoeic origin. has also been reconstructed .

Syllables

Mixe–Zoquean languages are characterized by complex syllabic nuclei made up of combinations of vowels together with the

glottal stop The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication, spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic ...

and in the proto-language. Complex syllable-final consonant clusters are also typical in the daughter languages and can be reconstructed for the proto-language. Proto-Mixe–Zoquean syllable nuclei could be either: :V – short vowel :V' – short vowel with glottal stop :VV – long vowel :V'V – long vowel with medial glottal stop :VV' – long vowel with final glottal stop :Vh – short vowel with h

Grammatical features

The Mixe–Zoquean languages are head-marking and

polysynthetic In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e., languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able t ...

, with morphologically complex verbs and simple nouns. Grammatical subjects as well as objects are marked in the verb. Ergative

alignment Alignment may refer to: Archaeology * Alignment (archaeology), a co-linear arrangement of features or structures with external landmarks * Stone alignment, a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones Biology * Struc ...

is used, as well as direct–inverse systems triggered by animacy and topicality. In Mixe–Zoquean verbs, a morphological distinction is made between two basic

clause In language, a clause is a Constituent (linguistics), constituent or Phrase (grammar), phrase that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic Predicate (grammar), predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject (grammar), ...

-types, independent and dependent; verbs take different aspectual and personal affixes, depending on the type of clause in which they appear. There are two different sets of aspect-markers, one used in dependent clauses and another used in independent clauses. Three aspects are distinguished within each clause-type: incompletive, completive, and irrealis.

Ethnologue classification and SIL ISO-codes

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

still uses the earlier pre-Wichmann classification, based on surveys of

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intelli ...

and comparative work by William Wonderly, as a basis for their work. This classification is not used by historical linguists, and

's authoritative 1997 presentation uses Wichmann's classification. #

Mixe languages The Mixe languages are languages of the Mixean branch of the Mixe–Zoquean languages, Mixe–Zoquean language family indigenous to southern Mexico. According to a 1995 classification, there are seven of them (including one that is extinct). Th ...

— an estimated 90,000 native speakers #*Eastern Mixe — An estimated 72,000 native speakers #:Dialects
Coatlán
( mco)
Istmo
(

mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

)
Quetzaltepec
( pxm)
Juquila
( mxq)
Mazatlán
( mzl) #*Veracruz Mixe — An estimated 4,000 native speakers #:Dialects
Oluta
(

plo The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people in both the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora. ...

) nearly extinct – only 100 speakers
Sayula
( pos) #*Western Mixe #:An estimated 10,000 native speakers #:Dialects
Totontepec
( mto)
Tlahuitoltepec
( mxp) # Zoque languages — an estimated 60,000 native speakers #*Chiapas Zoque — An estimated 22,000 native speakers #:Dialects
Copainalá
( zoc)
Rayón
( zor)
Francisco León
( zos) #*Oaxaca Zoque – An estimated 4,500 native speakers #:Dialect
Chimalapa
( zoh) #*Veracruz Zoque — An estimated 30,000 native speakers #:Dialects
Highland
( poi),
Texistepec
( poq) nearly extinct – only 450 speakers
Tabasco
( zoq) nearly extinct – only 40 speakers

Notes

References

* * * Campbell, L., and T. Kaufman (1976), "A Linguistic Look at the Olmecs", ''American Antiquity'', 41 pp. 80–89. * Justeson, John S., and Kaufman, Terrence, (1997
"A Newly Discovered Column in the Hieroglyphic Text on La Mojarra Stela 1: a Test of the Epi-Olmec Decipherment"
''Science'', 07/11/97, Vol. 277 Issue 5323, p. 207. * Justeson, John S., and Kaufman, Terrence (2001
''Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing and Texts''
* Kaufman, Terrence, (2001) Nawa linguistic prehistory, published a

* * * * *
Brigham Young University press release
on behalf of Brigham Young University archaeologist Stephen Houston and Yale University professor emeritus Michael Coe disputing Justeson/Kaufman findings.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mixe-Zoque Languages Language families Mesoamerican languages Indigenous languages of Mexico