Mixtepec Mixtec is a

Mixtec language The Mixtec () languages belong to the Mixtecan group of the Oto-Manguean language family. Mixtec is spoken in Mexico and is closely related to Trique and Cuicatec. The varieties of Mixtec are spoken by over half a million people.2000 census; ...

that is spoken in the lower Mixteca region. Mixtec language is largely spoken in the area of San Juan Mixtepec, district of

Juxtlahuaca Juxtlahuaca is a cave and archaeological site in the Mexican state The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entiti ...

, state of

Oaxaca ) , population_note = , population_rank = 10th , timezone1 = CST , utc_offset1 = −6 , timezone1_DST = CDT , utc_offset1_DST = −5 , postal_code_type = Postal ...

. However, the language is also spoken in other areas including

Tlaxiaco Tlaxiaco is a city, and its surrounding municipality of the same name, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is located in the Tlaxiaco District in the south of the Mixteca Region, with a population of about 17,450. The city is formally known as Her ...

, San Quintín Baja California, Santa María California, and Oregon. In 2004, it was reported that approximately 12,000 people spoke the Mixtepec Mixtec language. While most speakers of the language refer to it as 'sa'an ntavi' meaning 'language of the poor' or 'poor people's language,' others refer to it as 'sa'an save' which means 'rain language.' It is not closely related to other varieties of Mixtec.

Phonology

The Mixtepec Mixtec tone system features three distinct tones: high, mid (which is considered to be unmarked), and low. Since mid tones are not marked in the IPA, just the vowel is used with no tonal diacritics. The tone system also features two bi-level contour tones: rising, falling; and two tri-level tones: falling-rising, rising-falling. In the IPA transcriptions there is no difference made between high and rising tones and low and falling tones because these are phonologically non-contrastive. However, the specific difference between low/high and falling/rising is marked in the IPA transcription. While tone in Mixtepec Mixtec is used to mark lexical distinctions, it can also be used to express morpho-syntactic, morpho-semantic, and adverbial functions. In certain phonetic and lexical context lexical tones, phonological tone may be realized over multiple phonetic units, including non-vowels. More specifically, this can be seen occurring with glides and

nasals In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majority ...

. A common term for the structure of Mixtec roots is, 'couplet,' since Mixtec roots contain exactly two vowels. The root shape in Mixtepec Mixtec is: (1) (C)(C)V(C)V

The Mixtecan consonantal inventory

''*Taken from, 'A phonological Sketch of the Yucunany Dialect of Mixtepec Mixtec'*'' ''(The symbols encased within the parentheses are phonemes that are used very little in the language or, they only occur in loanwords.)'' In Mixtepec Mixtec, consonants are restricted to onsets. Consonant clusters may occur word-initially or word-medially but not root-medially. ''*Taken from, 'A Phonological Sketch of the Yucunany Dialect of Mixtepec Mixtec'*''

Vowel Phonemes

The vowel phonemes of Mixtepec Mixtec includes a canonical five-vowel system with widely dispersed vowels. ''*Taken from, 'A Phonological Sketch of the Yucunany Dialect of Mixtepec Mixtec'*'' Each of these vowels in the Mixtepec Mixtec language has a nasalized counterpart. The vowel length is not phonologically contrastive even though the vowels' duration varies contextually. While the vowels /i/, /u/, /o/, and /a/ are used on a regular basis throughout the language, the /e/ vowel is used rarely and occurs only in a handful of words. Each of these vowels has a nasalized counterpart.

Tone Patterns

The Mixtepec Mixtec language has monomorphemic couplets that exhibit a maximum of three tones (high, mid, and low). Some examples of common tone patterns include: ''*Taken from, 'A Phonological Sketch of the Yucunany Dialect of Mixtepec Mixtec'*'' All five vowels found in the Mixtepec Mixtec language have nasalized differentiating counterparts however, the mid vowels /õ/ and /ε􏰀/ are rare. The language may have words that are spelled similarly but, they can be distinguished by the use of nasalization in the way the words are pronounced. Below are some examples of words that are spelled similarly but are differentiated by accents that distinguish tone and nasalization. ''*Taken from, 'A Phonological Sketch of the Yucunany Dialect of Mixtepec Mixtec'*''

Orthography

The Alphabet of the Mixtecan Languages

A, CH, D, E, G, I, Ɨ, J, K, L, M, N, Nd, Ng, Ñ, O, P, R, S, T, Ts, U, V, X, Y

Vowels

Consonants

Composed Consonants

Special Letters

The letters d, f, g, j, p, and rr are only used when they are taken or borrowed from Spanish.

Morphology

One of the language characteristics found in Mixtec Mixtepec is cliticization, that is identified as <’> in orthography. It is a feature in syntax and morphology that has syntactically features of a word yet, it is phonologically dependent another (like a bound morpheme).

Cliticization

Mixtepec Mixtec English 'Siki so’o' 'Earrings' 'Kua’an' 'Go' 'Kuis nchua’ati tutu' 'The animal is carrying a lot of wood' 'Kuan’an skuela kutu’u nuu skuleru' 'Go to school to learn from a teacher'

Morphological Description

When a verb starts with /t/, /ts/, /k/, or /sk/, the past tense aspect is nì-, although it may vary because the completive aspect is not as marked but still sustains the L tone prefix.

Prefixes ''''

Mixtec Mixtepec English ''(Present Participle)'' ká’à yù ‘I am talking’ kíkuù ‘I am sewing’ ''(Past Tense)'' nìkà à yù ‘I talked’ nìkìkuù ‘I sewed’ When a verb starts with /k/ as shown in the example above, it is expressed as present participle, while the prefix nì- is the past tense of /k/. Mixtepec Mixtec English ''(Present Participle) '' Tíiì ‘I am holding’ Tzí’iì ‘I am drinking’ ''(Past Tense)'' Ndìiì ‘I held’ Ndzì’iì ‘I drank’ When the verb begins with /t/ it is expressed in present participle, however the past tense prefix are n(d)i- and n(dz)ì- .

Suffixes

''(First person singular suffixes)'' Mixtepec Mixtec English Mixtepec Mixtec English nàmá ‘soap’ nàmáà ‘my soap’ tìinà ncháá ‘blue dog’ tìinà nchááà ‘my blue dog’ sòkò ‘shoulder’ sòkò yù ‘my shoulder’ ve’e nchá’ì ‘black house’ ve’e nchá’ì yù ‘my black house’ The suffix in first person singular are marked in the form -yù when they are final L tone, therefore when it is not unmarked it shown to have a repetitive vowel with accent above the vowel <à, ì, ù>. ''(Third person singular) '' Mixtepec Mixtec English Mixtepec Mixtec English sàmá ‘clothing’ sàmíì ‘his clothing vàá’a ‘bad’ vàá’ì ‘it is bad’ sì’ i ‘leg’ sì’aà ‘his leg’ kachìí ‘cotton’ kachìáà ‘she is dying’ The suffix in a pronoun that ends with à become -ì when it is third person singular, and for /i/ it is suffixed with -à.

Syntax

Biological Need Ingestion drink bebertrans " Michu'ni tsí'i chikuii" . I'm drinking water now. Ahora estoy bebendo agua . intrans " Michu'ni tsí'i". I'm drinking right now. Ahora estoy bebendo. Human Activity Economics " Ntsaa kue nuu chuun". We arrived at work. Llegamos a trabajo. "Kani nchu'a ntsi ra". He lived a long time. Tsika sata. I'm walking backwards. Estoy caminando hacia atrás. Kuaka satu. Walk backwards. Camina hacia atrás.

Bibliography

*Paster, Mary and Beam De Azcona, Rosemary, 2004. A phonological sketch of the Yucunany dialect of Mixtepec Mixtec. In Proceedings of the 7th Annual Workshop on American Indian Languages, Carmen Jany (ed.) (pp. 61–76)

*Paster, Mary and Beam de Azcona, Rosemary, 2004. Aspects of tone in the Yucunany dialect of Mixtepec Mixtec. In Conference on Otomanguean and Oaxacan Languages, University of California, Berkeley

* Pike, Eunice V. and Ibach, Thomas, 1978. The phonology of the Mixtepec dialect of Mixtec. Linguistic and literary studies in honor of Archibald A. Hill, 2, pp. 271–285. *mixtepecmixteccorpusandlexicography/files/mixtepec-mixtec-working-vocabulary

References

{{Oto-Manguean languages Mixtec language