Mixe–Zoque languages

MixeZoque languages
MixeZoque
MijeSoke
Geographic
distribution:
Mesoamerica: Mexico Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz
Linguistic classification: MixeZoque. Although some proposals have linked MixeZoquean with other families, none of these has received mainstream acceptance.
Proto-language: Proto-MixeZoquean
Subdivisions:
Mixezoquemap.png
Locations where the MixeZoque languages are spoken: Mixe (red) and Zoque (green)

The MixeZoque languages constitute a language family whose living members are spoken in and around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. The Mexican government recognizes three distinct MixeZoquean 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 and the Ethnologue counts 16 different languages, and the current classification of MixeZoquean languages by Wichmann (1995) counts 12 languages and 11 dialects. Extinct languages classified as MixeZoquean include Tapachultec, formerly spoken along the southeast coast of Chiapas.

Contents

History

Historically the MixeZoquean family may have been much more widespread, reaching into the Guatemalan Pacific coast (i.e. the Soconusco region). Terrence Kaufman and Lyle Campbell have argued,[1] based on a number of widespread loanwords in other Mesoamerican languages, that it is likely that the Olmec people, generally seen as the earliest dominating culture of Mesoamerica, spoke a MixeZoquean 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 MixeZoquean language.

Both of these claims have been criticized: Michael D. Coe 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 MixeZoquean loans into other Mesoamerican languages as being only Zoquean, not Mixean, which would put the period of borrowing much later than the time-frame in which the Olmec culture was at its height, because during this earlier time Proto-MixeZoquean was a single language.

Later, Kaufman (2001), again on the basis of loans from MixeZoque into other Mesoamerican languages, argues a MixeZoquean presence at Teotihuacan, and he ascribes to MixeZoquean 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.

MixeZoque is not thought to be related to any other language-group, though in the early 20th century Edward Sapir included it as a member of his proposed Penutian linguistic superfamily, and it has recently been included in a Toto-Zoquean proposal.

The branches of the MixeZoque language family are as follows:

Genealogy

The classification of MixeZoquean languages made by Søren Wichmann (1995):

Mixezoqueantree.png

Phonology

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

Front Central Back
Close
(high)
*i * *ɨ *ɨː *u *
Mid *e * *o *
Open
(low)
*a *

*ɨ *ɨː has also been reconstructed *ə *əː.

Bilabial Alveolar Alveolo-Palatal Velar Glottal
Stops *p *t *ts *k *ʔ
Fricatives *s *h
Nasals *m *n
Approximants *w *j

Syllables

MixeZoquean languages are characterized by complex syllabic nuclei made up of combinations of vowels together with the glottal stop and /h/ in the protolanguage. Complex syllable-final consonant-clusters are also typical in the daughter languages and can be reconstructed for the protolanguage.

Proto-MixeZoquean syllable nuclei could be either:

Vshort vowel
V' – short vowel with glottal stop
VVlong vowel
V'Vlong vowel with medial glottal stop
VV' – long vowel with final glottal stop
Vhshort vowel with h

Grammatical features

The MixeZoquean languages are head-marking and polysynthetic, with morphologically complex verbs and simple nouns. Grammatical subjects as well as objects are marked in the verb. Ergative alignment is used, as well as directinverse systems triggered by animacy and topicality. In MixeZoquean verbs, a morphological distinction is made between two basic clause-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 still uses the earlier pre-Wichmann classification as a basis for their work.

  1. Mixe languagesan estimated 90,000 native speakers
    • Eastern MixeAn estimated 72,000 native speakers
    Dialects:Coatlán (mco), Istmo(mir), Quetzaltepec(pxm),Juquila(mxq), and Mazatlán(mzl)
    • Veracruz MixeAn estimated 4,000 native speakers
    Dialects: Oluta (plo) nearly extinctonly 100 speakers, Sayula (pos)
    • Western Mixe
    An estimated 10,000 native speakers
    Dialects: Totontepec (mto), Tlahuitoltepec (mxp)
  2. Zoque languagesan estimated 60,000 native speakers
    • Chiapas ZoqueAn estimated 22,000 native speakers
    Dialects: Copainalá (zoc), Rayón (zor), Francisco León (zos)
    • Oaxaca ZoqueAn estimated 4,500 native speakers
    Dialect: Chimalapa (zoh)
    • Veracruz ZoqueAn estimated 30,000 native speakers
    Dialects: Highland (poi), Texistepec (poq) nearly extinctonly 450 speakers, Tabasco (zoq) nearly extinctonly 40 speakers

Notes

  1. ^ Campbell and Kaufman (1976).

References

External links


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