Mazatecan languages
Encyclopedia
The Mazatecan languages are a group of closely related indigenous languages
spoken by some 200,000 people in the area known as La Sierra Mazateca
, which located in the Northern part of the state of Oaxaca
in southern Mexico
, as well as in adjacent areas of the states of Puebla
and Veracruz
. The group is often described as a single language called Mazatec, but because several varieties are not mutually intelligible they are described as a group of languages or a Dialect continuum
. The languages belong to the Popolocan
subgroup of the Oto-Manguean language family
. Under the "Law of Linguistic Rights" they are recognized as "national languages" along with the other indigenous languages of Mexico and Spanish. The Mazatec language is vigorous in many of the smaller communities of the Mazatec area, and in many towns it is spoken by almost all inhabitants, however the language is beginning to lose terrain to Spanish in some of the larger communities like Huautla de Jimenez and Jalapa de Díaz.
Like other Oto-Manguean languages, the Mazatecan languages are tonal
, and tone plays an integral part in distinguishing both lexical items and grammatical categories. The centrality of tone to the Mazatec language is exploited by the system of whistle speech
which is employed in most Mazatec communities and which allows speakers of the language to have entire conversations only by whistling.
and belong to the family's Eastern branch, and belong to the Popolocan
subgroup together with the Popoloca, Ixcatec and Chocho languages. Brinton
was the first to propose a classification of the Mazatec languages, which he, correctly grouped with the Zapotec and Mixtec languages. In 1892 he second-guessed his own previous classification and suggested that Mazatec was in fact related to Chiapanec-Mangue and Chibcha
.
Early comparative work by Morris Swadesh
, Roberto Weitlaner and Stanley Newman laid the foundations for comparative Oto-Manguean studies, and Weitlaner's student María Teresa Fernandez de Miranda was the first to propose reconstruction of the Popolocan languages
which cited Mazatec data, but nonetheless left out Mazatecan of the reconstruction.
Subsequent work by Summer Institute linguist Sarah Gudschinsky gave a full reconstruction of Proto-Mazatec (Gudschinsky 1956) and then of Proto-Popolocan-Mazatecan (Gudschinsky 1959) (then referred to as Popotecan, a term which didn't catch on).
Studies of mutual intelligibility between certain Mazatec-speaking communities revealed that some understand as little as 35% with others, so that literacy programs must recognize local standards. The Huautla–Ayautla, Mazatlán, and Eloxochitlán varieties are all relatively close, with Jalapa–Ixcatlán being somewhat more distant. Chiquihuitlán is divergent, and Soyaltepec the most distinct Mazatec language of all.
In 2005 there were 206,559 speakers of Mazatecan languages according to INEGI. Approximately 80% of these speakers know and use Spanish for some purposes. However, many Mazatec children know little or no Spanish when they enter school.
dominance from 1456 to 1519 the Highland territory was ruled from Teotitlán del Camino
and the lowland territory from Tuxtepec, and this division continues to this day.
The distinction between highland and lowland dialects is supported by shared soundchanges: In Lowland Mazatec dialects proto-Mazatecan /*tʲ/ merged with /*t/ before front vowels /*i/ and /*e/, whereas in the Highland dialects /*tʲ/ merged with /*ʃ/ in position before /*k/.
The Valley dialects then separated into Southern (Mazatlán and Jalapa) and Northern (Soyaltepec and Ixcatlán) valley dialects. The Southern dialects changed /*tʲ/ to /t/ before /*k/ (later changing *tk to /hk/ in Mazatlán and simplifying to /k/ in Jalapa), whereas the Northern dialects changed /t͡ʃ/ to /t͡ʂ/ before /*/a. The dialect of Ixcatlán then separated from the one of Soyaltepec by changing sequences of /*tʲk/ and /*tk/ to /tik/ and /tuk/, respectively.
, and several uncommon phonation
phenomena such as creaky voice
, breathy voice
and ballistic syllable
s. The following review of a Mazatecan phoneme
inventory will be based on the description of the Jalapa de Díaz variety published by Silverman, Blankenship et al. (1995).
(1994 and 1995). This description is based on acoustic analysis and contemporary forms of phonological analysis. To give an overview of the phonological variety among Mazatecan languages it is here presented compared to the description of Chiquihuitlán Mazatec published by the SIL linguist A. R. Jamieson, in 1977. This description is not based on modern acoustic analysis and relies on a much more dated phonological theory for which reason should be regarded as a tentative account. One fundamental distinction between the analyses is that where Silverman et al. analyze distinctions between aspirated and nasalized consonants Jamieson analyzes these as sequences of two or more phonemes, arriving therefore at a much smaller number of consonants.
Jalapa Mazatec has a basic five vowel system contrasting back and front vowels, and closed and open vowel height, with an additional mid high, back vowel [o]. Additionally vowels distinguish, oral, nasal, breathy and creaky phonation types. And there is some evidence that there are also ballistic syllable
s contrasting with non-ballistic ones.
Chiquihuitlán Mazatec on the other hand is described as having 6 vowels and a nasal distinction. Jamieson does not describe a creaky/breathy phonation distinction, but instead describes vowels interrupted by glottal stop or aspiration corresponding to creakiness and breathiness respectively.
Mazatec of Huautla de Jimenez´has distinctive tones on every syllable, and the same seems to be the case in Chiquihuitlán. Mazatec only distinguishes tone on certain syllables. But Huautla Mazatec has no system of tonal sandhi
, whereas the Soyaltepec and Chiquihuitlán varieties have complex sandhi rules.
and aspect. In addition verbs always carry a suffix that also marks for person and number of subject, the vowel of this suffix fuses with the vowel of the verb stem.
There are 18 verb classes distinguished by the shape of their stem-forming prefixes. Classes 1, 2, 7, 10 and 15, include intransitive verbs and the rest of the classes include transitive verbs. Transitive verbs have two prefix forms, one used for third person and first person singular, and another used for the other persons (2nd person plural and singular and first person plural inclusive and exclusive). Clusivity distinctions as well as the distinction between second and first person is marked by the tonal pattern across the word (morphemes and stem do not have inherent lexical tone).
categories. For third person number is not specified, but only definiteness, distinguishing between third person definite and indefinite. For third person referents number is only expressed by free pronouns or noun phrases, when it is not directly retrievable from context.
Completive aspect is formed by prefixing /ka-/ to the neutral verb form, continuative is formed by prefixing /ti-/. The incompletive aspect has a distinct set of stem forming prefixes as well as distinct tone patterns. In incompletive transitive verbs, only the first person singular and third person prefixes vary from the corresponding neutral forms; the first person plural and second person forms are identical to the corresponding neutral one.
, in which linguistic utterances are produced by whistling the tonal contours of words and phrases. Mazatec languages lend themselves very well to becoming whistling languages because of the high functional load of tone in Mazatec grammar and semantics. Whistling is extremely common among young men who often have complex conversations conducted entirely through whistling. Women on the other hand do not generally use whistle speech, just as older males use it more rarely than younger ones. Small boys learn to whistle simultaneously with learning to talk. Whistling is generally used for communicating over a distance, to attract the attention of passersby or to avoid interfering with ongoing spoken conversations, but even economic transactions can be conducted entirely through whistling. Since whistle speech does not encode information about vowel or consonants but only tone, it is often ambiguous with several possible meanings; however since most whistling treats a limited number of topics it is normally unproblematic to disambiguate meaning through context.
's radio station XEOJN, based in San Lucas Ojitlán
, Oaxaca
.
A collection of Bible stories is published in Mazatec by Jehovah's Witnesses
and distributed in audio form by internet. http://www.jw.org/index.html?option=QrYQZRQVNlBBX
The entire New Testament is available in several varieties of Mazatec. The text can be found on-line in PDF or Audio at the Scripture Earth website owned by Wycliffe Canada. These were published by the Bible League.
Mesoamerican languages
Mesoamerican languages are the languages indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The area is characterized by extensive linguistic diversity containing several hundred different languages and...
spoken by some 200,000 people in the area known as La Sierra Mazateca
Sierra Mazateca
The Sierra Mazateca is a mountaineous area, part of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca, located in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico. Its western part is within the district of Teotitlan del Camino in the Cañada and its eastern part is within the district of Tuxtepec, in the...
, which located in the Northern part of the state of Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
in southern 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...
, as well as in adjacent areas of the states of Puebla
Puebla
Puebla officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 217 municipalities and its capital city is Puebla....
and Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
. The group is often described as a single language called Mazatec, but because several varieties are not mutually intelligible they are described as a group of languages or a Dialect continuum
Dialect continuum
A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
. The languages belong to the Popolocan
Popolocan languages
The Popolocan languages are a subfamily of the Oto-Manguean language family of Mexico, spoken mainly in the state of Puebla.The Popolocan languages should not be confused with the languages called Popoluca spoken in the state of Veracruz, which belong to the unrelated Mixe–Zoquean language family...
subgroup of the Oto-Manguean language family
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...
. Under the "Law of Linguistic Rights" they are recognized as "national languages" along with the other indigenous languages of Mexico and Spanish. The Mazatec language is vigorous in many of the smaller communities of the Mazatec area, and in many towns it is spoken by almost all inhabitants, however the language is beginning to lose terrain to Spanish in some of the larger communities like Huautla de Jimenez and Jalapa de Díaz.
Like other Oto-Manguean languages, the Mazatecan 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 tone plays an integral part in distinguishing both lexical items and grammatical categories. The centrality of tone to the Mazatec language is exploited by the system of whistle speech
Whistled language
Whistled languages use whistling to emulate speech and facilitate communication. A whistled language is a system of whistled communication which allows fluent whistlers to transmit and comprehend a potentially unlimited number of messages over long distances...
which is employed in most Mazatec communities and which allows speakers of the language to have entire conversations only by whistling.
Classification
The Mazatecan languages are part of the Oto-Manguean language familyOto-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...
and belong to the family's Eastern branch, and belong to the Popolocan
Popolocan languages
The Popolocan languages are a subfamily of the Oto-Manguean language family of Mexico, spoken mainly in the state of Puebla.The Popolocan languages should not be confused with the languages called Popoluca spoken in the state of Veracruz, which belong to the unrelated Mixe–Zoquean language family...
subgroup together with the Popoloca, Ixcatec and Chocho languages. Brinton
Daniel Garrison Brinton
Daniel Garrison Brinton was an American archaeologist and ethnologist.-Biography:Brinton was born in Thornbury Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Yale University in 1858, Brinton studied at Jefferson Medical College for two years and spent the next travelling in Europe....
was the first to propose a classification of the Mazatec languages, which he, correctly grouped with the Zapotec and Mixtec languages. In 1892 he second-guessed his own previous classification and suggested that Mazatec was in fact related to Chiapanec-Mangue and Chibcha
Chibchan languages
The Chibchan languages make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama...
.
Early comparative work by Morris Swadesh
Morris Swadesh
Morris Swadesh was an influential and controversial American linguist. In his work, he applied basic concepts in historical linguistics to the Indigenous languages of the Americas...
, Roberto Weitlaner and Stanley Newman laid the foundations for comparative Oto-Manguean studies, and Weitlaner's student María Teresa Fernandez de Miranda was the first to propose reconstruction of the Popolocan languages
Popolocan languages
The Popolocan languages are a subfamily of the Oto-Manguean language family of Mexico, spoken mainly in the state of Puebla.The Popolocan languages should not be confused with the languages called Popoluca spoken in the state of Veracruz, which belong to the unrelated Mixe–Zoquean language family...
which cited Mazatec data, but nonetheless left out Mazatecan of the reconstruction.
Subsequent work by Summer Institute linguist Sarah Gudschinsky gave a full reconstruction of Proto-Mazatec (Gudschinsky 1956) and then of Proto-Popolocan-Mazatecan (Gudschinsky 1959) (then referred to as Popotecan, a term which didn't catch on).
Languages
The ISO 639-3 standard enumerates eight Mazatecan languages. They are named after the villages they are spoken in:- Huautla Mazatec (50,000 speakers. The prestige varietyPrestige dialectIn sociolinguistics, prestige describes the level of respect accorded to a language or dialect as compared to that of other languages or dialects in a speech community. The concept of prestige in sociolinguistics is closely related to that of prestige or class within a society...
of Mazatec.) - Ayautla Mazatec (3500 speakers in San Bartolome Ayautla. Quite similar to Huautla.)
- Mazatlán Mazatec (13,000 speakers in Mazatlán and surrounding villages. Somewhat similar to Huautla.)
- Eloxochitlán Mazatec ( Jeronimo Mazatec; 34,000 speakers in San Jerónimo Tecóatl, San Lucas Zoquiapan, Santa Cruz Acatepec, San Antonio Eloxochitlán, and many other villages. Somewhat similar to Huautla.)
- Ixcatlán Mazatec (11,000 speakers in San Pedro Ixcatlan, Chichicazapa, and Nuevo Ixcatlan. Somewhat divergent from Huautla.)
- Jalapa MazatecJalapa MazatecJalapa Mazatec is a Mazatecan language, spoken by ca. 15,000 people, one-third of whom are monolingual, in 13 villages in the vicinity of the town of San Felipe Jalapa de Díaz in the Tuxtepec District of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is most closely related to Ixcatlán Mazatec, and somewhat more...
(16,000 speakers in San Felipe Jalapa de Díaz. Quite similar to Ixcatlán.) - Chiquihuitlán Mazatec (2500 speakers in San Juan Chiquihuitlán. Quite divergent from other varieties.)
- Soyaltepec Mazatec (23,000 speakers in San Maria Jacaltepec and San Miguel Soyaltepec. Extremely divergent from other varieties.)
Studies of mutual intelligibility between certain Mazatec-speaking communities revealed that some understand as little as 35% with others, so that literacy programs must recognize local standards. The Huautla–Ayautla, Mazatlán, and Eloxochitlán varieties are all relatively close, with Jalapa–Ixcatlán being somewhat more distant. Chiquihuitlán is divergent, and Soyaltepec the most distinct Mazatec language of all.
In 2005 there were 206,559 speakers of Mazatecan languages according to INEGI. Approximately 80% of these speakers know and use Spanish for some purposes. However, many Mazatec children know little or no Spanish when they enter school.
Dialect history
The language is divided into many dialects, or varieties, some of which are not mutually intelligible. The western dialects spoken in Huautla de Jimenez, and San Mateo Huautla, Santa Maria Jiotes, Eloxochitlán, Tecóatl, Ayautla, and Coatzospan are often referred to as Highland Mazatec, whereas the North Eastern dialects spoken in San Miguel Huautla, Jalapa de Díaz, Mazatlán de Flores, San Pedro Ixcatlán and San Miguel Soyaltepec are referred to as Lowland Mazatec. The Highland dialects and the Lowland dialects differ by a number of soundchanges shared by each of the groups, particularly soundchanges affecting the proto-Mazatecan phoneme /*tʲ/. The San Miguel Huautla dialect occupies an intermediary position sharing traits with both groups. The division between highland and lowland dialects corresponds to the political division between highland and lowland territories which existed in the period between CE 1300 and 1519. During the period of AztecAztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
dominance from 1456 to 1519 the Highland territory was ruled from Teotitlán del Camino
Teotitlán District, Oaxaca
Teotitlán District is located in the north of the Cañada Region of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico.-Municipalities:The district includes the following municipalities:*Ejutla de Crespo*Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón*Huautepec...
and the lowland territory from Tuxtepec, and this division continues to this day.
The distinction between highland and lowland dialects is supported by shared soundchanges: In Lowland Mazatec dialects proto-Mazatecan /*tʲ/ merged with /*t/ before front vowels /*i/ and /*e/, whereas in the Highland dialects /*tʲ/ merged with /*ʃ/ in position before /*k/.
Lowland dialects
Lowland dialects then split into Valley dialects and the dialect of San Miguel Huautla - the dialect of San Miguel Huautla underwent the same soundchange of /*tʲ/ to /ʃ/ before /*k/ which had already happened in the highland dialects, but it can be seen that in San Miguel Huautla this change happened after the merger of /*tʲ/ with /*t/ before /*i/ and /*e/. The Valley dialects underwent a change of /*n/ to /ɲ/ in sequences with a /vowel-hn-a/ or /vowel-hn-u/.The Valley dialects then separated into Southern (Mazatlán and Jalapa) and Northern (Soyaltepec and Ixcatlán) valley dialects. The Southern dialects changed /*tʲ/ to /t/ before /*k/ (later changing *tk to /hk/ in Mazatlán and simplifying to /k/ in Jalapa), whereas the Northern dialects changed /t͡ʃ/ to /t͡ʂ/ before /*/a. The dialect of Ixcatlán then separated from the one of Soyaltepec by changing sequences of /*tʲk/ and /*tk/ to /tik/ and /tuk/, respectively.
Highland dialects
The Highland dialects split into Western and Eastern (Huautla de Jimenez and Jiotes) groups; in the Western dialects the sequence /*ʃk/ changed to /sk/ whereas the Eastern ones changed it to /hk/. The dialect of Huautla de Jimenez then changed sequences of /*tʲh/ to *ʃ before short vowels, whereas the dialect of Santa Maria Jiotes merged the labialized velar stop kʷ to k.Phonology
Like many other Oto-Manguean Mazatecan languages have complex phonologies characterized by complex tone systemsTone (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 several uncommon phonation
Phonation
Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology...
phenomena such as creaky voice
Creaky voice
In linguistics, creaky voice , is a special kind of phonation in which the arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn together; as a result, the vocal folds are compressed rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and compact...
, breathy voice
Breathy voice
Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise...
and ballistic syllable
Ballistic syllable
"Ballistic" syllables are a phonemic distinction in the Otomanguean languages Chinantec and Amuzgo. They have been described as characterized either with either increased sub-glottal pressure or with laryngeal abduction...
s. The following review of a Mazatecan phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
inventory will be based on the description of the Jalapa de Díaz variety published by Silverman, Blankenship et al. (1995).
Comparative Mazatec phonology
The Mazatecan variety with the most thoroughly described phonology is that of Jalapa de Díaz which has been described in two publications by Silverman, Blankenship, Kirk and LadefogedPeter Ladefoged
Peter Nielsen Ladefoged was an English-American linguist and phonetician who traveled the world to document the distinct sounds of endangered languages and pioneered ways to collect and study data . He was active at the universities of Edinburgh, Scotland and Ibadan, Nigeria 1953–61...
(1994 and 1995). This description is based on acoustic analysis and contemporary forms of phonological analysis. To give an overview of the phonological variety among Mazatecan languages it is here presented compared to the description of Chiquihuitlán Mazatec published by the SIL linguist A. R. Jamieson, in 1977. This description is not based on modern acoustic analysis and relies on a much more dated phonological theory for which reason should be regarded as a tentative account. One fundamental distinction between the analyses is that where Silverman et al. analyze distinctions between aspirated and nasalized consonants Jamieson analyzes these as sequences of two or more phonemes, arriving therefore at a much smaller number of consonants.
Vowels
There is considerable differences in the number of vowels in different Mazatec varieties, Huautla de Jímenez Mazatec has only four contrasting vowel qualities /i e a o/, whereas for example the Chiquihuitlán variety has six.Jalapa Mazatec has a basic five vowel system contrasting back and front vowels, and closed and open vowel height, with an additional mid high, back vowel [o]. Additionally vowels distinguish, oral, nasal, breathy and creaky phonation types. And there is some evidence that there are also ballistic syllable
Ballistic syllable
"Ballistic" syllables are a phonemic distinction in the Otomanguean languages Chinantec and Amuzgo. They have been described as characterized either with either increased sub-glottal pressure or with laryngeal abduction...
s contrasting with non-ballistic ones.
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| oral | nasal Nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation... |
creaky Creaky voice In linguistics, creaky voice , is a special kind of phonation in which the arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn together; as a result, the vocal folds are compressed rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and compact... |
breathy Breathy voice Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise... |
oral | nasal Nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation... |
creaky Creaky voice In linguistics, creaky voice , is a special kind of phonation in which the arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn together; as a result, the vocal folds are compressed rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and compact... |
breathy Breathy voice Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise... |
|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i | [ĩ] | [ḭ] | [i̤] | u | [ũ] | [ṵ] | [ṳ] |
| Close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
o | [õ] | [o̰] | [o̤] | ||||
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
æ | [æ̃] | [æ̰] | [æ̤] | ɑ | [ɑ̃] | [ɑ̰] | [ɑ̤] |
Chiquihuitlán Mazatec on the other hand is described as having 6 vowels and a nasal distinction. Jamieson does not describe a creaky/breathy phonation distinction, but instead describes vowels interrupted by glottal stop or aspiration corresponding to creakiness and breathiness respectively.
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| oral | nasal Nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation... |
interrupted by ʔ | interrupted by h | oral | nasal Nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation... |
interrupted by ʔ | interrupted by h | |
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i | [ĩ] | [ḭ] | [i̤] | u | [ũ] | [ṵ] | [ṳ] |
| Close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
e | [ẽ] | [ḛ] | [e̤] | o | [õ] | [o̰] | [o̤] |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
æ | [æ̃] | [æ̰] | [æ̤] | ɑ | [ɑ̃] | [ɑ̰] | [ɑ̤] |
Tone
Tone systems differ markedly between varieties. Jalapa Mazatec has three level tones (high, mid, low) and at least 6 contour tones (high-mid, low-mid, mid-low, mid-high, lo-high, high-low-high). Chiquihuitlán Mazatec has a more complex tone system with four level tones (high, midhigh, midlow, low) and 13 different contour tones (high-low, midhigh-low, midlow-low, high-high (longer than a single high), midhigh-high, midlow-high, low-high, high-high-low, midhigh-high-low, midlow-high-low, low-high-low, low-midhigh-low, low-midhigh).Mazatec of Huautla de Jimenez´has distinctive tones on every syllable, and the same seems to be the case in Chiquihuitlán. Mazatec only distinguishes tone on certain syllables. But Huautla Mazatec has no system of tonal sandhi
Sandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
, whereas the Soyaltepec and Chiquihuitlán varieties have complex sandhi rules.
Consonants
Jalapa Mazatec has a three-way contrast between aspirated/voiceless, voiced, and nasalized articulation for all plosives, nasals and approximants. The lateral l occurs only in loanwords and the tap [ɾ] occurs in only one morpheme, the clitic ɾa "probably". The bilabial aspirated and plain stops are also marginal phonemes.| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental | Postalveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | ||||||
| aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
(pʰ) | tʰ | kʰ | |||
| plain | (p) | t | k | ʔ | ||
| pre-nasalized | mb | nd | ŋɡ | |||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
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| aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
tsʰ | tʃʰ | ||||
| unaspirated | ts | tʃ | ||||
| pre-nasalized | nd͡z | nd͡ʒ | ||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
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| voiceless | s | ʃ | h | |||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
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| voiceless | m̥ | n̥ | ɲ̥ | |||
| plain | m | n̥ | ɲ | |||
| modal (creaky) | m̰ | n̰ | ɲ̰ | |||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
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| voiceless | ȷ̊ | ʍ | ||||
| plain | (l) | j | w | |||
| nasalized | j̃ | w̰ | ||||
| Tap | (ɾ) | |||||
Verb Morphology
In Chiquihutlán Mazatec verb stems are of the shape CV (consonant+vowel), and are always inflected with a stem-forming prefix marking person and number of the subjectSubject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
and aspect. In addition verbs always carry a suffix that also marks for person and number of subject, the vowel of this suffix fuses with the vowel of the verb stem.
There are 18 verb classes distinguished by the shape of their stem-forming prefixes. Classes 1, 2, 7, 10 and 15, include intransitive verbs and the rest of the classes include transitive verbs. Transitive verbs have two prefix forms, one used for third person and first person singular, and another used for the other persons (2nd person plural and singular and first person plural inclusive and exclusive). Clusivity distinctions as well as the distinction between second and first person is marked by the tonal pattern across the word (morphemes and stem do not have inherent lexical tone).
Person
Chiquihuitlán Mazatec distinguishes between three person categories (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and two numbers (singular, plural) and for the first person plural it distinguishes between inclusive and exclusiveClusivity
In linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called inclusive "we" and exclusive "we"...
categories. For third person number is not specified, but only definiteness, distinguishing between third person definite and indefinite. For third person referents number is only expressed by free pronouns or noun phrases, when it is not directly retrievable from context.
Tense and Aspect
Chiquihuitlán Mazatec inflects for four aspects: completive, continuative and incompletive, as well as a neutral or unmarked aspect.Completive aspect is formed by prefixing /ka-/ to the neutral verb form, continuative is formed by prefixing /ti-/. The incompletive aspect has a distinct set of stem forming prefixes as well as distinct tone patterns. In incompletive transitive verbs, only the first person singular and third person prefixes vary from the corresponding neutral forms; the first person plural and second person forms are identical to the corresponding neutral one.
Whistle Speech
Most Mazatec communities employ forms of whistle speechWhistled language
Whistled languages use whistling to emulate speech and facilitate communication. A whistled language is a system of whistled communication which allows fluent whistlers to transmit and comprehend a potentially unlimited number of messages over long distances...
, in which linguistic utterances are produced by whistling the tonal contours of words and phrases. Mazatec languages lend themselves very well to becoming whistling languages because of the high functional load of tone in Mazatec grammar and semantics. Whistling is extremely common among young men who often have complex conversations conducted entirely through whistling. Women on the other hand do not generally use whistle speech, just as older males use it more rarely than younger ones. Small boys learn to whistle simultaneously with learning to talk. Whistling is generally used for communicating over a distance, to attract the attention of passersby or to avoid interfering with ongoing spoken conversations, but even economic transactions can be conducted entirely through whistling. Since whistle speech does not encode information about vowel or consonants but only tone, it is often ambiguous with several possible meanings; however since most whistling treats a limited number of topics it is normally unproblematic to disambiguate meaning through context.
Media
Mazatecan-language programming is carried by the CDINational 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 XEOJN, based in San Lucas Ojitlán
San Lucas Ojitlán
San Lucas Ojitlán is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 595.81 km².It is part of the Tuxtepec District of the Papaloapan Region.As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 19,871....
, Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
.
A collection of Bible stories is published in Mazatec by Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
and distributed in audio form by internet. http://www.jw.org/index.html?option=QrYQZRQVNlBBX
The entire New Testament is available in several varieties of Mazatec. The text can be found on-line in PDF or Audio at the Scripture Earth website owned by Wycliffe Canada. These were published by the Bible League.
External links
- SIL Ethnologue entry for the Mazatecan Languages
- Mazatec Languages - Some notes on two of the Mazatecan dialects plus numbers in three others.
- Eloxochitlán Mazatec ('Én Ngixó)
- Bible Stories in Mazatec