Mixtec languages

Oto Manguean language group of Mexico

The Mixtec ('/m//iː//s//t//ɛ//k//, /'/m//iː//ʃ//t//ɛ//k/) 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. Identifying how many Mixtec languages there are in this complex dialect continuum poses challenges at the level of linguistic theory. Depending on the criteria for distinguishing dialects from languages, there may be as few as a dozen or as many as fifty three Mixtec languages.

The name "Mixteco" is a Nahuatl exonym, from mixtecatl, from mixtli ("cloud") + catl ("inhabitant of place of"). Speakers of Mixtec use an expression (which varies by dialect) to refer to their own language, and this expression generally means "sound" or "word of the rain": dzaha dzavui in Classical Mixtec; or "word of the people of the rain", dzaha Ñudzahui (Dzaha Ñudzavui) in Classical Mixtec. Denominations in various modern Mixtec languages include tu'un savi , tu'un isasi or isavi , tu'un va'a , tnu'u ñuu savi , tno'on dawi , sasau , sahan sau , sahin sau , sahan ntavi , tu'un dau , dahan davi , dañudavi , dehen dau , and dedavi .

The traditional range of the Mixtec languages is the region known as La Mixteca, which is shared by the states of Oaxaca, Puebla and Guerrero. Because of migration from this region, mostly as a result of extreme poverty, the Mixtec languages have expanded to Mexico's main urban areas, particularly the State of México and the Federal District, to certain agricultural areas such as the San Quintín valley in Baja California and parts of Morelos and Sonora, and into the United States. In 2012, Natividad Medical Center of Salinas, California had trained medical interpreters bilingual in Mixtec as well as in Spanish; in March 2014, Natividad Medical Foundation launched Indigenous Interpreting+, "a community and medical interpreting business specializing in indigenous languages from Mexico and Central and South America", including Mixtec, Trique, Zapotec, and Chatino.

The Mixtec language is a complex set of regional dialects which were already in place at the time of the Spanish Conquest of the Mixteca region. The varieties of Mixtec are sometimes grouped by geographic area, using designations such as those of the Mixteca Alta, the Mixteca Baja, and the Mixteca de la Costa. However, the dialects do not actually follow the geographic areas, and the precise historical relationships between the different varieties have not been worked out. The situation is far more complex than a simple dialect continuum because dialect boundaries are often abrupt and substantial, some likely due to population movements both before and after the Spanish conquest. The number of varieties of Mixtec depends in part on what the criteria are for grouping them, of course; at one extreme, government agencies once recognized no dialectal diversity. Mutual intelligibility surveys and local literacy programs have led SIL International to identify more than 50 varieties which have been assigned distinct ISO codes. Attempts to carry out literacy programs in Mixtec which cross these dialect boundaries have not met with great success. The varieties of Mixtec have functioned as de facto separate languages for hundreds of years with virtually none of the characteristics of a single "language". As the differences are typically as great as between members of the Romance language family, and since unifying sociopolitical factors do not characterize the linguistic complex, they are often referred to as separate languages.

This section describes the sound systems of Mixtec by each variety.

The table below shows the phonemic inventory of a selected Mixtec language, Chalcotongo Mixtec.

The nasalisation of vowels and consonants in Mixtec is an interesting phenomenon that has had various analyses. All of the analyses agree that nasalization is contrastive and that it is somewhat restricted. In most varieties, it is clear that nasalization is limited to the right edge of a morpheme (such as a noun or verb root), and spreads leftward until it is blocked by an obstruent (plosive, affricate or fricative in the list of Mixtec consonants). A somewhat more abstract analysis of the Mixtec facts claims that the spreading of nasalization is responsible for the surface "contrast" between two kinds of bilabials ( and , with and without the influence of nasalization, respectively), between two kinds of palatals ( and nasalized —often less accurately (but more easily) transcribed as —with and without nasalization, respectively), and even two kinds of coronals ( and , with and without nasalization, respectively). Nasalized vowels which are contiguous to the nasalized variants are less strongly nasalized than in other contexts. This situation is known to have been characteristic of Mixtec for at least the last 500 years since the earliest colonial documentation of the language shows the same distribution of consonants.

The glottalization of vowels (heard as a glottal stop after the vowel, and analyzed as such in early analyses) is a distinctive and interesting contrastive feature of Mixtec languages, as it is of other Otomanguean languages.

The sound system of Yoloxóchitl Mixtec (of Guerrero Mixtec) is described below.

Yoloxóchitl Mixtec has nine tones: .

The Mixtecs, like many other Mesoamerican peoples, developed their own writing system, and their codices that have survived are one of the best sources for knowledge about the pre Hispanic culture of the Oaxacan region prior to the arrival of the Spaniards. With the defeat of the lordship of Tututepec in 1522, the Mixtecs were brought under Spanish colonial rule, and many of their relics were destroyed. However, some codices were saved from destruction, and are today mostly held by European collections, including the Codex Zouche Nuttall and the Codex Vindobonensis; one exception is the Codex Colombino, kept by the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. The missionaries who brought the Roman Catholic religion to the Mixtecs set about learning their language and produced several grammars of the Mixtec language, similar in style to Antonio de Nebrija's Gramática Castellana. They also began work on transcribing the Mixtec languages into the Latin alphabet. In recent decades small changes in the alphabetic representation of Mixtec have been put into practice by the Academy of the Mixtec Language. Areas of particular interest include the following:

The representation of the feature that distinguishes glottalized vowels (or glottal stop, as in some earlier analyses). Some earlier alphabets used h; more commonly today a special kind of apostrophe is used. The representation of the high central unrounded vowel. Some earlier alphabets used y; today a barred i (ɨ) is used. The representation of the voiceless velar stop. Most earlier alphabets used c and qu, in line with earlier government policies; today k is more commonly used. The representation of tone. Most non linguistic transcriptions of Mixtec do not fully record the tones. When tone is represented, acute accent over the vowel is typically used to indicate high tone. Mid tone is sometimes indicated with a macron over the vowel, but it may be left unmarked. Low tone is sometimes indicated with a grave accent over the vowel, but it might be left unmarked, or it might be indicated with an underscore to the vowel. The alphabet adopted by the Academy of the Mixtec Language and later by the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), contains the following letters (indicated below with their corresponding phonemes). +Alphabet of the Mixtec languages (ndusu tu'un sávi) Symbol IPA Example Meaning Approximate pronunciationaaandíviskySimilar to the English a in fatherchtʃchitiabananaLike English ch in chocolatedðdeheLike English th in fathereeve'ehomeLike Spanish e in estegɡga̱moreLike English g in goiiita̱flowerLike English i in machineɨɨkɨnipigLike Russian ы or Romanian îjxji̱'inshall dropLike the j in Mexican SpanishkkkúmifourHard c, like English cool llluubeautifulLike Spanish l in letrammña'ma̱shall confessLike English m in mothernnkuná'ínshall ceaseLike English n in nondnᵈ ita ndeyu̱orchidPronounced similar to an n followed by a slight non nasal d like transition to the oral vowel. ngŋsúngo̱oto settleLike English ng in eatingñɲñuuyiviworldSimilar to Spanish ñ in caña, but typically without letting the tongue actually touch the hard palate. oochisosister in lawSimilar to English o in toepppi'lupieceSimilar to English p in pin rɾru'uIIs sometimes trilled. sssá'acunningnessLike English s in sittttájíshall sendLike English t in tintststsi'inapuppy dogLike ț in Romanian or ц in RussianuuNuuyooMexicoLike English u in tunevβvilucatSimilar to Spanish v in lavaxʃyuxé'édoorLike the initial sound in English shop yʒyuchidustLike English ge in beige'ˀndá'ahandWhen a vowel is glottalized it is pronounced as if it ends in a glottal stop. It is not uncommon for a glottalized vowel to have an identical but non glottalized vowel after it. One of the main obstacles in establishing an alphabet for the Mixtec language is its status as a vernacular tongue. The social domain of the language is eminently domestic, since federal law requires that all dealings with the state be conducted in Spanish, even though the country's indigenous languages enjoy the status of "national languages". Few printed materials in Mixtec exist and, up to a few years ago, written literature in the language was practically non existent. There is little exposure of Mixtec in the media, other than on the CDI's indigenous radio system – XETLA and XEJAM in Oaxaca; XEZV AM in Guerrero; and XEQIN AM in Baja California – and a bilingual radio station based in the US in Los Angeles, California, where a significant Mixtec community can be found. At the same time, the fragmentation of the Mixtec language and its varieties means that texts published in one variety may be utterly incomprehensible to speakers of another. In addition, most speakers are unaware of the official orthography adopted by the SEP and the Mixtec Academy, and some even doubt that their language can lend itself to a written form.

Personal pronouns are richly represented in Mixtec. + Personal pronouns in Atatláhuca Mixtec Person Type Independent Dependent Used for 1st person exclusive Formal sa̱ñá ná I (form.) Informal ru'u̱ ri I (inform.) 1st person inclusive yó'ó yó we (incl.) 2nd person Formal ní'ín ní you (form.) Informal ró'ó ró you (inform.) 3rd person de he ña she i s/he (child) ya̱ s/he (god) tɨ it (animal) te it (water)

For the third person pronouns, Mixtec has several pronouns that indicate whether the referent is a man, a woman, an animal, a child or an inanimate object, a sacred or divine entity, or water. Some languages have respect forms for the man and woman pronouns. Some languages have other pronouns as well (such as for trees.) (These pronouns show some etymological affinity to nouns for 'man', 'woman', 'tree', etc., but they are distinct from those nouns.) These may be pluralized (in some varieties, if one wishes to be explicit) by using the common plural marker de in front of them, or by using explicit plural forms that have evolved.

Mixtec has two interrogatives, which are na vé ([²na ³ve] = "what/which"?) and nasaa ([²na.²saa]= "how much/many?"). The tone of these does not change according to the tense, person, or tone of the surrounding phrase.

Deictic adverbs are often used in a noun phrase as demonstrative adjectives. Some Mixtec languages distinguish two such demonstratives, others three (proximal, medial, distal), and some four (including one that indicates something out of sight). The details vary from variety to variety, as do the actual forms. In some varieties one of these demonstratives is also used anaphorically (to refer to previously mentioned nominals in the discourse), and in some varieties a special anaphoric demonstrative (with no spatial use) is found. These demonstratives generally occur at the end of the noun phrase (sometimes followed by a "limiter"). The demonstratives are also used (in some varieties) following a pronominal head as a kind of complex pronoun.

Mixtec is a verb–subject–object language. Variations in this word order, particularly the use of the preverbal position, are employed to highlight information.

Perhaps the most significant contribution of the Mixtec language to Mexican Spanish is in the field of place names, particularly in the western regions of the state of Oaxaca, where several communities are still known by Mixtec names (joined with a saint's name): San Juan Ñumí, San Bartolo Yucuañe, Santa Cruz Itundujia, and many more. In Puebla and Guerrero, Mixtec place names have been displaced by Nahuatl and Spanish names. An example is Yucu Yuxin (in Puebla), which is now known as Gabino Barreda. Spanish words used in Mixtec languages are also those that were brought by the Spanish like some fruits and vegetables. An example is limun (in San Martin Duraznos Oaxaca), which is known as lemon (limón in Spanish), also referred to as tzikua Iya (sour orange).

Prior to the Spanish Conquest in the early 16th century, the native peoples of Mesoamerica maintained several literary genres. Their compositions were transmitted orally, through institutions at which members of the elite would acquire knowledge of literature and other areas of intellectual activity. Those institutions were mostly destroyed in the aftermath of the Conquest, as a result of which most of the indigenous oral tradition was lost forever. Most of the codices used to record historical events or mythical understanding of the world were destroyed, and the few that remain were taken away from the peoples that created them. Four Mixtec codices are known to survive, narrating the war exploits of the Lord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw. Of these, three are held by European collections, with one still in Mexico. The key to deciphering these codices was rediscovered only in the mid 20th century, largely through the efforts of Alfonso Caso, as the Mixtec people had lost the understanding of their ancient rules of reading and writing. However, the early Spanish missionaries undertook the task of teaching indigenous peoples (the nobility in particular) to read and write using the Latin alphabet. Through the efforts of the missionaries and, perhaps more so, of the Hispanicized natives, certain works of indigenous literature were able to survive to the modern day. Of the half dozen varieties of Mixtec recognized in the 16th century, two in particular were preferred for writing, those of Teposcolula/Tilantongo and Achiutla/Tlaxiaco in Mixteca Alta. Over the five centuries that followed the Conquest, Mixtec literature was restricted to the popular sphere. Through music or the way in which certain rituals are carried out, popular Mixtec literature has survived as it did for millennia: by means of oral transmission. It was not until the 1990s that indigenous literature in Mexico took off again. At the vanguard were the Zapotecs of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, who had been recording their language in writing since at least the mid 19th century. Imitating the great cultural movement of the indigenous people of Juchitán de Zaragoza in the 1980s, many native cultures reclaimed their languages as literary vehicles. In 1993 the Asociación de Escritores en Lenguas Indígenas was created and, three years later, the Casa del Escritor en Lengua Indígena. At the same time, the Nezahualcóyotl Prize for indigenous language literature was created, in order to promote writing in Native American tongues. In the Mixteca region, the literary renaissance has been led by the peoples of the Mixteca Alta, including the cities of Tlaxiaco and Juxtlahuaca. The former has produced such notable writers as Raúl Gatica, who published works by several Mixtec poets in the book Asalto a la palabra, and Juan de Dios Ortiz Cruz, who in addition to collecting the region's lyrical compositions has also produced notable pieces of his own, such as Yunu Yukuninu ("Tree, Hill of Yucuninu"). That piece was later set to music by Lila Downs, one of the leading figures in contemporary Mixtec music; she has recorded several records containing compositions in Mixtec, a language spoken by her mother.