Chinantecan languages

Egland and Bartholomew (1978) established fourteen Chinantec languages on the basis of 80% mutual intelligibility. Ethnologue found that one that had not been adequately compared (Tlaltepusco) was not distinct, but split another (Lalana from Tepinapa). At a looser criterion of 70% intelligibility, Lalana-Tepinapa, Quiotepec-Comaltepec, Palantla-Valle Nacional, and geographically distant Chiltepec-Tlacoatzintepec would be languages, reducing the count to ten. Lealao Chinantec (Latani) is the most divergent.

On the basis of shared phonological innovations, Rensch (1989) groups the Chinantecan languages into 5 clusters, which largely agree with previous ethnographic classifications of the population centers of the Chinantla. He additionally proposes a division into a Northern area represented by group I, a Transitional area represented by group II, and a Southern area represented by groups III-V. The northern languages are considered more innovative both phonologically and lexically, while the southern languages are more conservative in both respects. Phonologically, Ojitlán is found to the most innovative, and Comaltepec the most conservative.

Phonotactics

Syllables are typically of the shape (C)V with an optional onset, and in coda position only laryngeal elements and in some languages a nasal consonant. The only initial consonant clusters to occur consist of one of the laryngeal elements ʔ and h followed by a voiced consonant, which in some languages are analyzed as preglottalized or voiceless continuants. In some Chinantecan languages, both pre- and post-nuclear glides may combine with the nucleus to form large inventories of diphthongs and triphthongs.

Roots are predominantly monosyllabic, as fully inflected words often are as well, although there also exist polysyllabic roots, in some cases possibly reflecting fossilized classifiers, and roots of up to 4 syllables are reported in Spanish borrowings.

There is typically a set of nasal vowels, a binary length contrast, and in some languages a number of contrastive phonation types, which in stressed syllables may potentially all co-occur and cross-classify with tone and ballisticity, generating an extremely large number of contrasting syllable nuclei for a given vowel quality.

Stress and ballisticity

Roots in Chinantecan languages are obligatorily stressed, and stress typically falls on the final syllable of the root. Often only stressed syllables display the full range of phonological contrasts, and in some languages there may be a tendency to disallow complex tones and codas in non-stressed syllables.

Within stressed syllables, many Chinantecan languages have been analyzed as exhibiting a distinction, also observed in the distantly related Amuzgoan languages, between ballistic stress, characterized by an "initial surge and rapid decay of intensity" and shorter duration among other features, and controlled stress, which "exhibit no such initial surge of intensity, displaying a more evenly controlled decrease of intensity" and are generally longer. There is variation in the phonetic realization of ballisticity among Chinantecan languages which are thought to exhibit the contrast, and in others, the typical phonetic correlates of ballisticity are not observed, and the distinction is instead analyzed as being purely tonal or one of vowel length.

Tone

All Chinantecan languages are tonal. Some, such as Usila Chinantec and Ojitlán Chinantec, have five register tones (in addition to contour tones), with the extreme tones deriving historically from ballistic syllables, while San Juan Quiotepec Chinantec has been analyzed as contrasting 6 level tones, and 6 contour tones comprising 3 falling and 3 rising contours.

Grammars are published for Sochiapam Chinantec, and a grammar and a dictionary of Palantla (Tlatepuzco) Chinantec.

Syntax

Chinantecan languages have VSO as their unmarked word order, with focused constituents typically being able to be fronted before the verb, and are strongly head-initial, as is the case for most Otomanguean languages. The following examples from San Juan Quiotepec Chinantec demonstrate basic word order facts:

VSO order with transitive verb:

tɘɨtsei²³

remember.3.IMPERF

V

seʼ³⁴

Cesar

S

do¹

DEM

saʼo⁴⁵³

mother.3SG.POSS

O

tɘɨtsei²³ seʼ³⁴ do¹ saʼo⁴⁵³

remember.3.IMPERF Cesar DEM mother.3SG.POSS

V S {} O

'Cesar remembers his mother'

VS order with intransitive verb:

gɨ¹

PERF

ngɨ²¹

walk.3.PERF

V

seʼ³⁴

Cesar

S

do¹

DEM

gɨ¹ ngɨ²¹ seʼ³⁴ do¹

PERF walk.3.PERF Cesar DEM

{} V S {}

'Cesar walked'

VO order with transitive verb and subject omitted:

tɘɨtsei²³

remember.3.IMPERF

V

saʼo⁴⁵³

mother.3SG.POSS

O

tɘɨtsei²³ { saʼo⁴⁵³ }

remember.3.IMPERF {mother.3SG.POSS}

V O

'(He) remembers his mother'

In Lealao Chinantec, however, default word order in transitive sentences with non-pronominal subjects is VOS:

VOS order with non-pronominal subject:

kaᴸ-báᴴ-i

PST-beat.TR.AN.COMPL.3-3

V

hą́ːᴴ

child.3.POSS

O

zaᴹ

person

S

nïᴹ

that

kaᴸ-báᴴ-i hą́ːᴴ zaᴹ nïᴹ

PST-beat.TR.AN.COMPL.3-3 child.3.POSS person that

V O S {}

'That person beat his child'

VSO order with pronominal subject:

maᴹ-kúʔᴸ-i

PST-eat.TR.INAN.COMPL.1SG-1SG

V

hniáᴴ

1SG

S

miⱽᴴ-maᴸtaʔⱽᴴ

pineapple

O

maᴹ-kúʔᴸ-i hniáᴴ miⱽᴴ-maᴸtaʔⱽᴴ

PST-eat.TR.INAN.COMPL.1SG-1SG 1SG pineapple

V S O

'I ate a pineapple'

Example phrase:

ca¹-dsén¹=jni chi³ chieh³

‘I pulled out the hen (from the box).

The parts of this sentence are: ca¹ a prefix which marks the past tense, dsén¹ which is the verb stem meaning "to pull out an animate object", the suffix -jni referring to the first person, the noun classifier chi³ and the noun chieh³ meaning chicken.

Animacy

Chinantecan languages group nouns into one of two genders based on animacy. Animals, humans, and some natural phenomena such as thunder or stars which are considered spirits in Chinantec mythology are animate, while plants and body parts are inanimate. Animacy is not overtly marked on the noun itself, but adjectives, demonstratives, quantifiers, numerals, and in some languages relativizers agree with the noun they modify in animacy. In most languages, the reflex of the marker of animate gender involves a nasal element, either nasalization of the stem, or a postvocalic nasal, for which reason Rensch (1989) reconstructs *-ŋ as the proto-Chinantecan marker of animacy. In some languages, however, "the marker is primarily a high front vowel or palatal semivowel," thought to be either cognate with or synchronically identical to a 3rd person marker descended from *-i, "but in every case there is some involvement of nasalization," and in other languages, both occur, either together or in complementary distribution. Furthermore, in some languages, animacy agreement with nouns may be marked by changes in tone and stress, stem apophony, and even suppletion.

Agreement with inanimate noun:

nɨ³

three.INAN

mɨʔ³

basket(INAN)

tiaa³

white.INAN

ké⁴

of.INAN.1SG

ʔi³-nɨ³

REL-that.INAN

nɨ³ mɨʔ³ tiaa³ ké⁴ ʔi³-nɨ³

three.INAN basket(INAN) white.INAN of.INAN.1SG REL-that.INAN

'Those three white baskets of mine'

Agreement with animate noun:

aa³-y

three.AN-AN

laa⁴

mule(AN)

tieé⁴-y

white.AN-AN

kiaá²

of.AN.1SG

ʔi³-nɨ³²-y

REL-that.AN-AN

aa³-y laa⁴ tieé⁴-y kiaá² ʔi³-nɨ³²-y

three.AN-AN mule(AN) white.AN-AN of.AN.1SG REL-that.AN-AN

'Those three white mules of mine'

Verbs agree with one of their core arguments in animacy as well, following an ergative pattern where intransitive verbs agree with the subject, and transitive verbs agree with the patient. Verbs thus fall into one of at least 4 transitivity-animacy classes, conventionally labelled ii (Inanimate Intransitive), ai (Animate Intransitive), ti (Transitive Inanimate), and ta (Transitive Animate), in a scheme like the one used for the Algonquian languages. The following examples from Tepetotula Chinantec demonstrate the 4 agreement patterns with the verbs stand (ii), stand (ai), leave (ti), leave (ta). Note the presence of nasalization and differing vowel quality in the animate verb stems.

Intransitive agreement with inanimate subject:

cíʔᴸᴹ

stand.INAN.NTR.3

cïᴴ-ʔnéᴸᴹ

CL-house(INAN)

kauᴸᴹ

beside

huïᴸᴹ

trail

cíʔᴸᴹ cïᴴ-ʔnéᴸᴹ kauᴸᴹ huïᴸᴹ

stand.INAN.NTR.3 CL-house(INAN) beside trail

'The house stands beside the trail'

Transitive agreement with inanimate object:

kaᴹ-tíᴴ

PST-leave.TR.INAN.COMPL.3

zaᴹ

3

cïᴴʔ-néᴸᴹ

CL-house(INAN)

kióʔᴸᴹ

of.INAN.3

kaᴹ-tíᴴ zaᴹ cïᴴʔ-néᴸᴹ kióʔᴸᴹ

PST-leave.TR.INAN.COMPL.3 3 CL-house(INAN) of.INAN.3

'He abandoned his house'

Intransitive agreement with animate subject:

cę́ʔᴸᴹ

stand.AN.NTR.3

zïᴹ-kuaᴴ

CL-horse(AN)

kauᴸᴹ

beside

huïᴸᴹ

trail

cę́ʔᴸᴹ zïᴹ-kuaᴴ kauᴸᴹ huïᴸᴹ

stand.AN.NTR.3 CL-horse(AN) beside trail

'The horse stands beside the trail'

Transitive agreement with animate object:

kaᴹ-tę́ᴹ

PST-leave.TR.AN.COMPL.3

zaᴹ

3

ʔioᴸᴴ

woman(AN)

kią́ᴸᴹi

of.AN.3

kaᴹ-tę́ᴹ zaᴹ ʔioᴸᴴ kią́ᴸᴹi

PST-leave.TR.AN.COMPL.3 3 woman(AN) of.AN.3

'He abandoned his wife'

Verbs

Verbs in Chinantecan languages have the following structure:

1. a number of prefixes which typically co-occur in a fixed order; express categories such as tense, aspect, mood, evidentiality, movement, and posture; and select for only certain tense-aspect forms of the stem;
2. an obligatory stem, which inflects for 4 core persons (1sg, 1pl, 2, 3) and a number of tense, aspect, and motion categories through a combination of tone, vowel length, ballisticity, glottal coda, and ablaut, the last of which is thought to reflect the alternation between the proto-Chinantecan palatal and non-palatal vowel series;
3. suffixes or enclitics which mark certain grammatical persons not distinguished by tone and other internal changes in the verb stem, typically 2pl, 3pl, and clusivity distinctions in the first-person plural. In some languages, postposed free-standing pronouns are instead used.

In summary, the full range of tense-aspect-mood distinctions in a language is expressed by the tense-aspect series of the stem in combination with its prefixes, and person by the person series of the stem in combination with its suffixes or free-standing pronouns.

Sochiapam Chinantec verb phrase, verb stem in bold:

Ñí¹-ca³-ta³-hí¹-chí¹-

EVID-PAST-CONT-MOT-sustained.PROG-

hóh³²

cry.INTR.AN.3

dáɨn²

baby

pih²¹

little

hñu³

inside

mí²tiéi²

shawl

Ñí¹-ca³-ta³-hí¹-chí¹- hóh³² dáɨn² pih²¹ hñu³ mí²tiéi²

EVID-PAST-CONT-MOT-sustained.PROG- cry.INTR.AN.3 baby little inside shawl

'The little baby in the shawl was evidently constantly crying nonstop (while) hanging (there).'

While the shape of the stem used for a given combination of person and tense-aspect-mood may appear unpredictable, "starting from Merrifield (1968), the existing descriptive tradition of Chinantecan languages from the SIL suggests that the entire paradigm of a verb is retrievable from the inflectional information provided by only 12 cells," which represent the product of the 4 core persons, and 3 core tense-aspect categories, termed Progressive, Intentive, and Completive (alternatively Present, Future, and Past, respectively). The form of the stem used for categories beyond the 3 core tense-aspects is thus predictable from one of the 12 forms.

The Chinantec people have practiced whistled speech since the pre-Columbian era. The high functional load of tone, stress, vowel length, laryngeal configuration, intonation, and rhythm in the Chinantecan languages allows speakers to convey complex messages by transposing the prosodic qualities of the spoken languages onto various whistled registers, even in the complete absence of consonants, vowels, and nasalization. In Sochiapam Chinantec, the cross-classifying prosodic features produce 31 distinct tone-stress-glottalization patterns, for which 4 distinct styles of whistling are used:

• whistling with the tongue against the alveolar ridge for close-by communication, called siɛ², (up to 10 m (33 ft));
• bilabial whistling for mid- to far-distance communication, called huɯ³², (up to 200 m (660 ft));
• fingers-in-mouth whistling for far-distance communication, called huɔ², (up to 1 km (0.62 mi) and sometimes more depending on terrain);
• falsetto speech for mid- to far-distance communication, called hɔ́h³², (up to 1 km (0.62 mi)).

Whistled speech is typically only used by Chinantec men, although women may also understand it. Use of the whistled language is declining, as modern technology such as walkie-talkies and loudspeakers have made long-distance communication easier.

Chinantec-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio stations XEOJN, broadcasting from San Lucas Ojitlán, Oaxaca, and XEGLO, broadcasting from Guelatao de Juárez, Oaxaca.