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Midland Mixe

Mixe language of Oaxaca, Mexico

Midland a.k.a. Central Mixe is a Mixe language spoken in Mexico. According to Wichmann (1995), there are two groups of dialects:

North
Jaltepec, Puxmetecán, Atitlán, Matamoros, Cotzocón
South
Juquila, Cacalotepec

Ethnologue lists Mixistlán as well, but Wichmann counts that as Tlahuitoltepec Mixe.

A new variety of Midland Mixe has been recently documented in the village of San Juan Bosco Chuxnabá in San Miguel Quetzaltepec municipality, Oaxaca by Carmen Jany and other linguists.

01Phonology

Orthography from Jany (2011) is in angle brackets where it differs from IPA.

Consonants

Consonants in Chuxnabán Mixe
Bilabial Dental/
Alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m m n
Plosive p p t k k ʔ
Affricate ts () ch
Fricative ʃ x h j
Glide w j y

Spanish loanwords contain eight additional phonemes: /b, d, g, f, s, ɾ, r, l/.

Vowels

Vowels in Chuxnabán Mixe
Front Central Back
Close i ɨ ë u
Mid e o
Open a

/æ/ ä, /ø/ ö, and /ʊ/ ü are marginal vowels. [ø] and [ʊ] only occur as allophones of /o/ and /u/, respectively, in palatalized environments, and [æ] sometimes alternates with /a/.

Watch videos about Midland MixeExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Midland Mixe, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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