Mixe languages

Oaxaca Mixe languages are spoken in the Sierra Mixe of eastern Oaxaca. These four languages are: North Highland Mixe, spoken around Totontepec (the most divergent); South Highland Mixe, spoken around Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, Ayutla and Tamazulapan); Midland Mixe, spoken around Juquila and Zacatepec; and Lowland Mixe, spoken in San Juan Guichicovi (this language is also known as "Isthmus Mixe").

The following classification is from Wichmann (1995:9).

Mixe (Oaxacan Mixean)

• North Highland Mixe (Totontepec)
• South Highland Mixe (Tlahuitoltepec)
  • Core (Tlahuitoltepec, Ayutla, Tamazulapan)
  • Fringe (Tepuxtepec, Tepantlali, Mixistlán)
• Midland Mixe
  • North Midland Mixe (Jaltepec, Puxmetacan, Matamoros, Cotzocón)
  • South Midland Mixe (Juquila, Cacalotepec)
• Lowland Mixe (Camotlán, San José El Paraíso / Coatlán, Mazatlán, Guichicovi)

Wichmann (2008) adds Ulterior Mixe as an additional branch:

Mixe

• Totontepec Mixe
• Ulterior Mixe
• Lowland, Midland Mixe, South Highland
  • Tlahuitoltepec Mixe
  • Lowland-Midland Mixe
    • Midland Mixe
      • Juquila Mixe
      • North Central Mixe
    • Lowland Mixe
      • Coatlán Mixe
      • Isthmus Mixe (Guichicovi)
      • Mazatlán Mixe

The phonology of Mixe languages is remarkable due to their complex system of vowel duration contrasts in addition to glottalization. There is a palatalized series of all consonant phonemes (as in Ukrainian, Polish or Irish) and possibly a fortis/lenis distinction in the plosive series, the recognition of which however is obscured by a tendency towards allophonic voicing of consonants in voiced environments.

The tables below illustrate the phonemes for Ayöök (Totontepec) Mixe:

Vowels

Syllable nuclei vary in length and phonation. Most descriptions report three contrastive vowel lengths. The other types of phonation have been variously termed checked vowels, creaky voice vowels and breathy voice vowels.

Consonants

Verbs

The morphosyntactic alignment of Mixe is ergative and it also has an obviative system which serves to distinguish between verb participants in reference to its direct-inverse system. The Mixe verb is complex and inflects for many categories and also shows a lot of derivational morphology. One of the parameters of verb inflection is whether a verb occurs in an independent or dependent clause; this distinction is marked by both differential affixation and stem ablaut. Unlike Sayultec Mixe (spoken in the neighboring state of Veracruz), Mixe languages of Oaxaca only mark one argument on the verb: either the object or the subject of the verb depending on whether the verb is in the direct or inverse form. Mixe shows a wide variety of possibilities for noun incorporation.

Nouns

The Mixe noun does not normally inflect, except that human nouns inflect for plural. To indicate the plural, the enclitic ëch is added to the noun. Noun compounding is a very productive process, and the profuse derivational morphology allows for creation of new nouns both from verbs and from other nouns.

Syntax

Mixe languages have SOV constituent order. Prepositions and genitives precede the noun, but relative clauses follow the noun.

This sample is from Lowland Mixe:

pwes

[pwes

Well

hadu'n

haduʔn

there

idaa

ʔidaː

this

yɨyoop

ʲ-ʔɨjoːb

3P-poor

jɨyäj

hɨjaʔaj

person

idaa

ʔidaː

this

aldeano

ʔaldeano

ranch hand

mɨɨt

mɨːd

with

ytöxyijk

ʲ-toʔoʃʲɨʰk

3P.POSS-woman

ytɨkoy

ʲtɨɡoˑjʲ

3P-CAUS/PAS-lose-DEP

yɨ

jɨ

the

mɨkü

mɨkuʔu]

devil

pwes hadu'n idaa yɨyoop jɨyäj idaa aldeano mɨɨt ytöxyijk ytɨkoy yɨ mɨkü

[pwes haduʔn ʔidaː ʲ-ʔɨjoːb hɨjaʔaj ʔidaː ʔaldeano mɨːd ʲ-toʔoʃʲɨʰk ʲtɨɡoˑjʲ jɨ mɨkuʔu]

Well there this 3P-poor person this {ranch hand} with 3P.POSS-woman 3P-CAUS/PAS-lose-DEP the devil

"Well that's how this poor person, this ranch hand with his wife, made the devil lose"

Mixe-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEGLO, based in Guelatao de Juárez, Oaxaca.