Totontepec Mixe
North Highland Mixe
Native toMexico
RegionNortheastern Oaxaca
Native speakers
5,500 (2000)[1]
Mixe–Zoque
Language codes
ISO 639-3mto
Glottologtoto1305
ELPTotontepec Mixe

Totontepec Mixe, called North Highland Mixe in Wichmann (1995), is a Mixe language spoken in Mexico, in the town of Totontepec Villa de Morelos, Oaxaca.

Phonology

Mixe has phonology is remarkable due to its complex system of vowel duration contrasts in addition to glottalization. There is a palatalized series of all consonant phonemes (as in Russian, 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.

Vowels

Syllable nuclei vary in length and phonation. Most descriptions report three contrastive vowel lengths.[2] The other types of phonation have been variously termed checked vowels, creaky voice vowels and breathy voice vowels.

The table below illustrates the vowel phonemes for Ayöök, orthographic symbols on the left.

Short Long Overlong
Front Central Back Front Central Back Front Central Back
Close (high) Modal i /i/ ï /ɨ/ u /u/ ii /iː/ ïï /ɨ/ uu /uː/
Glottalized i’ /ḭ/ ï’ /ɨ̰/ u’ /ṵ/ ii’ /ḭː/ ïï’ /ɨ̰ː/ uu’ /ṵː/ i’i ï’ï u’u
Close-mid Modal e /e/ ë /ə/ o /o/ ee /eː/ ëë /əː/ oo /oː/
Glottalized e’ /ḛ/ ë’ /ə̰/ o’ /o̰/ ee’ /ḛː/ ëë’ /ə̰ː/ oo’ /o̰ː/ e’e ë’ë o’o
Open-mid Modal ä /æ/ ää /æː/
Glottalized ä’ /æ̰/ ää’ /æ̰ː/ ä’ä
Open (low) Modal a /a/ aa /aː/
Glottalized a’ /a̰/ aa’ /a̰ː/ a’a

Notes

  1. ↑ Totontepec Mixe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Ladefoged; Maddieson (1996). The sounds of the world's languages. Blackwell. p. 320. ISBN 978-0631198154.

References

  • Schoenhals, Alvin & Louise Schoenhals, 1965, Vocabulario Mixe de Totontepec, Serie de Vocabularios Indigénas "Mariano Silva y Aceves" Num. 14. SIL, Mexico, D.F. Available online
  • Wichman, Søren, 1995, The Relationship among the Mixe–Zoquean Languages of Mexico. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Totontepec Mixe test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator


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