The Mixtec () languages belong to the
Mixtecan group of the
Oto-Manguean
The Oto-Manguean or Otomanguean languages are a large family comprising several subfamilies of indigenous languages of the Americas. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the ...
language family. Mixtec is spoken in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
and is closely related to
Trique
The Triqui (, ) or Trique () are an indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous people of the western part of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, centered in the Municipio (Mexico), municipalities of Juxtlahuaca, Tlaxiaco and Putla. They number around 2 ...
and
Cuicatec. The varieties of Mixtec are spoken by over half a million people.
[2000 census; the numbers are based on the number of the total population for each group and the percentages of speakers given on the website of the Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas, http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=660, accessed 28 July 2008).] Identifying how many Mixtec languages there are in this complex
dialect continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
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.
Language name
The name "Mixteco" is a
Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
, 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'' .
Distribution
![Mixteco y idiomas circundantes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Mixteco_y_idiomas_circundantes.svg)
The traditional range of the Mixtec languages is the region known as
La Mixteca
La Mixteca is a cultural, economic and political region in Western Oaxaca and neighboring portions of Puebla, Guerrero in south-central Mexico, which refers to the home of the Mixtec people. In their languages, the region is called either Ñuu Djau ...
, which is shared by the
states of
Oaxaca
Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...
,
Puebla
Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...
and
Guerrero
Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...
. 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
The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...
and the
Federal District
A federal district is a type of administrative division of a federation, usually under the direct control of a federal government and organized sometimes with a single municipal body. Federal districts often include capital districts, and they e ...
, to certain agricultural areas such as the
San Quintín valley in
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
and parts of
Morelos
Morelos (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cuer ...
and
Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
, and into the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. In 2012, Natividad Medical Center of
Salinas, California
Salinas (; Spanish for "Salt Marsh or Salt Flats") is a city in California and the county seat of Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas is an urban area lo ...
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
The Triqui (, ) or Trique () are an indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous people of the western part of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, centered in the Municipio (Mexico), municipalities of Juxtlahuaca, Tlaxiaco and Putla. They number around 2 ...
,
Zapotec, and
Chatino.
Internal classification
The Mixtec language is a complex set of regional dialects which were already in place at the time of the
Spanish Conquest
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...
of the Mixteca region. The varieties of Mixtec are sometimes grouped by geographic area, using designations such as those of the
Mixteca Alta
La Mixteca is a cultural, economic and political region in Western Oaxaca and neighboring portions of Puebla, Guerrero in south-central Mexico, which refers to the home of the Mixtec people. In their languages, the region is called either Ñuu Dja ...
, the
Mixteca Baja
La Mixteca is a cultural, economic and political region in Western Oaxaca and neighboring portions of Puebla, Guerrero in south-central Mexico, which refers to the home of the Mixtec people. In their languages, the region is called either Ñuu Djau ...
, and the
Mixteca de la Costa
La Mixteca is a cultural, economic and political region in Western Oaxaca and neighboring portions of Puebla, Guerrero in south-central Mexico, which refers to the home of the Mixtec people. In their languages, the region is called either Ñuu Dja ...
. 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
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
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
SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to ex ...
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.
Phonology
This section describes the sound systems of Mixtec by each variety.
Chalcotongo Mixtec
The table below shows the phonemic inventory of a selected Mixtec language, Chalcotongo Mixtec.
Phoneme
:
1Most commonly actually a
nasalized palatal approximant.
Not all varieties of Mixtec have the sibilant . Some do not have the interdental fricative . Some do not have the velar fricative . A few have the affricate . By some analyses, the sounds and () are allophones conditioned by nasalization (see below), as are and , also and ().
Tone
One of the most characteristic features of Mixtec is its use of
tones, a characteristic it shares with all other Otomanguean languages. Despite its importance in the language, the tonal analyses of Mixtec have been many and quite different one from another. Some varieties of Mixtec display complex
tone sandhi
Tone sandhi is a phonological change occurring in tonal languages, in which the tones assigned to individual words or morphemes change based on the pronunciation of adjacent words or morphemes.
It usually simplifies a bidirectional tone into a ...
. (Another Mixtecan language,
Trique
The Triqui (, ) or Trique () are an indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous people of the western part of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, centered in the Municipio (Mexico), municipalities of Juxtlahuaca, Tlaxiaco and Putla. They number around 2 ...
, has one of the most complex tonal systems in the world, with one variety,
Chicahuaxtla Trique, having at least ten tones and, according to some observers, as many as 16.)
It is commonly claimed that Mixtec distinguishes three different tones: high, middle, and low. Tones may be used lexically; for example:
::K
uu ''to be''
::Ku
u ''to die''
In some varieties of Mixtec, tone is also used grammatically since the vowels or whole syllables with which they were associated historically have been lost.
In the practical writing systems the representation of tone has been somewhat varied. It does not have a high functional load generally, although in some languages tone is all that indicates different aspects and distinguishes affirmative from negative verbs.
Nasalization
The
nasalisation
In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation) is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is .
In the Internatio ...
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.
Glottalization
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.
Yoloxóchitl Mixtec
The sound system of Yoloxóchitl Mixtec (of Guerrero Mixtec) is described below.
Sound inventory
Notes:
#The syllable structure is (C)V(V); no consonant cluster or consonant coda allowed.
#Oral and nasal vowels are contrastive.
Tone
Yoloxóchitl Mixtec has nine tones: .
Writing systems
The Mixtecs, like many other
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...
n 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
Tututepec is a Mesoamerican archaeological site. It is located in the lower Río Verde valley on the coast of Oaxaca that formed the nucleus of an extensive Mixtec state during the Late Postclassic period (ca. 12th to early 16th centuries). At i ...
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
The Codex Zouche-Nuttall or Codex Tonindeye is an accordion-folded pre-Columbian document of Mixtec pictography, now in the collections of the British Museum. It is one of about 16 manuscripts from Mexico that are entirely pre-Columbian in origin ...
and the
Codex Vindobonensis; one exception is the
Codex Colombino
The Codex Colombino is a part of a Mixtec codex held in the collection of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. It is the only Mesoamerican codex that remains in Mexican territory. It deals with the genealogy, marriages and bellico ...
, kept by the
National Museum of Anthropology
The National Museum of Anthropology ( es, Museo Nacional de Antropología, MNA) is a national museum of Mexico. It is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico. Located in the area between Paseo de la Reforma and Mahatma Gandhi Street withi ...
in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
.
The missionaries who brought the
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
to the Mixtecs set about learning their language and produced several grammars of the Mixtec language, similar in style to
Antonio de Nebrija
Antonio de Nebrija (14445 July 1522) was the most influential Spanish humanist of his era. He wrote poetry, commented on literary works, and encouraged the study of classical languages and literature, but his most important contributions were i ...
'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
The Academy of the Mixtec Language ( mix, Ve'e Tu'un Sávi, meaning "House of the Language of the Rain"; es, Academia de la Lengua Mixteca) was founded in 1997 by a group of indigenous activists from the Mixtec people, with the aim of creating mec ...
. 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
The Mexican Secretariat of Public Education ( in Spanish ''Secretaría de Educación Pública'', ''SEP'') is a federal government authority with cabinet representation and the responsibility for overseeing the development and implementation of ...
(SEP), contains the following letters (indicated below with their corresponding phonemes).
One of the main obstacles in establishing an alphabet for the Mixtec language is its status as a
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
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
XEJAM-AM (''La Voz de la Costa Chica'' – "The Voice of the Costa Chica") is an indigenous community radio station that broadcasts in Spanish, Mixtec, Amuzgo and Chatino from Santiago Jamiltepec in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
It is run by ...
in Oaxaca;
XEZV-AM
XEZV-AM (''La Voz de la Montaña'' – "The Voice of the Mountain") is an indigenous community radio station that broadcasts in Spanish, Nahuatl, Mixtec and Tlapanec from Tlapa de Comonfort in the Mexican state of Guerrero.
It is run by th ...
in Guerrero; and
XEQIN-AM
XEQIN-AM/XHSQB-FM (''La Voz del Valle'' – "The Voice of the Valley") is an indigenous community radio station that broadcasts in Spanish, Mixtec, Zapotec and Triqui from San Quintín in the Mexican state of Baja California.
It is run by t ...
in Baja California – and a bilingual radio station based in the US in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, 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.
Grammar and syntax
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...
are richly represented in Mixtec.
= First and second person pronouns
=
Many varieties (but not all) have distinct "formal" and "informal" pronouns for first person and second person (except in the first person plural inclusive). If addressing a person of his own age or older, the speaker uses the formal pronouns. If addressing a younger person, the speaker uses the informal pronouns. The first person exclusive pronouns may be interpreted as either singular or plural. The second person pronouns may also be interpreted as either singular or plural.
It is common to find a first person inclusive form that is interpreted as meaning to include the hearer as well as the speaker.
First and second person pronouns have both independent forms and dependent (enclitic) forms. The dependent forms are used when the pronoun follows a verb (as subject) and when it follows a noun (as possessor). The independent forms are used elsewhere (although there are some variations on this rule).
* Personal pronoun as direct object
* Personal pronoun in preverbal position
* Personal pronoun in normal subject position
= Third person pronouns
=
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.
Interrogative pronouns
Mixtec has two
interrogatives
An interrogative word or question word is a function word used to ask a question, such as ''what, which'', ''when'', ''where'', ''who, whom, whose'', ''why'', ''whether'' and ''how''. They are sometimes called wh-words, because in English most o ...
, which are ''na vé'' (
na ³ve= "what/which"?) and ''nasaa'' (
na.²saa "how much/many?"). The tone of these does ''not'' change according to the tense, person, or tone of the surrounding phrase.
Verbs
Mixtec verb tenses
Mixtec verbs have no
infinitive
Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
form. The basic form of the Mixtec verb is the
future tense
In grammar, a future tense (abbreviated ) is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French ''aimera'', meaning ...
, and many conjugated future verb forms are also used for the present tense. To obtain the present of an irregular verb, the tone is modified in accordance with set of complicated
prosodic
In linguistics, prosody () is concerned with elements of speech that are not individual phonetic segments (vowels and consonants) but are properties of syllables and larger units of speech, including linguistic functions such as intonation, str ...
rules. Another class of irregular verbs beginning with
mutate that sound to either
eor
iin the present tense. To form the
preterite
The preterite or preterit (; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple pas ...
(past) tense, the particle ''ni-'' (
ni is added. That particle causes a shift in the tone of the following verb and, while the particle itself may be omitted in informal speech, the tonal modification invariably takes place.
Mixtec lacks an
imperfect
The imperfect (abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was walking" or "used to w ...
,
pluperfect
The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, is a type of verb form, generally treated as a grammatical tense in certain languages, relating to an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time i ...
, and all the compound tenses found in other languages. In addition, Mixtec verb conjugations do not have indicators of person or number (resembling, in this, English more than Spanish). A selection of Mixtec sentences exemplifying the three verbal tenses appears below:
* Future
* Present
* Preterite
Verb classes
;Causative verbs
Causative
In linguistics, a causative (abbreviated ) is a valency-increasing operationPayne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173–186. that indicates that a subject either ...
verbs are verb forms modified by a
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
indicating that the action is performed by the agent of the phrase. Mixtec causative verbs are indicated by the prefix ''s-''. Like other Mixtec particles, the causative prefix leads to a shift in the orthography and pronunciation of the related verb. When the verb to which the prefix is added begins with , that phoneme is transformed into a . Verbs beginning with shift to . There is no difference in future and present causative verbs, but the past tense is invariably indicated by adding the particle ''ni-''.
;Repetitive verbs
The prefix ''na-'' indicates that the action of the related verb is being performed for a second occasion. This means that there is a repetition of the action, made by the subject of the sentence or another unidentified agent.
The pronunciation of some irregular verbs changes in the repetitive form. For example, certain verbs beginning with
take
do
the instead of ''na-'' particle. In addition, there are some verbs that never appear without this prefix: in other words, it is part of their structure.
;Copulative verbs
Copulative verbs ("linking verbs") establish links between two nouns, a noun and an adjective, or a noun and a pronoun. Mixtec has four such verbs:
* ''kuu'' (to be)
* ''nduu'' (to be again; the repetitive form of ''kuu'')
* ''koo'' (to exist)
* ''káá'' (to appear; present and preterite only)
''Káá'' is only used with adjectives that describe a thing's appearance. The other three can be used with practically any adjective, albeit with slight semantic shifts.
;Descriptive verbs
Descriptive verbs are a special class that can be used as either verbs or adjectives. One of these verbs followed by a pronoun is all that is needed to form a complete sentence in Mixtec. Descriptives are not conjugated: they always appear in the present tense. To give the same idea in the past or future tenses, a copulative verb must be used.
;Modal verbs
Modal verb
A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', or ''advice''. Modal verbs generally accompany the b ...
s are a small group that may be followed by another verb. Only the relative pronoun ''jee̱'' can occasionally appear between a modal and its associated verb, except in sentences involving ''kuu'' (can, to be able).
* Modal ''kuu'' ("can")
* Modal ''kánuú'' ("must")
Verb moods
;Indicative mood
The
indicative mood
A realis mood (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Mos ...
describes actions in real life that have occurred, are occurring, or will occur. The verb forms of the indicative mood are described above, in the section on verb tenses.
;Imperative mood
Imperatives are formed by adding the particle ''-ni'' to the future indicative form of the verb. In informal speech, the simple future indicative is frequently used, although the pronoun ''ró'' may be appended. There are three irregular verbs with imperative forms different from their future indicative. Negative imperatives are formed by adding the word ''má'', the equivalent of "don't".
;Subjunctive mood
In Mixtec, the
subjunctive
The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality ...
mood serves as a mild command. It is formed by placing the particle ''na'' before the future form of the verb. When used in the first person, it gives the impression that the speaker closely reflects on the action before performing it.
;Counter-factual mood
The counter-factual
mood indicates that the action was not performed or remained incomplete. To form the past counter-factual, ''ní'' is added and the tones of the verb change from preterite to present. A counter-factual statement not accompanied by a
subordinate clause
A subordinate clause, dependent clause, subclause, or embedded clause is a clause that is embedded within a complex sentence. For instance, in the English sentence "I know that Bette is a dolphin", the clause "that Bette is a dolphin" occurs as t ...
acquires the meaning "If only..." The particle ''núú'' can be added at the end of the main or subordinate clauses, should the speaker wish, with no change in meaning. Examples are shown below:
* Use of counter-factual verbs, formed by changing the tone of the past indicative.
* Use of a simple counter-factual sentence
* Use of a simple counter-factual sentence, with ''núú''.
* Use of a simple counter-factual sentence, with ''núu'' (a conditional conjunction not to be confused with the mood particle described above)
* Use of a simple counter-factual with modal, in future tense
Nouns
Noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
s indicate persons, animals, inanimate objects or abstract ideas. Mixtec has few nouns for abstract ideas; when they do not exist, it uses verbal constructions instead. When a noun is followed by another in a sentence, the former serves as the nucleus of the phrase, with the latter acting as a modifier. In many such constructions, the modifier possesses the nucleus.
* Nouns as modifiers:
* Modifiers possessing the nucleus of the phrase:
The base number of Mixtec nouns is singular. Pluralisation is effected by means of various grammatical and lexical tools. For example, a noun's number can be implicit if the phrase uses a plural pronoun (first person inclusive only) or if one of various verb affixes that modify the meaning are used: ''-koo'' and ''-ngoo'' (suffixes) and ''ka-'' (prefix). A third way to indicate a plural is the (untranslatable) particle ''jijná'an'', which can be placed before or after verbs, pronouns, or nouns.
* Pluralisation indicated by the presence of the first-person-inclusive pronoun
* Pluralisation with affixes: prefix ''ka-'' before the verb
* Pluralisation with affixes: suffix ''-koo'' after the verb
Demonstratives
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.
Conjunctions
Conjunctions serve to join two words, two phrases, or two analogous sentences. Mixtec possesses twelve
coordinating conjunctions and ten
subordinating conjunctions
In grammar, a conjunction (abbreviated or ) is a part of speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses that are called the conjuncts of the conjunctions. That definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech and so what constitutes a ...
.
* Coordinating conjunctions:
::''te'' (and, but)
::''te o'' (but)
::''jíín'' (and)
::''chi'' (because, and)
::''chí'' (or)
::''á... chí'' (either... or)
::''ni... ni...'' (neither... nor)
::''sa''/''sa su'va'' (but rather that)
::''yu̱kúan na'' (then, so)
::''yu̱kúan'' (so)
::''je̱e yu̱kúan'' (for)
::''suni'' (also)
* Subordinating conjunctions:
::''náva̱'a'' (so that)
::''je̱e'' (that)
::''sɨkɨ je̱e'' (because)
::''nájnu̱n'' (how)
::''ve̱sú'' (although)
::''núu'' (if)
::''na/ níní na'' (when)
::''ná/ níní'' (while)
::''nde'' (until, since)
::''kue̱chi'' (no more)
Word order in the clause
Mixtec is a
verb–subject–object
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
language. Variations in this word order, particularly the use of the preverbal position, are employed to highlight information.
Mixtec influence on Spanish
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
Santa Cruz Itundujia is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the ...
, 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
Gabino Barreda (born Puebla, 1818 – died Mexico City 1881) was a Mexican physician and philosopher oriented to French positivism.
After participating in the Mexican–American War defending his country as a volunteer, he studied medicine in ...
.
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
The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China.
The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...
(''limón'' in Spanish), also referred to as ''tzikua Iya'' (
sour orange
Bitter orange, Seville orange, bigarade orange, or marmalade orange is the citrus tree ''Citrus'' × ''aurantium'' and its fruit. It is native to Southeast Asia and has been spread by humans to many parts of the world. It is probably a cross bet ...
).
Mixtec literature
Prior to the
Spanish Conquest
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...
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
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...
was lost forever. Most of the
codices
The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
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 The Mixtec Group is the designation given by scholars to a number of mostly pre-Columbian documents from the Mixtec people of the state of Oaxaca in the southern part of the Republic of Mexico. They are distinguished by their principally historical ...
are known to survive, narrating the war exploits of the Lord
Eight Deer Jaguar Claw
Eight Deer Jaguar Claw ( mix, Iya Nacuaa Teyusi Ñaña ), or 8 Deer for brevity, was a powerful Mixtec ruler in 11th century Oaxaca referred to in the 15th century deerskin manuscript Codex Zouche-Nuttall, and other Mixtec manuscripts. His surn ...
. 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
Alfonso Caso y Andrade (February 1, 1896 in Mexico City – November 30, 1970 in Mexico City) was an archaeologist who made important contributions to pre-Columbian studies in his native Mexico. Caso believed that the systematic study of ancient M ...
, 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
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
. 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
Tilantongo was a Mixtec citystate in the Mixteca Alta region of the modern-day state of Oaxaca which is now visible as an archeological site and a modern town of Santiago Tilantongo. It is located at 17°15' N. Lat. and 97°17' W. Long. Its Mixte ...
and
Achiutla/Tlaxiaco in
Mixteca Alta
La Mixteca is a cultural, economic and political region in Western Oaxaca and neighboring portions of Puebla, Guerrero in south-central Mexico, which refers to the home of the Mixtec people. In their languages, the region is called either Ñuu Dja ...
.
[Terraciano (2004) ''The Mixtecs of Colonial Oaxaca: Ñudzahui History, Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries''] 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
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec () is an isthmus in Mexico. It represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Before the opening of the Panama Canal, it was a major overland transport route known simply as the Te ...
, 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
Juchitán de Zaragoza (; Spanish name; Isthmus Zapotec: ''Xabizende'' ) is an indigenous town in the southeast of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is part of the Juchitán District in the west of the Istmo de Tehuantepec region. With a 2005 census ...
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
La Mixteca is a cultural, economic and political region in Western Oaxaca and neighboring portions of Puebla, Guerrero in south-central Mexico, which refers to the home of the Mixtec people. In their languages, the region is called either Ñuu Dja ...
, including the cities of
Tlaxiaco
Tlaxiaco is a city, and its surrounding municipality of the same name, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is located in the Tlaxiaco District in the south of the Mixteca Region, with a population of about 17,450.
The city is formally known as Her ...
and
Juxtlahuaca
Juxtlahuaca is a cave and archaeological site in the Mexican state of Guerrero containing murals linked to the Olmec motifs and iconography. Along with the nearby Oxtotitlán cave, Juxtlahuaca walls contain the earliest sophisticated painted art ...
. 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
Ana Lila Downs Sánchez (born 9 September 1968
*
*) is a Mexican singer-songwriter. She performs her own compositions and the works of others in multiple genres, as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music. She also incorporat ...
, one of the leading figures in contemporary Mixtec music; she has recorded several records containing compositions in Mixtec, a language spoken by her mother.
See also
*
Classification of Mixtec languages
The internal classification of Mixtec is controversial. Many varieties are mutually unintelligible and by that criterion separate languages. In the 16th century, Spanish authorities recognized half a dozen ''lenguas'' comprising the Mixtec ''leng ...
*
Indigenous languages of the Americas
Over a thousand indigenous languages are spoken by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. These languages cannot all be demonstrated to be related to each other and are classified into a hundred or so language families (including a large numbe ...
*
Languages of Mexico
Many languages are spoken in Mexico, though Spanish is the ''de facto'' national language spoken by the vast majority of the population, making Mexico the world's most populous Hispanophone country. The indigenous languages are from eleven lan ...
*
Mixtec
The Mixtecs (), or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec Culture wa ...
(indigenous peoples of Mexico)
*
Oto-Manguean languages
The Oto-Manguean or Otomanguean languages are a large family comprising several subfamilies of indigenous languages of the Americas. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the ...
*
Technological University of the Mixteca
The Technological University of the Mixteca ( es, Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca) (UTM), is a Mexican public university belonging to the SUNEO ( es, Sistema de Universidades Estatales de Oaxaca). UTM is located in Huajuapan de León, Oax ...
*
Trique language
The Triqui (), or Trique, languages are a family of Oto-Manguean spoken by 30,000 Trique people of the Mexican states of Oaxaca and the state of Baja California in 2007 (due to recent population movements). They are also spoken by 5,000 immigrants ...
Notes
*
CNTF:Counter-factual mood
References
* Bradley, C. Henry & Barbara E. Hollenbach, eds. 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992. ''Studies in the syntax of Mixtecan languages'', volumes 1–4. Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics;
rlington, Texas:University of Texas at Arlington.
* Campbell, Lyle. 1997. ''American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (2008). ''Catálogo de Lenguas Indígenas Nacionales''. ''Diario Oficial de la Nación'', January 14.
* Jiménez Moreno, Wigberto. 1962. ''Estudios mixtecos''. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional Indigenista (INI); Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). (Reprint of the introduction to the ''Vocabulario en lengua mixteca'' by Fray Francisco de Alvarado.)
* Josserand, Judy Kathryn. 1983. ''Mixtec Dialect History.'' Ph.D. Dissertation, Tulane University.
* Macaulay, Monica & Joe Salmons. 1995. The phonology of glottalization in Mixtec. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 61(1):38–61.
* Marlett, Stephen A. 1992. Nasalization in Mixtec languages. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 58(4):425–435.
* McKendry, Inga. 2001. ''Two studies of Mixtec languages.'' M.A. thesis. University of North Dakota.
External links
Technological University of the MixtecaSpanish–Mixtec dictionaryAULEX (Mexico)
Comparative Mixtec Swadesh vocabulary list(from Wiktionary)
SEP textbook in Guerrero Mountain Mixtec(SIL-Mexico)
Resources for certain varieties of MixtecDigital edition of Josserand (1983)at
AILLA (requires creation of free account)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mixtec Languages
Mixteco
The Mixtecs (), or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec Culture ...
Mixteco
The Mixtecs (), or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec Culture ...
Mixteco
The Mixtecs (), or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec Culture ...
Analytic languages
Isolating languages