The Mixe–Zoque (also: Mixe–Zoquean, Mije–Soke, Mije–Sokean) languages are a

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...

whose living members are spoken in and around 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 T ...

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 ...

. The Mexican government recognizes three distinct Mixe–Zoquean languages as official: Mixe or ''ayook'' with 188,000 speakers, Zoque or ''o'de püt'' with 88,000 speakers, and the

Popoluca Popoluca is a Nahuatl term for various indigenous peoples of southeastern Veracruz and Oaxaca. Many of them (about 30,000

languages of which some are Mixean and some Zoquean with 69,000 speakers. However, the internal diversity in each of these groups is great. Ethnologue counts 17 different languages, and the current classification of Mixe–Zoquean languages by Wichmann (1995) counts 12 languages and 11 dialects.

Extinct languages An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers, especially if the language has no living descendants. In contrast, a dead language is one that is no longer the native language of any community, even if it is still in use, li ...

classified as Mixe–Zoquean include Tapachultec, formerly spoken in

Tapachula Tapachula de Córdova y Ordóñez, simply known as Tapachula, is a city and municipality located in the far southeast of the state of Chiapas in Mexico, near the Guatemalan border and the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the most important cities of ...

, along the southeast coast of Chiapas.

History

Historically the Mixe–Zoquean family may have been much more widespread, reaching into the Guatemalan Pacific coast (i.e. the

Soconusco Soconusco is a region in the southwest corner of the state of Chiapas in Mexico along its border with Guatemala. It is a narrow strip of land wedged between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It is the southernmost par ...

region).

Terrence Kaufman Terrence Kaufman (1937 – March 3, 2022) was an American linguist specializing in documentation of unwritten languages, lexicography, Mesoamerican historical linguistics and language contact phenomena. He was an emeritus professor of linguisti ...

and

Lyle Campbell Lyle Richard Campbell (born October 22, 1942) is an American scholar and linguist known for his studies of indigenous American languages, especially those of Central America, and on historical linguistics in general. Campbell is professor emeri ...

have argued, based on a number of widespread loanwords in other Mesoamerican languages, that it is likely that the

Olmec The Olmecs () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that ...

people, generally seen as the earliest dominating culture of

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 ...

, spoke a Mixe–Zoquean language. Kaufman and John Justeson also claim to have deciphered a substantial part of the text written in

Isthmian script The Isthmian script is a very early Mesoamerican writing system in use in the area of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec from perhaps 500 BCE to 500 CE, although there is disagreement on these dates. It is also called the La Mojarra script and the Epi-O ...

(called also by them and some others 'Epi-Olmec') which appears on

La Mojarra Stela 1 La Mojarra Stela 1 is a Mesoamerican carved monument (stela) dating from 156 CE (2nd century CE). It was discovered in 1986, pulled from the Acula River near La Mojarra, Veracruz, Mexico, not far from the Tres Zapotes archaeological site. The by ...

, based upon their deciphering of the text as representing an archaic Mixe–Zoquean language. Both of these claims have been criticized:

Michael D. Coe Michael Douglas Coe (May 14, 1929 – September 25, 2019) was an American archaeologist, anthropologist, epigrapher, and author. He is known for his research on pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya, and was among the foremost Mayan ...

and David Stuart argue that the surviving corpus of the few known examples of Isthmian inscriptions is insufficient to securely ground any proposed decipherment. Their attempt to apply Kaufman's and Justeson's decipherments to other extant Isthmian material failed to produce any meaningful results. Wichmann (1995) criticizes certain proposed Mixe–Zoquean loans into other Mesoamerican languages as being only Zoquean, not Mixean, which would put the period of borrowing much later than the Proto-Mixe–Zoquean time-frame in which the Olmec culture was at its height. The date of the Mixe–Zoque split has however since been pushed back, and the argument is therefore much weaker than it once was thought to be.Wichmann, Beliaev & Davletshin, in press (Sept 2008). Later, Kaufman (2001), again on the basis of loans from Mixe–Zoque into other Mesoamerican languages, argues a Mixe–Zoquean presence at

Teotihuacan Teotihuacan (Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'') (; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is known today as t ...

, and he ascribes to Mixe–Zoquean an important role in spreading a number of the linguistic features that later became some of the principal commonalities used in defining the

Mesoamerican Linguistic Area The Mesoamerican language area is a ''sprachbund'' containing many of the languages natively spoken in the cultural area of Mesoamerica. This sprachbund is defined by an array of syntactic, lexical and phonological traits as well as a number of ethn ...

Genetic relations with other families

The Mixe–Zoque languages have been included in several long-range classification proposals, e.g. in

Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States. Sap ...

's "Mexican Penutian" branch of his proposed

Penutian Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The existence of a Penutian s ...

linguistic superfamily, or as part of the

Macro-Mayan Macro-Mayan is a proposal linking the clearly established Mayan family with neighboring families that show similarities to Mayan. The term was apparently coined by McQuown (1942), but suggestions for historical relationships relevant to this hypo ...

proposal by Norman McQuown with puts together the Mixe–Zoque languages with the

Mayan languages The Mayan languagesIn linguistics, it is conventional to use ''Mayan'' when referring to the languages, or an aspect of a language. In other academic fields, ''Maya'' is the preferred usage, serving as both a singular and plural noun, and as ...

and the

Totonacan languages The Totonacan languages (also known as Totonac–Tepehua languages) are a family of closely related languages spoken by approximately 290,000 Totonac (approx. 280,000) and Tepehua (approx. 10,000) people in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and H ...

. At the end of the last century,

dismissed most earlier comparisons as methodologically flawed, but considered the Macro-Mayan proposal the most promising, but yet unproven hypothesis. In two more recently published articles, evidence is presented for linking the Mixe–Zoque languages either with the

(" Totozoquean"), or with the

Classification

Wichmann (1995)

The following internal classification of the Mixe–Zoquean languages is by

Søren Wichmann Søren Wichmann (born 1964) is a Danish linguist specializing in historical linguistics, linguistic typology, Mesoamerican languages, and epigraphy. Since June 2016, he has been employed as a University Lecturer at Leiden University Centre for Li ...

(1995). ;Proto-Mixe-Zoquean *Proto- Mixean ** Tapachultec **

Sayula Popoluca Sayula Popoluca, also called Sayultec, is a Mixe language spoken by around 5,000 indigenous people in and around the town of Sayula de Alemán in the southern part of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Almost all published research on the language ha ...

( Sayultec) **

Oluta Popoluca Oluta Popoluca also called Olutec is a moribund Mixe–Zoquean language of the Mixean branch spoken by a few elderly people in the town of Oluta in Southern Veracruz, Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the Unit ...

( Olutec) **Proto- Oaxaca Mixean *** North Highland Mixe *** South Highland Mixe *** Midland Mixe, Lowland Mixe *Proto- Zoquean **Proto-Gulf Zoquean ** Chimalapa Zoque ** Chiapas Zoque

Kaufman & Justeson (2000)

The following internal classification of the Mixe–Zoquean languages is by Kaufman & Justeson (2000), cited in Zavala (2000).Zavala Maldonado, Roberto. 2000. ''Inversion and other topics in the grammar of Olutec (Mixe)''. Ph.D. Dissertation: University of Oregon. Individual languages are marked by ''italics''. ;Mixe-Zoque * Mixe **'' Tapachultec'' **'' Olutec'' **Mixe Proper ***'' Sayultec'' ***(branch) ****'' Lowland Mixe'' ****''Highland Mixe'' * Zoque **Gulf Zoquean ***'' Soteapan Zoque ( Sierra Popoluca)'' ***(branch) ****'' Texistepec Zoque'' ****'' Ayapanec Zoque'' **Zoque ***'' Chiapas Zoque'' ***'' Oaxaca Zoque'' Justeson and Kaufman also classify Epi-Olmec as a Zoquean language, although this claim is disputed by Andrew Robinson.Robinson, Andrew (2008) ''Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts'', Thames & Hudson, .

Phonology

The phoneme inventory of Proto-Mixe–Zoquean as reconstructed by Wichmann (1995) can be seen to be relatively simple, but many of the modern languages have been innovative; some have become quite vowel rich, and some also have introduced a fortis–lenis contrast in the stop series. Although the lateral phoneme is found in a few words in some of the languages, these are probably of onomatopoeic origin. has also been reconstructed .

Syllables

Mixe–Zoquean languages are characterized by complex syllabic nuclei made up of combinations of vowels together with the glottal stop and in the proto-language. Complex syllable-final consonant clusters are also typical in the daughter languages and can be reconstructed for the proto-language. Proto-Mixe–Zoquean syllable nuclei could be either: :V – short vowel :V' – short vowel with glottal stop :VV – long vowel :V'V – long vowel with medial glottal stop :VV' – long vowel with final glottal stop :Vh – short vowel with h

Grammatical features

The Mixe–Zoquean languages are head-marking and

polysynthetic In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able t ...

, with morphologically complex verbs and simple nouns. Grammatical subjects as well as objects are marked in the verb. Ergative alignment is used, as well as direct–inverse systems triggered by animacy and topicality. In Mixe–Zoquean verbs, a morphological distinction is made between two basic clause-types, independent and dependent; verbs take different aspectual and personal affixes, depending on the type of clause in which they appear. There are two different sets of

aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...

-markers, one used in dependent clauses and another used in independent clauses. Three aspects are distinguished within each clause-type: incompletive, completive, and irrealis.

Ethnologue classification and SIL ISO-codes

Ethnologue still uses the earlier pre-Wichmann classification, based on surveys of

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

and comparative work by William Wonderly, as a basis for their work. This classification is not used by historical linguists, and

's authoritative 1997 presentation uses Wichmann's classification. #

Mixe languages The Mixe languages are languages of the Mixean branch of the Mixe–Zoquean language family indigenous to southern Mexico. According to a 1995 classification, there are seven of them (including one that is extinct). The four that are spoken in ...

— an estimated 90,000 native speakers #*Eastern Mixe — An estimated 72,000 native speakers #:Dialects
Coatlán
( mco)
Istmo
(

mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

)
Quetzaltepec
( pxm)
Juquila
( mxq)
Mazatlán
( mzl) #*Veracruz Mixe — An estimated 4,000 native speakers #:Dialects
Oluta
( plo) nearly extinct – only 100 speakers
Sayula
( pos) #*Western Mixe #:An estimated 10,000 native speakers #:Dialects
Totontepec
( mto)
Tlahuitoltepec
( mxp) #

Zoque languages The Zoque () languages form a primary branch of the Mixe–Zoquean language family indigenous to southern Mexico by the Zoque people. Central (Copainalá) Zoque-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XECOPA, broadcasting ...

— an estimated 60,000 native speakers #*Chiapas Zoque — An estimated 22,000 native speakers #:Dialects
Copainalá
( zoc)
Rayón
( zor)
Francisco León
( zos) #*Oaxaca Zoque – An estimated 4,500 native speakers #:Dialect
Chimalapa
( zoh) #*Veracruz Zoque — An estimated 30,000 native speakers #:Dialects
Highland
( poi),
Texistepec
( poq) nearly extinct – only 450 speakers
Tabasco
( zoq) nearly extinct – only 40 speakers

Notes

References

* * * Campbell, L., and T. Kaufman (1976), "A Linguistic Look at the Olmecs", ''American Antiquity'', 41 pp. 80–89. * Justeson, John S., and Kaufman, Terrence, (1997
"A Newly Discovered Column in the Hieroglyphic Text on La Mojarra Stela 1: a Test of the Epi-Olmec Decipherment"
''Science'', 07/11/97, Vol. 277 Issue 5323, p. 207. * Justeson, John S., and Kaufman, Terrence (2001
''Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing and Texts''
* Kaufman, Terrence, (2001) Nawa linguistic prehistory, published a

* * * * *
Brigham Young University press release
on behalf of Brigham Young University archaeologist Stephen Houston and Yale University professor emeritus Michael Coe disputing Justeson/Kaufman findings.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mixe-Zoque Languages Language families Mesoamerican languages Indigenous languages of Mexico