Solteco Zapotec is an extinct
Zapotec language
The Zapotec languages are a group of around 50 closely related indigenous Mesoamerican languages that constitute a main branch of the Oto-Manguean language family and which is spoken by the Zapotec people from the southwestern-central highland ...
of western
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 ...
,
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 ...
. It was perhaps the most divergent Zapotec language.
"Solteco" is a generic name used for several varieties of Zapotec.
There are very few written sources for Solteco. The largest record of Solteco is found in the responses to an 1886 vocabulary questionnaire. The questionnaire indicates that the Solteco language was already in disuse, but an unnamed 92-year-old woman from San Ildefonso Sola was able to provide Solteco vocabulary.
Classification
Solteco has consistently been identified as a relative of the Chatino and Zapotec language families, but there is some debate as to where it belongs in the subclassification of Zapotecan: whether Solteco is an independent third branch of Zapotecan, or part of the Zapotec branch, which is the current consensus. Based on some traits shared, including positional restrictions on the historical development affecting
labialized velars and the presence of a lateral-initial animacy prefix, Solteco can be considered a member of the Western Zapotec group of languages, which also includes the Zapotec languages of
Totomachapan,
Lachixío,
Mixtepec, and
Los Altos.
Features of Solteco
Solteco has only partially participated in the develarization of Proto-Zapotecan labialized velar consonants (*kw, *kkw > *b, *p). Proto-Zapotecan *kw appears in Solteco as /b/ only in initial contexts, and the fortis *kkw remains a labialized velar /kw/.
[Smith Stark, Thomas C. 1999. El solteco y el zapoteco occidental: Un aprecio a partir de los vocabularios de Peñafiel. Ms]
https://ailla.utexas.org/islandora/object/ailla:243828
/ref>
Proto-Zapotecan laterals appear in Solteco as nasal consonants in words reconstructed with nasal vowels. This is unlike other Zapotec languages, where these laterals are preserved.
Solteco words in the 1886 vocabulary survey sometimes are transcribed with a letter in the middle of words. One researcher has suggested that this may indicate the nasalization of the preceding vowel.
References
Zapotec languages
Extinct languages of North America
{{Oto-Manguean-lang-stub