Zapotec Languages

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 highlands of Mexico. A 2020 census reports nearly half a million speakers, with the majority inhabiting the state of Oaxaca. Zapotec-speaking communities are also found in the neighboring states of Puebla, Veracruz, and Guerrero. Labor migration has also brought a number of native Zapotec speakers to the United States, particularly in California and New Jersey. Most Zapotec-speaking communities are highly bilingual in Spanish.

Name

The name of the language in Zapotec itself varies according to the geographical variant. In Juchitán (Isthmus) it is ''Diidxazá'' , in Mitla it is ''Didxsaj'' , in Zoogocho it is ''Diža'xon'' , in Coatec Zapotec it is ''Di'zhke , in Miahuatec Zapotec it is ''Dí'zdéh'' and in Santa Catarina Quioquitani it is ''Tiits Së'' , for example. The first part of these expressions has the meaning 'word' (perhaps slightly reduced as appropriate for part of a compound).

Classification

External

Zapotec and the related Chatino languages together form the Zapotecan subgroup of the Oto-Manguean language family. Zapotec languages (along with all Oto-Manguean languages) form part of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area, an area of linguistic convergence developed throughout millennia of interaction between the peoples of Mesoamerica. As a result, languages have acquired characteristics from genetically unrelated languages of the area.

Internal

Geographic range and dialect differentiation

Although commonly described as a language, Zapotec is a fairly extensive, if close-knit, language family. The time depth is comparable to that of the Romance languages. Dialectal divergence between Zapotec-speaking communities is extensive and complicated. Many varieties of Zapotec are mutually unintelligible with one another. There are some radical jumps in intelligibility between geographically close communities, so the varieties do not form a dialect continuum in a strict sense, though neither are there clear-cut divisions between groups of varieties. As a result, the Mexican government officially recognizes sixty Zapotec languages.

Zapotec languages fall into four broad geographic divisions: Zapoteco de la Sierra Norte (Northern Zapotec), Valley Zapotec, Zapoteco de la Sierra Sur (Southern Zapotec), and Isthmus Zapotec. Northern Zapotec languages are spoken in the mountainous region of Oaxaca, in the Northern Sierra Madre mountain ranges; Southern Zapotec languages and are spoken in the mountainous region of Oaxaca, in the Southern Sierra Madre mountain ranges; Valley Zapotec languages are spoken in the Valley of Oaxaca, and Isthmus Zapotec languages are spoken in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. However, Valley Zapotec and Isthmus Zapotec group together (as Central Zapotec), and this ignores the Papabuco and Western Zapotec varieties.

Conservative and innovative characteristics

Certain characteristics serve to classify Zapotec varieties in ways that cross-cut the geographical divisions. One of these is the distinction between disyllabic roots and monosyllabic roots. Proto-Zapotec had disyllabic roots; the vowel of the second syllable could be any one of the inventory of vowels. One innovation shared by many varieties of Zapotec is the loss (or partial loss) of the vowel of the second syllable. The word for 'water' illustrates this fact. In conservative varieties, the vowel of the second syllable is retained: in Isthmus Zapotec and in Sierra de Juárez Zapotec, for example.

In innovative varieties, the vowel of the second syllable was lost: in Amatlán Zapotec and Mitla Zapotec, for example. The loss of the vowel often resulted in palatalized consonants, and the loss of often resulted in labialized consonants. Compare the words for 'dog' in conservative varieties (Isthmus , Sierra de Juárez ) and innovative varieties (Amatlán and Mitla ). In this particular word Amatlán does not have a labialized consonant at the end, and the otherwise innovative variety Yatzachi keeps the final vowel: .

Another characteristic that classifies Zapotec varieties is the existence or not of a contrast between alveopalatal fricatives and retroflex fricatives. Innovative varieties have introduced the contrast while conservative varieties have not.

Phylogenetic classification

The most influential classification of Zapotec languages is due to Thomas Smith Stark, who proposed the following overall classification of Zapotec languages.

=Overall family tree and Central Zapotec branch

=
The branch of the family that contains the most languages is Central Zapotec, which includes most of the Zapotec languages of the Valley of Oaxaca and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The following figure shows the classification suggested by Smith Stark (2007).

=Northern Zapotec branch

=
The Northern branch is shown in more detail below, again following Smith Stark (2007)

Mutual intelligibility and regional classification

Based on intelligibility studies, previous classifications, and the needs for literacy development, Merrill (2008) classifies the varieties as follows; several varieties (in brackets) often small and moribund, were not included in the principal list:

;Central Zapotec
*;Isthmus: Guevea, Isthmus Zapotec (Juchitán), Lachiguiri, Petapa

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