Silacayoapan Mixtec

Silacayoapan is one of the more extensive Mixtec languages. It is spoken by 150,000 people in Puebla and across the border in Guerrero, as well as by emigrants to the United States.

Silacayoapan Mixtec
Native to	Mexico
Region	Oaxaca, Guerrero
Native speakers	(150,000 in Mexico cited 1990–2011)[1]
Language family	Oto-Manguean Mixtecan Mixtec Silacayoapan–Cacaloxtepec Silacayoapan Mixtec
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: mks – Silacayoapan mxb – Tezoatlán vmc – Juxtlahuaca mim – Alacatlatzala (Cahuatache) mxv – Metlatónoc (San Rafael) xta – Alcozauca jmx – Coicoyán (Western Juxtlahuaca) mxa – Portezuelo (Northwest Oaxaca)
Glottolog	cent2266  Central Baja Mixtec sout3179  Southern Baja Mixtec guer1245  Guerrero Mixtec tezo1238  Tezoatlan Mixtec
ELP	Central Baja Mixtec
	Guerrero Mixtec[2]
	Tezoatlan Mixtec[3]
	Southern Baja Mixtec (shared)[4]

Dialects

Egland & Bartholomew^[5] found six dialects (with > ≈80% internal intelligibility) which had about 70% mutual intelligibility with each other:

• Metlatónoc (Metlatónoc, San Rafael, Tlacoachistlahuaca, Cochoapa), Alcozauca (Alcozauca, Xochapa, Petlacalancingo)
• Portezuelo (Santos Reyes Yucuná, Guadalupe Portezuelo, San Simón Zahuatlán)
• Coicoyán (San Martín Peras Cuatzoquitengo, Río Frijol, Santa Cruz Yucucani, San José Yoxocaño, Malvabisco, Rancho Limón, Río Aguacate, Boca de Mamey)
• (varieties within ≈75% of Silacayoapan proper)
  • Juxtlahuaca (San Sebastián Tecomaxtlahuaca, San Miguel Tlacotepec, Santos Reyes Tepejillo, Santa María Tindú, San Martín Duraznos)
  • Alacatlatzala (Alacatlatzala, Cahuatache, Tenaztalcingo, Jilotepec, Zacatipa, Tototepec, Cuba Libre, San Isidro Labrador, Quiahuitlatlatzala, Xonacatlán, Tepecocatlán, Cuautipa, Ocuapa, Potoichan)
  • Silacayoapan
    • Silacayoapan proper (Santo Domingo Tonalá, San Jorge Nuchita)
    • Tezoatlán (Yucuquimi de Ocampo, San Andrés Yutatío, Yucuñuti de Benito Juárez, San Juan Diquiyú, San Marcos de Garzón, San Martín del Río, Santa Catarina Yotandú, San Isidro de Zaragoza, San Valentín de Gomez)
    • (other towns) Ixpantepec Nieves, Santiago Tamazola, Atenango, San Miguel Ahuehuetitlán

Ethnologue counts (Santa María) Yucunicoco Mixtec with Juxtlahuaca Mixtec. However, Egland & Bartholomew found it to have only 50% intelligible with Juxtlahuaca. Comprehension of Mixtepec is 85%, but in the other direction only 45%.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k   kʷ	ʔ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd	ⁿdʒ	ᵑɡ
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Fricative	voiceless		s	ʃ	x
	voiced	β	ð	ʒ
Approximant			l	j
Rhotic			ɾ

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i   ĩ	ʉ	u   ũ
Close-Mid	e   ẽ		o   õ
Open		a   ã

^[6][7]

Further reading

• Cortés, Félix and Mantenuto, Iara and Steffman, Jeremy (2023). "San Sebastián del Monte Mixtec". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association: 1–22. doi:10.1017/S0025100322000226{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link), with supplementary sound recordings.