Mixe languages

Not to be confused with Mixean languages or Mixtec 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 Oaxaca are commonly called Mixe while their two relatives spoken in Veracruz are commonly called "Popoluca", but sometimes also Mixe (these are "Oluta Popoluca" or "Olutec Mixe" and "Sayula Popoluca" or "Sayultec Mixe"). This article is about the Oaxaca Mixe languages, which their speakers call Ayöök, Ayuujk, Ayüük or Ayuhk.^{[citation needed]}

Video on Mixe produced by UABJO

Mixe
Oaxacan Mixean Ayuujk
Geographic distribution	Oaxaca, Mexico
Ethnicity	Mixe people
Native speakers	140,000 (2020 census)[1]
Linguistic classification	Mixe–Zoque Mixean Mixe
Subdivisions	Totontepec Tlahuitoltepec Midland Isthmus Ulterior Mixe
Language codes
Glottolog	oaxa1241
The Mixe region within the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico

People	Ayuujkjä'äy (Mixe)
Language	Ayöök (Mixe)

140,000 people reported their language to be "Mixe" in the 2020 census.^[1]

Classification

Oaxaca Mixe languages are spoken in the Sierra Mixe of eastern Oaxaca. These four languages are: North Highland Mixe, spoken around Totontepec (the most divergent); South Highland Mixe, spoken around Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, Ayutla and Tamazulapan); Midland Mixe, spoken around Juquila and Zacatepec; and Lowland Mixe, spoken in San Juan Guichicovi (this language is also known as "Isthmus Mixe").

The following classification is from Wichmann (1995:9).

Mixe (Oaxacan Mixean)

• North Highland Mixe (Totontepec)
• South Highland Mixe (Tlahuitoltepec)
  • Core (Tlahuitoltepec, Ayutla, Tamazulapan)
  • Fringe (Tepuxtepec, Tepantlali, Mixistlán)
• Midland Mixe
  • North Midland Mixe (Jaltepec, Puxmetacan, Matamoros, Cotzocón)
  • South Midland Mixe (Juquila, Cacalotepec)
• Lowland Mixe (Camotlán, San José El Paraíso / Coatlán, Mazatlán, Guichicovi)

Wichmann (2008) adds Ulterior Mixe as an additional branch:

Mixe

• Totontepec Mixe
• Ulterior Mixe
• Lowland – Midland Mixe – South Highland
  • Tlahuitoltepec Mixe
  • Lowland–Midland Mixe
    • Midland Mixe
      • Juquila Mixe
      • North Central Mixe
    • Lowland Mixe
      • Coatlán Mixe
      • Isthmus Mixe (Guichicovi)
      • Mazatlán Mixe

Phonology

The phonology of Mixe languages is remarkable due to their complex system of vowel duration contrasts in addition to glottalization. There is a palatalized series of all consonant phonemes (as in Russian, Polish or Irish) and possibly a fortis/lenis distinction in the plosive series, the recognition of which however is obscured by a tendency towards allophonic voicing of consonants in voiced environments.

The tables below illustrate the phonemes for Ayöök (Totentepec) Mixe:

Vowels

Syllable nuclei vary in length and phonation. Most descriptions report three contrastive vowel lengths.^[2] The other types of phonation have been variously termed checked vowels, creaky voice vowels and breathy voice vowels.

	Short			Long
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
High	i /i/	ï /ɨ/	u /u/	ii /iː/	ïï /ɨ/	uu /uː/
Close-mid	e /e/	ë /ə/	o /o/	ee /eː/	ëë /əː/	oo /oː/
Open-mid	ä /æ/			ää /æː/
Low (open)		a /a/			aa /aː/

Consonants

	Labial		Alveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
	plain	pal.	plain	pal.	plain	pal.	plain		plain	pal.	plain	pal.
Nasal	m	mʲ	n	nʲ
Plosive	p	pʲ	t	tʲ					k	kʲ
Affricate			t͡s	t͡sʲ
Fricative	β	βʲ	s[i]		ʂ	ʂʲ					h	hʲ
Trill			r[i]
Approximant			l[i]				j

1. Used only in loanwords and onomatopoeia.

Grammar

Verbs

The morphosyntactic alignment of Mixe is ergative and it also has an obviative system which serves to distinguish between verb participants in reference to its direct–inverse system.^{[citation needed]} The Mixe verb is complex and inflects for many categories and also shows a lot of derivational morphology. One of the parameters of verb inflection is whether a verb occurs in an independent or dependent clause; this distinction is marked by both differential affixation and stem ablaut.^{[citation needed]} Unlike Sayultec Mixe^[3] (spoken in the neighboring state of Veracruz), Mixe languages of Oaxaca only mark one argument on the verb:^{[citation needed]} either the object or the subject of the verb depending on whether the verb is in the direct or inverse form. Mixe shows a wide variety of possibilities for noun incorporation.

Nouns

The Mixe noun does not normally inflect, except that human nouns inflect for plural.^{[citation needed]} Noun compounding is a very productive process, and the profuse derivational morphology allows for creation of new nouns both from verbs and from other nouns. To indicate the plural an enclitic, ëch, is added to the noun.^[4]

Syntax

Mixe languages have SOV constituent order, prepositions and genitives precede the noun. But relative clauses follow the noun.^{[citation needed]}

Sample

This sample is from Lowland Mixe:^[5]

pwes

[pwes

Well

hadu'n

haduʔn

there

idaa

ʔidaː

this

yɨyoop

ʲ-ʔɨjoːb

3P-poor

jɨyäj

hɨjaʔaj

person

idaa

ʔidaː

this

aldeano

ʔaldeano

ranch hand

mɨɨt

mɨːd

with

ytöxyijk

ʲ-toʔoʃʲɨʰk

3P.POSS-woman

ytɨkoy

ʲtɨɡoˑjʲ

3P-CAUS/PAS-lose-DEP

yɨ

jɨ

the

mɨkü

mɨkuʔu]

devil

pwes hadu'n idaa yɨyoop jɨyäj idaa aldeano mɨɨt ytöxyijk ytɨkoy yɨ mɨkü

[pwes haduʔn ʔidaː ʲ-ʔɨjoːb hɨjaʔaj ʔidaː ʔaldeano mɨːd ʲ-toʔoʃʲɨʰk ʲtɨɡoˑjʲ jɨ mɨkuʔu]

Well there this 3P-poor person this {ranch hand} with 3P.POSS-woman 3P-CAUS/PAS-lose-DEP the devil

"Well that's how this poor person, this ranch hand with his wife, made the devil lose"

Radio

Mixe-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XEGLO, based in Guelatao de Juárez, Oaxaca.

See also

• Agustín Quintana