Phonemes in Mixteco:
/ⁿb t ⁿd k (kʷ) ʔ/
/m n ɲ ŋ/
/β s ʃ x/
/t͡ʃ/
/r/
/j l/
/i u/
/ĩ ũ/
/ɛ ɔ/
/ɛ̃ ɔ̃/
/a/
/ã/
/˥ ˧ ˩/
Notes:
1. The prenasalized voiced stops are conjectured as being phonemes since:
A. Voiced stops only occur after homorganic nasals
B. Nasals do not occur as codas except before homorganic voiced stops.
This could also be explained by saying there is an archiphoneme /N/ that before stops is expressed as a coda, and voices them, and in other positions nasalizes the vowel, but the Law of Parsimony makes this unlikely.
2. /kʷ/ is put in parenthesis because it may be a /kuV/ sequence.
3. There are vowel sequences, but they do not seem to be phonemic diphthongs or long vowels, given the pulses of the vowels in PRAAT. They do not have glottal stops between them.
4. /i/ has an allophone /ɪ/, but further analysis is needed to determine the rules when the allophone occurs.
Phonotactics:
(C)V(V)(ʔ)
Morphology:
Nominal morphology:
Nouns are divided into classes. The ones that have been elicited are Male Human, Female Human, Animal, Wood and Trees, and Fruits and Vegetables.
The 3P pronouns are formed by the class prefix followed by /kaa/.
The Person and Numbers that are marked for humans are:
1P sing
2P sing
3P sing masc
3P sing fem
1P plr incl
1P plr exc
2P plr
3p plr masc
3p plr fem
Possession is divided into inalienable possession vs. alienible.
Alienable possession is formed by POSSESSED.NOUN CLASIF-PERS.NUMB
Example (Yerba Santa dialect):
kwai sane
kwai san-e
horse CLAS.ANIM-1P.SING
“My horse”
Inalienable possession is formed by attaching a person-number marker to the noun:
ⁿdaʔa
"hand"
ⁿdaʔí
ⁿdaʔ-í
hand-1P.SING
“My hand”
Verbal morphology:
Verbs take person and number marking. These are the same as the inalienable possessive markers, and if they begin in a vowel, the vowel replaces the last vowel of the root. For non-human subjects, they take a classifier marker, that does not change for plural.
The difference between present and past is tonal. As most roots are bisyllabic, it seems that the pattern for present is HM or ML, while the past is MH or LM.
The future is formed by suppletion.
Examples:
“Eat” present and past: ʃiʃi
“Eat” future: kùʃi
“Drink” present and past: ʃiʔi
“Drink” future: koʔo
Verbs may take the suffix /ku/ before the person/number suffix, which seems to be progressive.
Example present progressive paradigm:
ʃiʃi "eat"
1P sing: ʃiʃikui
1P plr incl: ʃiʃikujo
1P plr excl: ʃiʃikundi
2P sing: ʃiʃikũ
2P plr: ʃiʃikundo
3P sing Masc: ʃiʃikurà
3P sing fem: ʃiʃikuɲá
3P sing anim: ʃiʃikuri
3P plr: ʃiʃikúnú
Guerrero Mixtec "Field" work
Guerrero Mixtec "Field" work
I just finished a course where we did "field" work (over Zoom) with Mixteco immigrants from Guerrero. This is my sketch of the phonology and morphology, and I will post a syntactic analysis soon.
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
-JRR Tolkien
- Creyeditor
- MVP
- Posts: 5121
- Joined: 14 Aug 2012 19:32
Re: Guerrero Mixtec "Field" work
Can you explain the future suppletion again? Maybe with glossed examples (even if simplified)?
Creyeditor
"Thoughts are free."
Produce, Analyze, Manipulate
1 2 3 4 4
Ook & Omlűt & Nautli languages & Sperenjas
Papuan languages, Morphophonology, Lexical Semantics
"Thoughts are free."
Produce, Analyze, Manipulate
1 2 3 4 4
Ook & Omlűt & Nautli languages & Sperenjas
Papuan languages, Morphophonology, Lexical Semantics
Re: Guerrero Mixtec "Field" work
Syntax:
Syntax:
The Noun Phrase:
Adjectives and deictics come after the noun. They require the noun classifier to occur with the noun.
ti kwayi ⁿdaa
CLASS horse black
“The black horse”
ti kwaji kaa
CLASS horse that
Numerals come before the noun, and do not require the classifier, except to mark the noun as definite:
̃ĩĩ kwaji
One horse
“One horse”
̃ĩĩ ti kwaji
One CLASS horse
“The one horse”
Possesion may be marked by using a verb-like particle /sana/, with the personal endings:
nduʃu sana-i
Chicken SANA-1P
“My chicken”
Basic intransitive sentences:
The basic word order is SV. The subject may be dropped, if it is a pronoun.
jiʔi káʔa-ĩ
1P speak-1P
“I speak”
káʔa-ĩ
speak-1P
“I speak”
Adverbs come before the verb:
tãã kuʔ-i
Tommorow go.fut-1P
“I will go tommorow”
Basic Intransitive sentences:
The basic word order is SVO.
mio ʃiʔ-jo takuii
1P.PLR.EXCL drink- 1P.PLR.EXCL water
“We drink water”
The Copula:
The Copula, /kuu/ is verb-like, as it can take personal and class endings like verbs, but sometimes it stands alone, if one of the nouns is a pronoun. It is placed between the pronoun and the other noun:
jiʔi kuu ta sikũ
1P COP MASC tall
“I am the tall one [by a male speaker]”
Note the nominalazation of the adjective by putting a class marker before it.
An example of a verb-like copular sentence:
ñá savi-ku-i
FEM Mixteco-COP-1P
“I [Female speaker] am Mixteco”
Predicative adjectives, in addition to the copula, require the class marker to be repeated, with the particle /ta/ before the repeated class marker:
ti kwayi siʔi ta ti yaa-ku-ri
CLASS horse female TA CLASS white-COP-3P
“The mare is white”
Modality:
Modality is handled by putting a modal verb before the main verb, and conjugating both verbs:
Abilitative modality:
ʃíní-ra kata-ra
Able-3P sing-3P
“S/he can sing”
Permissive modality:
kutʃinu-i kata-i
Permit-1P sing-1P
Negation:
Negating nouns is done by the negative existencial, koó.
koó takwìí
“There is no water”
koó kwaji
“There is no horse”
To be specific, sivi (jùu)̀ is used instead.
sivi jùù kia
“That is not a rock”
Verbal phrases can be negated by the particle vasa:
vása sikú̃-ì
NEG tall-1P
“I am not tall
Interrogatives:
Polar questions are formed by the pre-sentence particle a:
A takaa ʃito-un?
INTEROG 3P look-2P
“Are you looking at him?”
A ʃaʃi-un ti-nana kwaʔa?
INTEROG eat-2P CLASS-tomato red.
“Are you eating a tomato?”
WH-questions are formed by putting the interrogative word in place of what is questioning:
juku “who”
juku ndoʔo
Who 2P
“Who are you?
juku kua “what is this”
juku kua jóʔo?
What thing this
“What is this thing”
juku kua tikwita jóʔo?
What thing round.object this
“what is this round thing?”
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
-JRR Tolkien
Re: Guerrero Mixtec "Field" work
Is this data all from the same dialect?