The Mixe–Zoque/ˌmiːheɪˈsoʊkeɪ/[1] (also: Mixe–Zoquean, Mije–Soke, Mije–Sokean) languages are a language family whose living members are spoken in and around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. The Mexican government recognizes three distinct Mixe–Zoquean languages as official: Mixe or ayook with 188,000 speakers, Zoque or o'de püt with 88,000 speakers, and the Popoluca languages of which some are Mixean and some Zoquean with 69,000 speakers. However, the internal diversity in each of these groups is great. Ethnologue counts 17 different languages, and the current classification of Mixe–Zoquean languages by Wichmann (1995) counts 12 languages and 11 dialects. Extinct languages classified as Mixe–Zoquean include Tapachultec, formerly spoken in Tapachula, along the southeast coast of Chiapas.
Historically the Mixe–Zoquean family may have been much more widespread, reaching into the Guatemalan Pacific coast (i.e. the Soconusco region). Terrence Kaufman and Lyle Campbell have argued, based on a number of widespread loanwords in other Mesoamerican languages, that it is likely that the Olmec people, generally seen as the earliest dominating culture of Mesoamerica, spoke a Mixe–Zoquean language.[2] Kaufman and John Justeson also claim to have deciphered a substantial part of the text written in Isthmian script (called also by them and some others 'Epi-Olmec') which appears on La Mojarra Stela 1, based upon their deciphering of the text as representing an archaic Mixe–Zoquean language.
Both of these claims have been criticized: Michael D. Coe and David Stuart argue that the surviving corpus of the few known examples of Isthmian inscriptions is insufficient to securely ground any proposed decipherment. Their attempt to apply Kaufman's and Justeson's decipherments to other extant Isthmian material failed to produce any meaningful results. Wichmann (1995) criticizes certain proposed Mixe–Zoquean loans into other Mesoamerican languages as being only Zoquean, not Mixean, which would put the period of borrowing much later than the Proto-Mixe–Zoquean time-frame in which the Olmec culture was at its height. The date of the Mixe–Zoque split has however since been pushed back, and the argument is therefore much weaker than it once was thought to be.[3]
Later, Kaufman (2001), again on the basis of loans from Mixe–Zoque into other Mesoamerican languages, argues a Mixe–Zoquean presence at Teotihuacan, and he ascribes to Mixe–Zoquean an important role in spreading a number of the linguistic features that later became some of the principal commonalities used in defining the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area.
Genetic relations with other families
The Mixe–Zoque languages have been included in several long-range classification proposals, e.g. in Edward Sapir's "Mexican Penutian" branch of his proposed Penutian linguistic superfamily, [4] or as part of the Macro-Mayan proposal by Norman McQuown with puts together the Mixe–Zoque languages with the Mayan languages and the Totonacan languages.[5] At the end of the last century, Lyle Campbell dismissed most earlier comparisons as methodologically flawed, but considered the Macro-Mayan proposal the most promising, but yet unproven hypothesis.[6] In two more recently published articles, evidence is presented for linking the Mixe–Zoque languages either with the Totonacan languages ("Totozoquean"),[7] or with the Mayan languages.[8]
Classification
Wichmann (1995)
The following internal classification of the Mixe–Zoquean languages is by Søren Wichmann (1995).
The following internal classification of the Mixe–Zoquean languages is by Kaufman & Justeson (2000), cited in Zavala (2000).[9] Individual languages are marked by italics.
The phoneme inventory of Proto-Mixe–Zoquean as reconstructed by Wichmann (1995) can be seen to be relatively simple, but many of the modern languages have been innovative; some have become quite vowel rich, and some also have introduced a fortis–lenis contrast in the stop series. Although the lateral phoneme /l/ is found in a few words in some of the languages, these are probably of onomatopoeic origin.
Mixe–Zoquean languages are characterized by complex syllabic nuclei made up of combinations of vowels together with the glottal stop and /h/ in the proto-language. Complex syllable-final consonant clusters are also typical in the daughter languages and can be reconstructed for the proto-language.
Proto-Mixe–Zoquean syllable nuclei could be either:
V – short vowel
V' – short vowel with glottal stop
VV – long vowel
V'V – long vowel with medial glottal stop
VV' – long vowel with final glottal stop
Vh – short vowel with h
Grammatical features
The Mixe–Zoquean languages are head-marking and polysynthetic, with morphologically complex verbs and simple nouns. Grammatical subjects as well as objects are marked in the verb. Ergativealignment is used, as well as direct–inverse systems triggered by animacy and topicality. In Mixe–Zoquean verbs, a morphological distinction is made between two basic clause-types, independent and dependent; verbs take different aspectual and personal affixes, depending on the type of clause in which they appear. There are two different sets of aspect-markers, one used in dependent clauses and another used in independent clauses. Three aspects are distinguished within each clause-type: incompletive, completive, and irrealis.
Ethnologue classification and SIL ISO-codes
Ethnologue still uses the earlier pre-Wichmann classification, based on surveys of mutual intelligibility and comparative work by William Wonderly, as a basis for their work. This classification is not used by historical linguists, and Lyle Campbell's authoritative 1997 presentation uses Wichmann's classification.
^Zavala Maldonado, Roberto. 2000. Inversion and other topics in the grammar of Olutec (Mixe). Ph.D. Dissertation: University of Oregon.
^Justeson, John S., and Terrence Kaufman (1993), "A Decipherment of Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing" in Science, Vol. 259, 19 March 1993, pp. 1703–11.
^Justeson, John S., and Terrence Kaufman (1997) "A Newly Discovered Column in the Hieroglyphic Text on La Mojarra Stela 1: a Test of the Epi-Olmec Decipherment", Science, Vol. 277, 11 July 1997, pp. 207–10.
^Justeson, John S., and Terrence Kaufman (2001) Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing and Texts 2011-05-25 at the Wayback Machine.
^Robinson, Andrew (2008) Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts, Thames & Hudson, ISBN978-0-500-51453-5.
References
Brown, Cecil H.; Beck, David; Kondrak, Grzegorz; Watters, James K.; Wichmann, S. (2011). "Totozoquean". International Journal of American Linguistics. 77 (3): 323–372. doi:10.1086/660972. JSTOR 10.1086/660972. S2CID 224807468.
Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages. New York: Oxford University Press.
Campbell, L., and T. Kaufman (1976), "A Linguistic Look at the Olmecs", American Antiquity, 41 pp. 80–89.
Justeson, John S., and Kaufman, Terrence, (1997),"A Newly Discovered Column in the Hieroglyphic Text on La Mojarra Stela 1: a Test of the Epi-Olmec Decipherment", Science, 07/11/97, Vol. 277 Issue 5323, p. 207.
Justeson, John S., and Kaufman, Terrence (2001) .
Kaufman, Terrence, (2001) Nawa linguistic prehistory, published at website of the Mesoamerican Language Documentation Project 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
McQuown, Norman (1942). "Una posible síntesis lingüística Macro-Mayance". Mayas y Olmecas. Vol. 2. México: Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología. pp. 37–38.
Mora-Marín, David F. (2016). "Testing the Proto-Mayan-Mije-Sokean hypothesis". International Journal of American Linguistics. 82 (2): 125–180. doi:10.1086/685900. S2CID 147269181.
Sapir, Edward (1929). "Central and North American languages". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Vol. 5 (14th ed.). pp. 138–141.
Wichmann, Søren (1998). "A conservative look at diffusion involving Mixe–Zoquean languages". In Roger Blench; Matthew Spriggs (eds.). Archaeology and Language, vol. II: Correlating archaeological and linguistic hypotheses. One World Archaeology series, no. 29. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN978-0-415-11761-6. OCLC 35673530.
on behalf of Brigham Young University archaeologist Stephen Houston and Yale University professor emeritus Michael Coe disputing Justeson/Kaufman findings.
External links
Wiktionary has a list of reconstructed forms at Appendix:Proto-Mixe-Zoquean reconstructions
Mixe–Zoque language family
December 31, 2022
mixe, zoque, languages, mixe, zoque, also, mixe, zoquean, mije, soke, mije, sokean, languages, language, family, whose, living, members, spoken, around, isthmus, tehuantepec, mexico, mexican, government, recognizes, three, distinct, mixe, zoquean, languages, o. The Mixe Zoque ˌ m iː h eɪ ˈ s oʊ k eɪ 1 also Mixe Zoquean Mije Soke Mije Sokean languages are a language family whose living members are spoken in and around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Mexico The Mexican government recognizes three distinct Mixe Zoquean languages as official Mixe or ayook with 188 000 speakers Zoque or o de put with 88 000 speakers and the Popoluca languages of which some are Mixean and some Zoquean with 69 000 speakers However the internal diversity in each of these groups is great Ethnologue counts 17 different languages and the current classification of Mixe Zoquean languages by Wichmann 1995 counts 12 languages and 11 dialects Extinct languages classified as Mixe Zoquean include Tapachultec formerly spoken in Tapachula along the southeast coast of Chiapas Mixe ZoqueMije SokeGeographicdistributionMesoamerica Mexico Oaxaca Chiapas Tabasco VeracruzLinguistic classificationTotozoquean Mixe ZoqueProto languageProto Mixe ZoqueanSubdivisionsMixean ZoqueanGlottologmixe1284Locations where the Mixe Zoque languages are spoken Mixe red and Zoque green Contents 1 History 1 1 Genetic relations with other families 2 Classification 2 1 Wichmann 1995 2 2 Kaufman amp Justeson 2000 3 Phonology 3 1 Syllables 4 Grammatical features 5 Ethnologue classification and SIL ISO codes 6 Notes 7 References 8 External linksHistory EditHistorically the Mixe Zoquean family may have been much more widespread reaching into the Guatemalan Pacific coast i e the Soconusco region Terrence Kaufman and Lyle Campbell have argued based on a number of widespread loanwords in other Mesoamerican languages that it is likely that the Olmec people generally seen as the earliest dominating culture of Mesoamerica spoke a Mixe Zoquean language 2 Kaufman and John Justeson also claim to have deciphered a substantial part of the text written in Isthmian script called also by them and some others Epi Olmec which appears on La Mojarra Stela 1 based upon their deciphering of the text as representing an archaic Mixe Zoquean language Both of these claims have been criticized Michael D Coe and David Stuart argue that the surviving corpus of the few known examples of Isthmian inscriptions is insufficient to securely ground any proposed decipherment Their attempt to apply Kaufman s and Justeson s decipherments to other extant Isthmian material failed to produce any meaningful results Wichmann 1995 criticizes certain proposed Mixe Zoquean loans into other Mesoamerican languages as being only Zoquean not Mixean which would put the period of borrowing much later than the Proto Mixe Zoquean time frame in which the Olmec culture was at its height The date of the Mixe Zoque split has however since been pushed back and the argument is therefore much weaker than it once was thought to be 3 Later Kaufman 2001 again on the basis of loans from Mixe Zoque into other Mesoamerican languages argues a Mixe Zoquean presence at Teotihuacan and he ascribes to Mixe Zoquean an important role in spreading a number of the linguistic features that later became some of the principal commonalities used in defining the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area Genetic relations with other families Edit The Mixe Zoque languages have been included in several long range classification proposals e g in Edward Sapir s Mexican Penutian branch of his proposed Penutian linguistic superfamily 4 or as part of the Macro Mayan proposal by Norman McQuown with puts together the Mixe Zoque languages with the Mayan languages and the Totonacan languages 5 At the end of the last century Lyle Campbell dismissed most earlier comparisons as methodologically flawed but considered the Macro Mayan proposal the most promising but yet unproven hypothesis 6 In two more recently published articles evidence is presented for linking the Mixe Zoque languages either with the Totonacan languages Totozoquean 7 or with the Mayan languages 8 Classification EditWichmann 1995 Edit The following internal classification of the Mixe Zoquean languages is by Soren Wichmann 1995 Mixe Zoquean classification by Soren Wichmann 1995 Proto Mixe ZoqueanProto Mixean Tapachultec Sayula Popoluca Sayultec Oluta Popoluca Olutec Proto Oaxaca Mixean North Highland Mixe South Highland Mixe Midland Mixe Lowland Mixe Proto Zoquean Proto Gulf Zoquean Chimalapa Zoque Chiapas ZoqueKaufman amp Justeson 2000 Edit The following internal classification of the Mixe Zoquean languages is by Kaufman amp Justeson 2000 cited in Zavala 2000 9 Individual languages are marked by italics Mixe ZoqueMixe Tapachultec Olutec Mixe Proper Sayultec branch Lowland Mixe Highland Mixe Zoque Gulf Zoquean Soteapan Zoque Sierra Popoluca branch Texistepec Zoque Ayapanec Zoque Zoque Chiapas Zoque Oaxaca ZoqueJusteson and Kaufman also classify Epi Olmec as a Zoquean language 10 11 12 although this claim is disputed by Andrew Robinson 13 Phonology EditThe phoneme inventory of Proto Mixe Zoquean as reconstructed by Wichmann 1995 can be seen to be relatively simple but many of the modern languages have been innovative some have become quite vowel rich and some also have introduced a fortis lenis contrast in the stop series Although the lateral phoneme l is found in a few words in some of the languages these are probably of onomatopoeic origin Front Central BackClose i iː ɨ ɨː u uːMid e eː o oːOpen a aː ɨ ɨː has also been reconstructed e eː Bilabial Alveolar Alveolo palatal Velar GlottalStop p t t s k ʔFricative s hNasal m nApproximant w jSyllables Edit Mixe Zoquean languages are characterized by complex syllabic nuclei made up of combinations of vowels together with the glottal stop and h in the proto language Complex syllable final consonant clusters are also typical in the daughter languages and can be reconstructed for the proto language Proto Mixe Zoquean syllable nuclei could be either V short vowel V short vowel with glottal stop VV long vowel V V long vowel with medial glottal stop VV long vowel with final glottal stop Vh short vowel with hGrammatical features EditThe Mixe Zoquean languages are head marking and polysynthetic with morphologically complex verbs and simple nouns Grammatical subjects as well as objects are marked in the verb Ergative alignment is used as well as direct inverse systems triggered by animacy and topicality In Mixe Zoquean verbs a morphological distinction is made between two basic clause types independent and dependent verbs take different aspectual and personal affixes depending on the type of clause in which they appear There are two different sets of aspect markers one used in dependent clauses and another used in independent clauses Three aspects are distinguished within each clause type incompletive completive and irrealis Ethnologue classification and SIL ISO codes EditEthnologue still uses the earlier pre Wichmann classification based on surveys of mutual intelligibility and comparative work by William Wonderly as a basis for their work This classification is not used by historical linguists and Lyle Campbell s authoritative 1997 presentation uses Wichmann s classification Mixe languages an estimated 90 000 native speakers Eastern Mixe An estimated 72 000 native speakersDialects Coatlan mco Istmo mir Quetzaltepec pxm Juquila mxq Mazatlan mzl Veracruz Mixe An estimated 4 000 native speakersDialects Oluta plo nearly extinct only 100 speakers Sayula pos Western MixeAn estimated 10 000 native speakers Dialects Totontepec mto Tlahuitoltepec mxp Zoque languages an estimated 60 000 native speakers Chiapas Zoque An estimated 22 000 native speakersDialects Copainala zoc Rayon zor Francisco Leon zos Oaxaca Zoque An estimated 4 500 native speakersDialect Chimalapa zoh Veracruz Zoque An estimated 30 000 native speakersDialects Highland poi Texistepec poq nearly extinct only 450 speakers Tabasco zoq nearly extinct only 40 speakersNotes Edit Zoque Mixe Oxford English Dictionary Online ed Oxford University Press Subscription or participating institution membership required Campbell and Kaufman 1976 Wichmann Beliaev amp Davletshin in press Sept 2008 Sapir 1929 McQuown 1942 Campbell 1997 p 323 324 Brown et al 2011 Mora Marin 2016 Zavala Maldonado Roberto 2000 Inversion and other topics in the grammar of Olutec Mixe Ph D Dissertation University of Oregon Justeson John S and Terrence Kaufman 1993 A Decipherment of Epi Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing in Science Vol 259 19 March 1993 pp 1703 11 Justeson John S and Terrence Kaufman 1997 A Newly Discovered Column in the Hieroglyphic Text on La Mojarra Stela 1 a Test of the Epi Olmec Decipherment Science Vol 277 11 July 1997 pp 207 10 Justeson John S and Terrence Kaufman 2001 Epi Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing and Texts Archived 2011 05 25 at the Wayback Machine Robinson Andrew 2008 Lost Languages The Enigma of the World s Undeciphered Scripts Thames amp Hudson ISBN 978 0 500 51453 5 References EditBrown Cecil H Beck David Kondrak Grzegorz Watters James K Wichmann S 2011 Totozoquean International Journal of American Linguistics 77 3 323 372 doi 10 1086 660972 JSTOR 10 1086 660972 S2CID 224807468 Campbell Lyle 1997 American Indian Languages New York Oxford University Press Campbell L and T Kaufman 1976 A Linguistic Look at the Olmecs American Antiquity 41 pp 80 89 Justeson John S and Kaufman Terrence 1997 A Newly Discovered Column in the Hieroglyphic Text on La Mojarra Stela 1 a Test of the Epi Olmec Decipherment Science 07 11 97 Vol 277 Issue 5323 p 207 Justeson John S and Kaufman Terrence 2001 Epi Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing and Texts Kaufman Terrence 2001 Nawa linguistic prehistory published at website of the Mesoamerican Language Documentation Project Archived 2016 03 03 at the Wayback Machine McQuown Norman 1942 Una posible sintesis linguistica Macro Mayance Mayas y Olmecas Vol 2 Mexico Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologia pp 37 38 Mora Marin David F 2016 Testing the Proto Mayan Mije Sokean hypothesis International Journal of American Linguistics 82 2 125 180 doi 10 1086 685900 S2CID 147269181 Sapir Edward 1929 Central and North American languages Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 5 14th ed pp 138 141 Wichmann Soren 1995 The Relationship Among the Mixe Zoquean Languages of Mexico Salt Lake City University of Utah Press ISBN 978 0 87480 487 4 Wichmann Soren 1998 A conservative look at diffusion involving Mixe Zoquean languages In Roger Blench Matthew Spriggs eds Archaeology and Language vol II Correlating archaeological and linguistic hypotheses One World Archaeology series no 29 London and New York Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 11761 6 OCLC 35673530 Brigham Young University press release on behalf of Brigham Young University archaeologist Stephen Houston and Yale University professor emeritus Michael Coe disputing Justeson Kaufman findings External links Edit Wiktionary has a list of reconstructed forms at Appendix Proto Mixe Zoquean reconstructions Mixe Zoque language family Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Mixe Zoque languages amp oldid 1117279232, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
