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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview
The purpose of this dissertation is to describe the basic phonology of both the segmental and tonal systems of Soyaltepec Mazatec, an Oto-Manguean language of southern Mexico, and to demonstrate the
benefits of using Register Tier Theory RTT to describe the tonal system. Furthermore, looking at the tonal characteristics of Soyaltepec Mazatec will call into question the value of dividing tonal typology into
African-type tone languages and Asian type tone languages. Soyaltepec Mazatec is worthy of study for several reasons. First, it is an under-documented
language. There is no recent work analyzing the language and the only article specifically about Soyaltepec Mazatec
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available that contains primary data together with analysis of the tone system dates from the 1950’s Pike 1956. There is no work which specifically presents a detailed examination of the segments of
this language. Second, from the data available it is evident that the tone system is complex. It involves four levels of tone as well as several significant contour tones and is rich in tone sandhi. Analysis of complex
tone systems, specifically those with four levels of tonal contrast, contours and sandhi, is underrepresented among linguistic literature. Third, the Soyaltepec Mazatec data available has been used to demonstrate the
sequential nature of contour tones Biber 1981, Goldsmith 1990; however, some of Pike’s data and analysis seems to indicate unitary tonal processes as well. An analysis of Pike’s data by Pizer 1994
highlights this contradictory behavior.
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Unitary tonal behavior is surprising and difficult to explain in a system in which the contours are composed of sequences.
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Soyaltepec Mazatec data also appears in Gudschinsky 1959 and Kirk 1966 which list cognate sets for Proto-Mazatec. Each work also briefly summarizes the segmental information for each language it
mentions. Regino 1993 also provides some language data but it is not very detailed, especially regarding tones.
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A full summary of Pizer’s work appears in Chapter 2.
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In this dissertation I provide fresh, organized data which demonstrates the segments and tones that occur and I reinforce the evidence in favor of the sequential nature of the contour tones in Soyaltepec
Mazatec. I show that traditional single tiered autosegmental phonology is inadequate in describing the processes that occur. I demonstrate how an appropriate phonological representation of tone, in this case
RTT, can be used advantageously to explain and predict the complex behavior which occurs in this language. Finally, as the tonal systems of the Americas are, according to Yip 2002, among the least
studied of the world’s tonal systems, this dissertation helps to fill that void by further documenting an understudied language and providing organized, systematic data for anyone interested in further study of a
complex Mesoamerican tone system. The remainder of this chapter is laid out as follows.
§1.2 provides background information about the language and the sociolinguistic situation in which it exists.
§1.3 addresses the specific research questions that will be explored.
§1.4 discusses the methodology employed to collect data. §1.5 introduces the basic phonological theory that will be used to discuss tone in this dissertation. In
§1.6 traditional tonal typology is discussed. Finally in
§1.7 the organizational structure of the dissertation is described.
1.2 Background and Sociolinguistic Situation
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