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• Glottal–sonorant
hm, ʔm, hn, ʔn, hɲ, ʔɲ, ʔw and ʔj The vowels are discussed in
§3.2 and the consonants in §3.3. The presentation of the consonants includes co-occurrence patterns between the vowels and consonants. Basic syllables and the clusters which
occur are discussed in §3.4. In §3.5, the combination of syllables into larger prosodic units is presented.
Stress and where it falls in Soyaltepec is examined in §3.6. Finally, the segmental inventory of Soyaltepec is summarized in §3.7.
3.2 Simple Vowels
In this section, I give examples of minimal pairs of oral vowels to establish the vowel qualities, and then of oral versus nasal vowels to establish contrast. Subsequently, I give an example of each vowel
phoneme with h. Then, I discuss the pronunciation of the vocalic phonemes and the variation which occurs. Finally, I discuss the restriction of nasal vowels to stressed syllables.
3.2.1 Vowel Phonemes
Soyaltepec Mazatec makes use of five vowel specifications, each of which may be oral or nasal. The complete inventory was given above in Table 3-1. Minimal and near minimal sets demonstrating the
distinctions between oral vowels appear in 2: 2a contains examples with a Mid to Mid-high contour tone with a minimal pair between a and
ɛ, an u which differs only in part of speech and i which differs in onset; 2b demonstrates words containing High tones with a minimal pair between i and
ɛ and a near
minimal pair for u which differs in onset; 2c contains Mid tone examples of a minimal pair a vs. i, an o which differs in part of speech, an u which differs in onset and a second minimal pair
ɛ vs. o which
are also near minimal to the remaining examples; finally, 2d contains High tones with a minimal pair between o and u which differ in part of speech.
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2 Minimal pairs for oral vowels
a. Minimal a vs. ɛ - near minimal u and i
Transcription Gloss
ta˧˦ ‘toasted’
tɛ˧˦ ‘squished’
tu˧˦ ‘fruit’
ts︢i˧˦ ‘yours’
b. M inimal i vs. ɛ near minimal u
Transcription Gloss
ti˥ ‘burns’
tɛ˥ ‘dances’
ts︢u˥ ‘says’
c. Minimal a vs. i, near minimal o, u, minimal ɛ vs. o Transcription
Gloss ʃʔa˧
‘open’ ʃʔi˧
‘grind’ ʃʔo˧
‘skirt’ ᶘu˧
‘boils’ sʔɛ˧
‘lay down’ sʔo˧
‘he breaks’
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d. M inimal o, u
Transcription Gloss
ko˥ ‘how many?’
ku˥ ‘and’
The examples in 2 show five vowel qualities which contrast on monosyllabic words of the same tone. There are minimal pairs for a vs.
ɛ , i vs.
ɛ , a vs. i and
ɛ vs. o as well as multiple near minimal
sets including 2c which includes comparisons for all five of the oral vowels with similar onsets and the same tone.
Minimal pairs also occur which show a distinction between the oral and nasal vowels. Near minimal pairs for
ɛ vs. ɛ̃ are shown in 3 and for a vs. ã in 4. Unfortunately, while the segments are the same except for the nasality and the tones are the same, only 4b contains a pair which has the
same part of speech and is therefore truly minimal. 3
Minimal Pairs for ɛ vs. ɛ̃ Transcription
Gloss a.
sɛ˧ ‘thick’
sɛ̃˧ ‘wager’
b. tʔɛ˦˥
‘hear’ t
ʔɛ̃˦˥ ‘conjunctivitis’
c. βa˧sɛ˧
‘look’ βa˧sɛ̃˧
‘half’
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4 Minimal pairs for a vs. ã
Transcription Gloss
a. ʔa˧
‘YNQ’ ʔã˧
‘I’ b.
kʔa˧ ‘tall’
kʔã˧ ‘single’
There are no exact minimal pairs for i vs. ĩ, u vs. ũ or o vs. õ; however, each
occurs in a wide variety of environments and near minimal pairs, none of which are in complementary
distribution. I posit that each of these vowels follows the pattern
of a vs. ã and ɛ vs. ɛ̃ and are therefore distinct phonemes.
In order to demonstrate the phonemes that exist, Table 3-3 below supplies examples of the vowels with the glottal fricative and various tones. The table demonstrates that all ten vowel phonemes occur with
the glottal fricative with various tones. While pairing the vowels with the glottal fricative provides numerous examples and near minimal pairs, there are no exact minimal pairs for oral versus nasal vowels
which appear in this environment. The glottal fricative was chosen for demonstrative purposes because there are multiple examples available for each vowel and the consonant itself has little influence on the
shape of the vowel. Whenever possible, a monosyllabic morpheme was chosen. The far left column lists the vowels being compared, the middle column gives examples with oral vowels and the rightmost column lists
examples with nasal vowels. Here and throughout this chapter, the syllable with primary stress is underlined.
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Table 3-3 Vowel Examples in Soyaltepec Mazatec
Vowel Oral Vowel Nasal Vowel
a. aã
ha˩ ‘eagle’ ha˧ʔa˧ ‘happened’
hã˥ ‘three’ hã˧˥ ‘there’
b. ɛɛ̃
hɛ˧ ‘fat’ hɛ˩ʔɛ˩ ‘young ear of corn’
hẽ˧˩ ‘smells’ ts︢ɛ˧hẽ˧˦ ‘visible’
ts︢ɛ˧hɛ̃˧ ‘fell’
c. iĩ
- hi˥ ‘negative suffix’
hi˦ ‘you singular’ hĩ˥ ‘name’
hĩ˦˥ ‘blood’ hĩ˧˦ ‘eight’
hĩ˧˩ ‘we, exclusive’
d. oõ
ho˥ ‘two’ ja˧ho˥ ‘sharp
ja˧ho˧ ‘meat’ hõ˧˦ ‘six’
hõ˧ ‘soldier’
e. uũ
ndu˧hu˥ ‘long’ ndu˩hu˩ ‘soap’
hũ˧ ‘yes’ hũ˥ ‘you plural’
The corresponding nasal vowel for each of the five oral vowels is contrastive; oral and nasal vowels are distinct phonemes. The further examples with various consonants given in §3.3 will reinforce this fact.
3.2.2 Pronunciation and Variation
