5
Figure 1.2. The evolution of the Mixe-Zoquean languages Wichmann 1995:10
1.5 Isthmus Mixe typology
Since this study focuses on secondary palatalization and the phonology of the Isthmus Mixe language, the following sketch of its typology and syntax will be kept to the rudiments only. The phonology is discussed
in more detail in the following sections.
Isthmus Mixe is an SOV language Dieterman 2002a with prepositions and postpositions, genitives and demonstratives before noun heads, and relative clauses after the head. It generally fits Greenberg’s
type 23: SOV, Postpositions, Genitive-Noun, Attribute-Noun Greenberg 1966:109.
7
Transitive clauses are divided into direct active and inverse based on the models described in Givón 1994. The language is
agglutinating, characterized by long verbs comprising several morphemes and affixes.
8
1 m‚nit ha to
π»¾
j
‚µk ha
j
-u»nk
j
-hant s
j
-wow-tu π-p‚µk-
j
then the wife the 3
P
-child 3
P
-actually-call-trail-take-
CLMK 9
ju»k-ho»t
j
forest-center ‘Then the wife actually took her children on the trail into the heart of the forest.’
7
It would be possible to assign Isthmus Mixe to Greenberg’s type 19, which is the same as 23, except that there are Prepositions instead of Postpositions. Isthmus Mixe has only two prepositions, but several postpositions these have
not been completely analyzed; therefore 23 seems more appropriate.
8
Some frequently occurring verbs that are only one syllable long are commonly used, but may be affixed when syntactically necessary.
9
3
P
‘third person’;
CLMK
‘clause-type marker’
6 The clause is the basic information unit with typical sentences composed of one to three clauses.
Isthmus Mixe SOVX
10
word order in a one-clause sentence from a narrative discourse is shown in example 1.
1.6 Overview of this study
Although the focus of this study is on secondary palatalization in Isthmus Mixe, the material covered includes a range of related phonetic and phonological phenomena. Section 2 is a phonological sketch of
Isthmus Mixe, including phonetic descriptions illustrated with waveforms and spectrograms of various features of the language. Section 3 defines primary and secondary palatalization and gives examples of
each kind of palatalization, especially in the languages of the Mixe-Zoque family. Of particular importance is the presentation of the origin of secondary palatalization in the Mixe languages. Section 4 is a case study
of the effects of secondary palatalization in Isthmus Mixe: a text of fluent continuous speech was digitized for analysis and relevant statistical tests reveal a number of consistent relationships between secondary
palatalization and vowel allophones. Spectrograms illustrate the effects of secondary palatalization in various contexts. Finally, section 5 discusses the implications of the Isthmus Mixe data for theoretical
models of feature geometry and their ability to deal with it adequately. It will be demonstrated that not all the models are equal; in fact, the model developed by Hume 1994 is the best for the data, although this
model is modified to accommodate secondary palatalization as manifested in Isthmus Mixe. Derivations of Isthmus Mixe syllables are shown using the autosegmental model first developed by Goldsmith 1990.
Isthmus Mixe secondary palatalization, which manifests three homophonous morphemes, is considered to be a mutation process Lieber 1987. Thus, what is shown to be an unusual phonetic occurrence in the
language is seen as having important grammatical functions on the morphological level.
2. Phonological sketch of Isthmus Mixe
2.1 The Isthmus Mixe data
The Isthmus Mixe data analyzed in this study are extracted from personal narratives and other monologues spoken by various male and female native speakers and tape-recorded on site by the author, between 1994
and 1999. In addition, a recording of a text read by a male speaker in a professional recording studio in 1995 was purchased. All speakers were from San Juan Guichicovi and Mogoñé, located in the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico.
11
Field work began in a related Mixe language, spoken in the village of San José El Paraíso, where the author lived for extended periods of time from 1968–1977, primarily speaking the language of the people
there, Coatlán Mixe. During that time, she co-authored A hierarchical sketch of Mixe as spoken in San José El Paraíso
Van Haitsma [Dieterman] and Van Haitsma 1976. At a later period, 1994–1999, she made four visits of about three weeks each to San Juan Guichicovi and Mogoñé, during which time she lived
with the Isthmus Mixe people, conversed in Mixe with them, tape-recorded native speakers, and took notes during unrecorded conversations in Isthmus Mixe with other speakers and while listening to conversations
among the Mixe people.
In general, the style of language that was analyzed can be described as not completely unmonitored, but also not overly formal; it is somewhat closer to vernacular speech than more formally elicited data,
which tends to be unnaturally slow and overly careful. As Fant 1973:19 has noted: “A common observation when spectrograms of ordinary connected speech are studied is that modifications and
omissions of speech sounds are frequent. Carefully pronounced single testwords and phrases may differ
10
SOVX indicates that a peripheral element may follow the verb.
11
The names of Mixe speakers are not given because of the potential need for privacy and protection.
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