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3.4.1 Maximal and Minimal Syllable
All syllables in Soyaltepec Mazatec are open: codas never occur. Onsets are mandatory. All 17 consonant phonemes of Soyaltepec can occur alone in the onset of syllables. CV is the minimal and most
common syllable type. Up to two consonants and vowels are allowed in monomorphemic words; therefore, there are four possible syllable types: CV, CCV, CVV and CCVV. All of these occur as can be seen in
20 through 23 which list examples of each type. At this point in the discussion, onsets that are more universally understood as clusters i.e
., st, sk, ʃt, ʃk and tk are used whenever possible. In
three instances this type of cluster was not available so examples with onsets which could potentially be interpreted as aspirated 21b and f or glottalized 23a were included. The exact possibilities for complex
syllable nuclei and onsets are discussed at length in §3.4.2 and §3.4.3 respectively. Each example set below includes examples of the designated syllable type with the four level tones arranged from highest to lowest
in a-d and one example of a rising tone e and a falling tone f.
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For example, 20a is an example of a CV syllable with a High tone, 20b of a CV syllable with a Mid-high, and so forth.
20 CV Syllables
21 CCV Syllables
Transcription Gloss Transcription Gloss
a. f i˥
‘slowly’ a.
ʃki˥ ‘whirlpool’
b. hi ˦
‘you’ b.
thi˦ ‘round’
c. ts︢ɛ˧
‘guava’ c.
tk a˧
‘bald’ d.
tᶘ︢u˩ ‘animal’
d. ski˩
‘cicada’ e.
hĩ˦˥ ‘blood’
e. tki˧˦
‘medicine’ f. ta
˧˩ ‘unripe’
f. thɛ˦˩
‘breed
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The rising and falling tones are not as common, so I have not endeavored to include examples of all rises and falls exhaustively for each syllable, but just representative examples to show that this type of tone is
possible.
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Soyaltepec allows either one 20 or two 21 consonants to occur in the onset of the syllable with each type of tone. Soyaltepec also allows clusters of two vowels to occur in the nucleus of a syllable with
either one or two consonants. Examples of CVV syllables appear in 22 and examples of CCVV appear in 23. Each of these syllable patterns also occurs with the six tonal classes indicated. In two cases, 22d
and 22f, monosyllabic words were not available; these examples are enclosed in parentheses to indicate their divergence from the desired monosyllabic pattern and the syllable that contains the syllable example
which is in focus is underlined. 22
CVV Syllables 23
CCVV Syllables Transcription Gloss
Transcription Gloss
a. suɛ˥
‘hot’ a.
tʃ︢ʔũĩ˥ ‘chayote’
b. sĩã˦
‘standing’ b.
ʃtiu˦ ‘underdeveloped’
c. kui˧
‘he’ c.
tkue ˧
‘raspy’
d. kua˩ts︢u˥
‘they say’ d.
ʃkũã˩ ‘dust’
e. ʔai˧˥
‘heavy’ e.
ʃkue˦˥ ‘lettuce’
f. j a˧tiu˦˩
‘wooden beam’ f.
ʃkiɛ˦˩ ‘frog’
In summary, there are multiple examples of each syllable type. Each occurs with the four level tones H, M
1,
M
2
and L as well as rising and falling tones. Currently there are no monosyllabic examples of CVV with L or falling tones. A multisyllabic example was provided to show that there is not a restriction
against these tones appearing on a CVV syllable. CVV is the least common syllable type so the omissions can be attributed to its rarity rather than a restriction.
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3.4.2 Vowel Clusters
Kategori