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3.4.4 Summary of Syllable Structure
Four types of syllables were shown to occur in Soyaltepec Mazatec: CV, CCV, CVV and CCVV. All four level tones were shown to occur on each syllable type, as well as rising and falling tones. It is
irrelevant to the tone system how many consonants or vowels occur in a syllable. Similarly, nasal vowels were shown to occur in each syllable type, indiscriminately.
Two types of clusters have been demonstrated in Soyaltepec, vowel clusters and consonant clusters. Vowel clusters occur, but single vowels are much more common, making CVV and CCVV the
least common syllable types. The consonant clusters also can be broken down into two groups. The first are clusters in which neither member of the cluster can be seen as dominant, but they are not very widespread
in the language §3.4.3.1. Their presence in combination with diphthongs establishes the maximal syllable structure of Soyaltepec to be CCVV. The second group of consonant clusters can be broken down into
three groups; the first is very common and includes all obstruents, both stops and fricatives, grouping with glottal phonemes discussed above in §3.4.3.2.1 and §3.4.3.3.1. The second and third groups are not very
widespread, they include obstruents preceded by nasals §3.4.3.4 and sonorants preceded by glottal phonemes §3.4.3.2.2 and §3.4.3.3.2. The status of these latter groups of phoneme combinations as clusters
is, perhaps arguable. I have offered evidence that they should be interpreted as clusters. It is beyond the scope of this dissertation to investigate the clusters further.
3.5 Larger Prosodic Units
Both monosyllabic and disyllabic words are common in Soyaltepec Mazatec. Trisyllabic words also occur although they are not as common among monomorphemic words. Longer words also occur, but
they are usually the product of morphology as both affixation and compounding are common processes. There are currently no examples of monomorphemic words with more than three syllables.
3.5.1 Two Syllable Words
Any two syllable types can be combined to form disyllabic words. Since codas are never allowed, consonant clusters which appear remain clusters whether word initial or intervocalic. The same set of onset
possibilities occurs for each syllable of multisyllabic words. The only restriction that occurs involves the
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nasal vowels which are limited to stressed syllables, otherwise, any onset and any nucleus can occur in any syllable of a monomorphemic word. Four basic syllable types occur in Soyaltepec as was discussed in
§3.4. If these four syllable types combine indiscriminately, sixteen possible structures for two syllable words are
produced. However, as has been demonstrated in §3.4, diphthongs are not as common as simple vowels; consequently, the distribution of two syllable words with diphthongs is somewhat limited. Words with
diphthongs on both syllables are even more uncommon. There are no attestations in my database of CVV.CCV, CVV.CVV, CVV.CCVV or CCVV.CCVV, and there are no monomorphemic examples of
CV.CVV. The attested two syllable word types appear in Table 3-29. In general, as one descends the table,
the number of occurrences diminishes. In the left part of the table, the syllable structure of each syllable of the disyllabic word is described while the right column gives examples. Stressed syllables are underlined.
Table 3-29 Disyllabic word patterns
Word structure Example
1
st
σ 2
nd
σ a.
CV CV
ʔi˩tʃ︢i˦˥ ‘small’ ʃu˩ti˩ ‘tomato’
b. CCV
ni˧ʔju˧ ‘paca’ w
a˧kjã˦˥ ‘crack’ c.
CVV
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tʃ︢a˧sei˧˩ ‘look 2s’ ja˧tiu˦ ‘wooden beam’
d. CCVV
ʔo˩ʃkũã˦˧ ‘brilliance’ ʔi˩kʔui˩ ‘here’
e. CCV
CV khi˥sũ˥ ‘nothing’
ndi˧ha˩ ‘horn’ f.
CCV ts︢ʔɛ˧nda˦ ‘algae’
ʃʔo˦thi˥ ‘woman’s dress’ g.
CVV nda˩jai˧ ‘reed’
ndi˦˥fua˧˦ ‘water’ h.
CCVV nga˩khãĩ˦ ‘face’
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No monomorphemic examples are available, tʃ︢a˧sei˧˩ ‘look 2s’ includes verbal morphology and
ja˧tiu˦ ‘wooden beam’ is a compound word.
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Table 3-29 - continued Word structure
Example 1
st
σ 2
nd
σ i.
CVV CV
tia˧wa˧ ‘white’ kua˧nɛ˧ ‘O-clock’
j. CCV
- k.
CVV -
l. CCVV
- m.
CCVV CV
thiu˩ʃĩ˦˥ ‘skin’ ndia˧jo˩ ‘stone’
n. CCV
thiu˧ngu˩ ‘fist’ o.
CVV ndiu˩fuɛ˧ ‘opossum’
p. CCVV
- Soyaltepec Mazatec favors simple CV syllables; however, up to two consonants and two vowels can occur
in each syllable. If a diphthong exists in a two syllable word, it is more likely to be on the second syllable; however, there are examples of words with a diphthong on the first syllable, as the second half of Table 3-
29 demonstrates, as well as words with a diphthong on both syllables, as row o demonstrates.
3.5.2 Three Syllable Words