The phonetics and phonology of Chuxnaban Mixe. (2024)

1. Introduction

Chuxnaban Mixe is a Mixe-Zoque language spoken by nine hundredpeople in one village in Oaxaca, Mexico. The Mixe territory is composedof two hundred and ninety communities (Torres Cisneros 1997). Eachcommunity speaks a different variety of Mixe, and some are mutuallyunintelligible. In many cases it is unclear whether a particular varietyrepresents a distinct language or dialect, given that the documentationof Mixean languages is very limited. While some linguists divide OaxacaMixean into four main varieties: Lowland Mixe, Midland Mixe, SouthHighland Mixe, and North Highland Mixe (Campbell 1997; Wichmann 1995),the Ethnologue lists eight different Mixean languages spoken in Oaxacaand divided into two larger branches: Eastern Mixe with six languagesand Western Mixe with two languages (Gordon 2005). Chuxnaban Mixe hasbeen identified by its speakers as Midland Mixe, and corresponds toQuetzaltepec Mixe in the Ethnologue entry. To date, there are very fewphonetic and phonological studies of Mixean languages (Bickford 1984,1985; Crawford 1963; Dieterman 2008; Hoogshagen 1959; Jany 2006, 2007)and only a handful of grammatical descriptions (De la Grasserie 1898;Hoogshagen 1997; Ruiz de Bravo Ahuja 1980; Schoenhals 1982; Van Haitsma1976).

While Chuxnaban Mixe continues to be learnt as a first language bychildren, the proficiency of these speakers is limited given that alleducation is offered in Spanish. Furthermore, the proficiency is rapidlydeclining because many people migrate to cities or to the United States.Communication with Mixean speakers from other villages often occurs inSpanish, especially if the variety spoken is very distinct. As a result,language use is restricted to unofficial daily activities within thecommunity, and literacy is limited to the official language: Spanish.Due to the limited use, the growing bilingualism, and the exclusiveliteracy in the dominant language Chuxnaban Mixe is considered unsafe(Brenziger et al. 2003; Grenoble and Whaley (2006).

This paper presents the first detailed descriptive outline of thesounds and major phonological processes found in Chuxnaban Mixe. Thedata for this work comes from fieldwork conducted in 2006 and 2008 inthe community, as well as from continuous sessions with a speaker livingin the United States. Chuxnaban Mixe has a relatively simple consonantsystem and a complex vowel system with a phonemic vowel lengthdistinction and a phonemic phonation contrast between plain, aspirated,and glottalized vowels. The vowel system varies greatly among thedifferent Mixean languages and dialects (Crawford 1963; Hoogshagen 1997;Schoenhals 1982; Suslak 2003; Van Haitsma 1976; Wichmann 1995). Theconsonant system shows several traits common to Mesoamerica (Campbell etal. 1986), such as allophonic obstruent voicing and final sonorantdevoicing, and it is identical across Mixean languages with some minorexceptions.

The following sections describe the consonant system, phonologicalprocesses affecting consonants, the complex vowel system, andorthographic conventions. The sound files included here were recordedbetween 2006 and 2008 during field trips to the village and with aspeaker living in the United States. The recordings were made on eithera Mini-Disc recorder or a Solid State Edirol recorder with ahead-mounted Shure microphone and examined using Sound Forge and Praatsoftware. Male and female speakers were recorded ranging from seventeento eighty years of age, and data from elicitation, as well as fromnarratives, are included.

2. The Consonant System

There are eleven consonantal phonemes: four stops, two nasals, twofricatives, one affricate (2), and two glides, in addition to eightphonemes /b, d, g, f, s, r, r, l/ occurring in Spanish loans. Theconsonants are summarized in Tables 1 and 2. Corresponding symbols inthe practical orthography, if different from the symbols used in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), are included in angled brackets.Phonemes from Spanish loans are in parentheses.

The glottal stop has only been identified as a phoneme when itforms part of a syllable nucleus, as in V? and V? V and in cases where aprefix is attached to a vowel-initial word. The glottal fricative /h/functions as a phoneme in onset and coda position, as well as when it ispart of the nucleus [VV.sup.h], with different phonetic realizations ineach prosodic position.

The following list of minimal pairs illustrates the phonemiccontrasts.

/p ~ t / /p ~ k/ /t ~ k/paajk 'bone' pox 'guava' teky 'foot'taajk 'police kox 'knee' kepy 'tree'officer'/m ~ n/ /m ~ k/ /m ~ p/mej 'large' mox 'stomach' tsim 'cup'neej 'water' kox 'knee' tsip 'war'/n ~ p/ /n ~ [empty set]/ /n ~ t[integral]/noky 'paper' neex 'daughter J piin 'pick up (dirt)'poky 'sin' eex 'mushroom' piich 'thread'/h ~ k/ /[integral] ~ h/ /[integral] ~ h/joy 'level' pox 'guava' xuupy 'to cook'koy 'pillow' po] 'wind' juupy 'to buy'/[integral] ~ w/ /[integral] ~ /[integral] ~ n/ [empty set]/woox 'letter' tsuxk 'green' xooky 'nail'woow 'a plant' tsuk 'mouse' noky 'paper'/[integral] ~ ts/ /t[integral] ~ k/ /t[integral] ~ t/xip 'itch' tsachy 'fly' cheejk 'his/her house'tsip 'war' tsak 'tasteless' teejk 'house'/ts ~ p/ /t[integral] ~ /t[integral]/ ~ ts/ [integral]/tsa'am 'plaintain' ta'chk 'guajiniquil' chaa 'here'pa'am 'disease' (type of plant) taxk 'green' tsaa 'stone'/w ~ j/ /y ~ h/ /j ~ m/kow 'guitar' yo'kn 'neck' yek 'black'koy 'pillow' jo'kn 'hook' mek 'strong'

The glottal stop is inserted word-initially when a word starts witha vowel in order to avoid an onsetless syllable. This results in minimalpairs, such as 'ak 'skin' versuspak 'pigeon'.Given this predictable distribution, it is not regarded as showing aphonemic contrast in this position unless a prefix is attached, as inthe following examples.

/? ~ [empty set]/ /? ~ [empty set]/n'a't 'my louse'(n-'my, a't''louse') m'ak 'your skin (m-your, ak 'skin')nat 'deaf' mak 'large'

Glottal stops are always considered phonemic when they form part ofthe vowel nucleus as reflected in the laryngeal timing of creakiness inthe middle or last portion of the vowel. The following minimal pairsillustrate this contrast.

/? ~ [empty set]/ /? ~ [empty set]/xu'kx 'tasty' pu'uy 'panel, board'xukx 'spin' puuy 'seat'

The eight phonemes from Spanish loans /b, d, g, f, s, r, r, l/ areillustrated in the following examples. Minimal pairs are not presentedhere given that the phonemic contrasts refer to the Spanish language.

cebu 'type of bull' from Spanish cebucierre 'zipper' from Spanish cierresuetre 'jacket' from Spanish sueterchancle 'flip-flop' from Spanish chanclacruts 'cross' from Spanish cruzbote 'boot' from Spanish botalugar 'place' from Spanish lugarDios 'God' from Spanish Diosnanuele 'grandmother' from Spanish abuelacebu 'type of bull'cierre 'closure'suetre 'jacket' (from English sweater)chancle 'flip-flop'cruts 'cross'bote 'boot'lugar 'place'Dios 'God'nanuele 'grandmother'

Allophonic variations for all consonantal phonemes, except the onesfrom Spanish loans, and phonological processes affecting consonants aredescribed in the following sections.

2.1 Stops p, t, k,?

Chuxnaban Mixe has four stops in bilabial, alveolar, velar, andglottal position. Their allophones include voiceless, voiced, aspirated,and unreleased stops; the glottal stop generally manifests as creakinesson the vowel.

/p/ [right arrow] [p, b, [p.sup.h], [??]]/t/ [right arrow] [t, d, [t.sup.h], [??]]/k/ [right arrow] [k, g, [k.sup.h], [??]]/?/ [right arrow] [?,[??]]

The bilabial, alveolar, and velar stops /p, t, k/ are voiced afternasals and glides in word-initial and word-medial clusters, but notword-finally. Word-medial single consonants affected by palatalizationare always voiced given that palatalization, a suprasegmental process inMixean languages, creates an onglide in addition to an offglide. If thefirst consonant in a word-medial cluster is voiceless and palatalized,no voicing occurs, even though an offglide follows the cluster. Thestops are also voiced intervocalically after plain and interruptedvowels, but not after aspirated or glottalized vowel nuclei. There is novoicing word-finally.

Voicing after nasals: nteejk 'my house' wiintu'uk 'one-eyed'Voicing after glides: chowpech 'expensive' puuypyaajk 'femur' je'eykyeexp 's/he sent'Voicing intervocalically: aka'any 'it started' teepe 'the one who'No voicing after maank 'son' nasals finally:No voicing after naajkemech 'we descend' aspiration:No voicing after jyuuka'te 'they lived' glottalization:No voicing with kachypyaajk 'rib' palatalization after voiceless consonant:There is no voicing of intervocalic clusters containing stopsand fricatives and geminates.No voicing of clusters: tuktuujk 'eight' taxtuujk 'nine'No voicing of geminates: jappek 'in, there'Voicing after nasals: -> [ndi[[??].sup.h]k] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Voicing after glides: -> [[t[integral]ow.sup.l]bet[integral]] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Voicing intervocalically: -> [[a.sup.l][ga.sup.?]aji] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]No voicing after -> [ma[??]n[k.sup.h]] nasals finally:No voicing after [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] aspiration:No voicing after -> [hjY:[g.sup.l][a.sup.?]t[??]] glottalization:No voicing with -> [kat[[integral].sup.l]pja[[??].sup.h]k] palatalization after voiceless consonant:There is no voicing of intervocalic clusters containing stopsand fricatives and geminates.No voicing of clusters: -> [[tuk.sup.hl][tu[??].sup.h][k.sup.h]] -> [[tas.sup.l][tu[??].sup.h][k.sup.h]]No voicing of geminates: -> ['hap[??][k.sup.h]]

In some instances, word-initial syllables are dropped keeping therest of the word with the original word-medial voiced stop. This resultsin word-initial voiced allophones.

Full form: jetu'un 'thus' -> [hi'du?un]Shortened form: tu'un 'thus' -> [du?un]Full form: mpomp 'tomorrow' -> [mbomp[logical not]]Shortened form: pomp 'tomorrow' -> [bomp[logical not]]

The voicing of stops is a common phenomenon in the world'slanguages (Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996). Allophonic alternationsinvolving the voicing of stops after nasals and intervocalically arealso reported for other Mesoamerican languages (Campbell et al. 1986)and for other Mixean languages (Crawford 1963; Dieterman 2008;Hoogshagen 1997; Schoenhals 1982; Van Haitsma 1976; Wichmann 1995).Hence, Chuxnaban Mixe is typical in this regard. Crawford (1963) notesfor Totontepec Mixe that /t/ and /k/ are realized as voiced fricativesintervocalically; in Chuxnaban Mixe, they are realized as voiced stops.

The aspirated allophones [[p.sup.h], [t.sup.h], [k.sup.h]]generally occur word-finally in single stops, stop-clusters, and othervoiceless consonant clusters. Both stops tend to be aspirated inword-final consonant-clusters. In word-medial voiceless clusters, thefirst or both stops are occasionally aspirated. The aspirated allophonesare also found in clusters with alveolar and post-alveolar fricativesand affricates, such as kxp, pxp, tsp, xp, kxk, pxk, tsk, and xk.Occasionally, initial stops are aspirated. Some speaker variation isnoted, as well as variation within multiple instances of the same wordand speaker. Similar variations have been reported for other Mixeanlanguages, such as Isthmus Mixe, also known as Guichicovi Mixe, whereaspiration is described as a stylistic variation (Dieterman 2008).

Aspirated stops maajtsk 'two' word-finally: jot 'stomach' pive'kp 'to run'Aspirated stops puujtpe 'grasshopper' word-medially: wokneej 'stream'Aspirated stops tutk 'turkey' word-initially: kow 'guitar'Aspirated stops kaapxp 'to talk' in clusters:Aspirated stops -> [[mae:.sup.h][tsk.sup.h]] word-finally: -> [[hot.sup.h]] -> [[pi.sup.l]j[[??].sup.?][k.sup.h][p.sup.h]]Aspirated stops [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] word-medially: -> [[wok.sup.hl]n[??]h]Aspirated stops -> [[t.sup.h][ut.sup.h][k.sup.h]] word-initially: -> [[k.sup.h]ow]Aspirated stops -> [ka:[psp.sup.h]] in clusters:

The occasional word-initial aspiration of voiceless stops isconfirmed by measurements of voice onset time (VOT) ranging from 5-123ms. A total of 99 tokens were measured from four different speakers, twofemales and two males. The data included 6-12 tokens per voiceless stopin 2-4 different monosyllabic words with the target consonants inword-initial position, mostly before /a/ and before /i/ or /u/ (4). Thenumber of tokens is summarized in Figure 1. Figure 2 illustrates themean VOT values for each stop by speaker.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

The results in Figure 2 reveal great speaker variation with respectto VOT, especially for the velar voiceless stop /k/. In fact, themeasurements indicate a VOT range from 22-123 ms for /k/ (this is notobvious in Figure 2, which displays only the mean values). /p/ and /t/show less variation with VOT for /p/ ranging from 6-26 ms and for /t/from 5-37 ms. When comparing the three places of articulation, it isapparent that VOT is significantly longer for velars than for bilabialsand alveolars and that it increases with backness.

In addition to VOT, closure duration was measured for the threevoiceless stops. Monosyllabic words were used where consonants followeda low vowel /a/ or /a/ and a high vowel /i/ or /u/. The data consistedof 3-9 tokens per stop in 1-3 different words with the target consonantsword-finally (5). The number of tokens is summarized in Figure 3. Themean values for the duration measurements are illustrated in Figure 4.

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

In general, closure duration decreases with backness, though themean closure duration for each stop varies greatly by speaker and token.The numbers range from 174-250 ms for /p/, 108-284 ms for /t/, and120-254 ms for /k/. This variation in closure duration could beinterpreted as a phonetic correlate of a possible fortis/lenis contrast(Bickford 1985) with fortis stops showing a greater duration than lenisstops word-finally. It would then be expected that stops in the sameword would always be either fortis or lenis across speakers havingroughly the same duration. However, this is not the case as Figure 5illustrates for /t/ in jut 'hole' and /k/ in pik'round'.

[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]

The results for VOT and closure duration are consistent with thewell-documented relation across languages between VOT, closure duration,and place of articulation whereby VOT is shorter for bilabials than forvelars, and alveolars have an intermediate value between the two(Maddieson 1997; Cho and Ladefoged 1999). Moreover, there is often aninverse correlation between closure duration and VOT whereby bilabialclosures are longer than velars, again with alveolars showing anintermediate value between the two (Maddieson 1997; Cho and Ladefoged1999).

The voiceless stops are occasionally unreleased when occurring inconsonant clusters. The same words have been recorded with released andunreleased allophones for the same speakers, hence no conditioningfactor can be identified. Nevertheless, the voiceless bilabial stop /p/is most often unreleased word-finally when following a bilabial nasal/m/. The waveforms in Figures 6 and 7 illustrate the point.

Unreleased voiceless stops:jaamp 'gray' -> [ha:[mp.sup.[??]]]pomp 'tomorrow' -> [[bomp.sup.[??]]]je'eykyeexp 's/he sent' [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]maajktekeek 'thirteen' [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]tkay 'he ate' -> [[t.sup.[??]]kaj]

[FIGURE 6 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 7 OMITTED]

Unreleased stops have also been described for other Mixeanvarieties (Crawford 1984; Dieterman 2008) in similar environments asobserved in Chuxnaban Mixe. Dieterman (2008) indicates that stops areunreleased before pauses in Isthmus Mixe. Crawford (1984) states forTotontepec Mixe that p, t, k are unreleased word-finally and beforeother consonants. An unreleased bilabial stop has also been reported forOaxaca Chontal, another Mesoamerican language spoken in Oaxaca(Maddieson et al. 2009).

The glottal stop generally manifests as creakiness on thesurrounding vowels within the same word. It occurs word-initially andword-medially in intervocalic position. Word-initial glottal stops aregenerally inserted to avoid onsetless syllables, but this is not ageneral rule as there are instances with no initial glottal stops ifthere are no prefixes. The glottal stop always surfaces when a prefix isattached to a vowel-initial root. The glottal stop of the glottalizedand interrupted vowel nuclei is discussed in section 3.

Glottal stop as aajch 'brother'creaky vowels: eex 'crab'Vowel-initial iix 'see'root with prefix: t'iix 's/he saw' vaa'iix 'you can see it'Glottal stop as [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]creaky vowels: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Vowel-initial [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]root with prefix: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]

2.2 Fricatives [??], h

There are two fricatives in Chuxnaban Mixe in postalveolar andglottal position: /[??], h/. The postalveolar fricative has fourallophones, a retroflexed and nonretroflexed voiceless and voicedsibilant. The glottal fricative phoneme has only two allophones in onsetand coda position, voiceless and voiced, and differs from the aspirationfound in syllable nuclei (see section 3).

/[??]/ -> [[??], s, [??], z]

/h/ -> [h, h]

The postalveolar fricative is retroflexed unless palatalizationoccurs. Voicing occurs after nasals and glides word-initially andword-medially, but not word-finally. Voicing also occurs when thefricative is affected by palatalization in word-medial position, giventhe onglide created by palatalization, and before glides. It is alsovoiced intervocalically after plain and interrupted vowels.Occasionally, only partial voicing occurs in the initial segment, asshown in Figure 8. There is no voicing word-finally. The glottalfricative is voiced intervocalically, as in Figure 9.

Retroflexed voiceless taxk 'four'postalveolar: xukx 'hummingbird' xax 'charales'Retroflexed voiced axux garlic'postalveolar: puuxiix 'mushroom part' timxeewj 'what's your name?'Nonretroflexed voiceless xyiits heart'postalveolar:Nonretroflexed voiced naaxyuujk worm'postalveolar:Voiceless glottal: jot stomach' me] large'Voiced glottal: tsujoch 'in the dream' pojene fast'Retroflexed voiceless -> [ta:[??]k]postalveolar: -> [[??]uk[??]] -> [[??]a[??]] (type of fish)Retroflexed voiced -> [a'[??]u[??]]postalveolar: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Nonretroflexed voiceless -> [[integral]ji[??]ts]postalveolar:Nonretroflexed voiced [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]postalveolar:Voiceless glottal: -> [hot] -> [m[??]h]Voiced glottal: -> [[tsu.sup.l]hot[integral]] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]

[FIGURE 8 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 9 OMITTED]

Fricative voicing has also been reported for other Mixeanlanguages. Dieterman (2008) notices intervocalic voicing of /h/ in therelated Isthmus Mixe. She indicates that voiceless [h] shows morefriction than voiced [fi]. Fricative voicing is not a common phenomenonin the world's languages (Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996:176-8).Hence, Mixean languages are typologically special in this regard.

Duration measurements of four speakers, two males and two females,reveal that word-final fricatives are longer than those in word-initialposition and that those affected by palatalization are longer than thosenot affected by it in the same position. Final lengthening istypologically common and has been reported in a number of languages(Gordon 2006; Hayes 1989). A total of 120 tokens were measured, 3repetitions of 10 different monosyllabic words for each speaker. Theyinclude /[??]/ word-initially, word-finally, and palatalizedword-finally (6). Only voiceless allophones were measured. The resultsin Figures 10 and 11 illustrate final lengthening and lengthening as aresult of palatalization respectively.

[FIGURE 10 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 11 OMITTED]

The glottal fricative has two allophones [h, h] when functioning asan onset or as a coda. Its phonetic realization is clearly differentfrom the aspiration found in breathy vowels. The turbulence in airflowis stronger if /h/ belongs to the onset or coda, and it is longer induration. Furthermore, in syllables where /h/ functions as a coda, thepreceding vowel does not exhibit a steady decay in intensity as inaspirated nuclei. This is shown in Figures 12 and 13.

[FIGURE 12 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 13 OMITTED]

Similar phonetic and phonological features are also reported forother Mesoamerican and Mixean languages. Contrastive underlying voicedfricatives are generally absent in Mesoamerican languages (Campbell etal. 1986) and retroflexed fricatives also occur in other Mixeanlanguages (Campbell et al. 1986; Van Haitsma 1976), but not in IsthmusMixe (Dieterman 2008). In regard to the fricatives Chuxnaban Mixerepresents thus a typical Mixean and Mesoamerican language.

2.3 Affricates ts, t[??]

Chuxnaban Mixe has two affricates, one in alveolar and one inpostalveolar position: /ts, t[??]/. The postalveolar affricate generallyresults from morpheme-induced palatalization and is not treated as aphoneme in some descriptions of other Mixean languages (Dieterman 2008).It has been included here because morpheme-induced palatalization ofother consonants results in having an onglide and an offglide andaffecting surrounding vowels, and this is not always the case with thepostalveolar affricate. Moreover, the postalveolar affricate is notalways evidently a result of morpheme-induced palatalization. Thealveolar affricate has three allophones: voiceless, voiced, and avoiceless sibilant [s]. The postalveolar affricate has a voiceless and avoiced allophone.

/ts/ -> [ts, dz, s]

/t[??]/ -> [t[??], d3]

Both affricates are voiced after nasals and glides word-mediallyand in word-initial clusters. They are also voiced intervocalicallyafter plain and interrupted vowels and word-medially if affected bypalatalization. Word-final affricates are always voiceless. Thevoiceless alveolar sibilant occurs in clusters with /k, p, m/word-finally and before /n/ word-initially and word-medially.

Voiceless alveolar uujtsatsem 'wild boar' affricate: tsip 'war' mits 'cat'Voiced alveolar uujtsatsem 'wild boar' affricate: wiintseen 'owner' ntsookypy 'I love you'Voiceless alveolar ja'anchukts 'ant' sibilant: tsapts 'red' jatsnxeewj 'My name is'Voiceless post-alveolar tiinch 'gut' affricate: champ 'now' kachvpvaajk 'rib'Voiced post-alveolar ja'anchukts 'ant' affricate: ni'icheejk 'husband' meja'avcheejk 'old person'Voiceless alveolar [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] affricate: -> [tsip] -> [mits]Voiced alveolar [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] affricate: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Voiceless alveolar [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] sibilant: -> [tsaps] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Voiceless post-alveolar -> [ti[??]nt[integral]] affricate: -> [t[integral][amp.sup.[??]]] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Voiced post-alveolar [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] affricate: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]

The voiceless alveolar affricate rather than the sibilant occursafter /n/ word-finally.

Voiceless alveolar affricate: wiints 'blind' ->[wi:nts]

Occasionally, only partial voicing occurs in the initial segment,as in Figure 14. Allophonic voiced affricates are also found in otherMesoamerican languages (Campbell et al. 1984), and similar allophonicvariations have been reported for other Mixean languages (Van Haitsma1976). Dieterman (2008) also notices partial voicing of affricates inthe related Isthmus Mixe. Thus, Chuxnaban Mixe is again a typical Mixeanand Mesoamerican language in this regard.

[FIGURE 14 OMITTED]

It could be argued that the affricates are simply sequences of twophonemes rather than a single phoneme. Dieterman (2008) offers severalreasons for why the affricate /ts/ functions as a unit rather than as acombination of two phonemes in Isthmus Mixe. Her arguments include: (a)/ts/ occurs word-initially in roots, and there are no consonant clustersword-initially without prefixing, (b) coda clusters are limited to twoconsonants, (c) both elements of the affricate are pronouncedsyllable-finally, which is not always the case for consonant clusters,and (d) [s] is merely an allophone of /ts/. While (a) and (d) are alsotrue for Chuxnaban Mixe, (b) and (c) are not. However, (a) and (d)represent enough evidence to treat the affricates a phonemic units.

2.4 Nasals m, n

There are two nasals in bilabial and in alveolar position: /m, n/.The bilabial nasal has two allophones, voiced and voiceless. Thealveolar nasal has three allophones: voiced alveolar, voicelessalveolar, and voiced velar. The voiceless nasals occur word-finallyafter the voiceless obstruents /p, t, k, x, ts, ch/, as in Figure 15.The velar nasal occurs before /k/ in any cluster.

/m/ > [m, m]

/n/ > [n, n, n]

Voiced bilabial nasal: mits 'cat' pa'am 'illness' mamokx 'fifteen'Voiceless bilabial nasal: poxm spider' po'tmp summer' a'chmp 'custard apple'Voiced alveolar nasal nets 'armadillo' joon 'bird' nanuele 'grandmother'Voiceless alveolar nasal: iijxn 'mirror' kaajpn 'village' kaychyakn 'kitchen'Voiced velar nasal: maank 'son' u'unkech 'children' juunk 'sheep'Voiced bilabial nasal: > [mits] > [[pa.sup.?]am] > [[ma.sup.l]mok[??]]Voiceless bilabial nasal: > [po[??][??]] > [[po.sup.[??]]t[??][p.sup.[??]]] > [[??]t[integral][??][p.sup.[??]]]Voiced alveolar nasal > [n[??]ts] > [ho[??]n] > [[na.sup.l]nwel[??]]Voiceless alveolar nasal: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] > [ka[[??].sup.h]p[??]] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Voiced velar nasal: > [ma[??][??]k] [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] > [hu[??][??]k]

Duration measurements of nasals in word-initial and word-finalposition, as well as those affected by palatalization, have not revealeda clear pattern. A total of 276 tokens were measured in 23 differentwords for 4 speakers, two females and two males. Each word was recordedthree times in a carrier phrase. (7) The words only contained the voicedallophones. While for some speakers word-initial nasals are longer thanword-final nasals, for others the opposite is true. The results showgreat variation within words, speakers, and even within the same wordand speaker. Nevertheless, palatalized nasals tend to be longer withsome exceptions. The results are illustrated in Figures 16 and 17.

[FIGURE 15 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 16 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 17 OMITTED]

Figures 16 and 17 illustrate that final nasals are not longer thaninitial nasals and that only two speakers, F2 and M2, show the samepattern for /n/ and /m/. Van Haitsma (1976) reports longer duration ofinitial nasals when a person prefix n-, m- occurs in a word with aninitial nasal. This has not been tested here. Campbell et al. (1984)indicate that devoicing of nasals in final position is also found inother Mesoamerican languages. Thus, Chuxnaban Mixe is typical in thisregard.

2.5 Glides w, y

Glides occur in bilabial and palatal position: /w, y/. They onlyhave one voiced allophone each, since they do not occur in environmentsthat would trigger devoicing. Crawford (1963) notes a voicedlabio-dental and a voiceless bilabial fricative allophone for thebilabial glide /w/ in Totontepec Mixe; no such allophones have beenfound in Chuxnaban Mixe.

/w/ [right arrow] [w]

/y/ [right arrow] [y]

Bilabial glide: kow 'guitar' -> [kow] waay 'hair' -> [wa[??]j]Palatal glide: koy 'pillow' -> [koj] yok 'neck' -> [jok]

Although the palatal glide phoneme /y/ is different frommorpheme-induced suprasegmental palatalization, it can similarly causepalatalization of adjacent segments, in addition to voicing, as in thefollowing example.

ney 'twisted' + paatep 'to find' [right arrow]neypyaatep [nej'bja:tip ] 'to connect'

Morpheme-induced palatalization differs from the examples above inthat it occurs only at word-edges, and it does not trigger voicing ofadjacent segments.

When comparing the palatal glide /y/ to the high front vowel /i/the second formant (F2) is lower. This indicates a more retracted tongueposition for /y/, as expected. F2 measurements for /u/ and /w/ reveallower numbers for the bilabial glide /w/ showing greater lip rounding.The F2 measurements demonstrate that the two glides are clearlydifferent from the high vowels. Measurements were only taken for onefemale speaker in twenty-four tokens including word-initial andword-final glides. No difference was noted with regard to prosodicposition.

2.6 Suprasegmental palatalization

Palatalization in Chuxnaban Mixe, as in other Mixean languages(Hoogshagen 1997; Schoenhals 1982; Van Haitsma 1976; Dieterman 2008), isa suprasegmental process affecting not only the palatalized consonant,but adjacent vowels as well. This is perceived as an onglide and anoffglide. Furthermore, it is manifested by a change in the formantstructure of adjacent vowels lowering F1 and raising F2. The latterindicates fronting. One exception is the palatalized palatal glide /y/,because it does not undergo any changes with morpheme-inducedpalatalization (Dieterman 2008; Jany 2006). In addition to changes inthe vowel quality of surrounding vowels, the release burst inpalatalized consonants is different. While it shows an even distributionof turbulence in a non-palatalized consonant, the distribution of therelease burst of a palatalized consonant stays in the higherfrequencies. This is illustrated in Figures 18 and 19.

Dieterman's (2008) detailed study of palatalization in therelated Isthmus Mixe shows that this phenomenon is best described assecondary palatalization: the addition of a high front tongue positionas secondary articulation occurring simultaneously with the primaryconsonantal articulation (Ladefoged 1993, Keating 1993). While secondarypalatalization manifests as a secondary articulation of the consonants/p, m, h, ?, w/, it also changes the primary position of the alveolarand velar consonants /t, k, x, ts, n/ moving them toward the palatalregion (Dieterman 2008). This is most apparent for the alveolaraffricate ts which also changes its orthography to <ch> torepresent a postalveolar affricate, as in the following example:

y- '3rd person' + teejk 'house' -> cheejk[t[??]i:hk] 'his/her house'

Morpheme-induced suprasegmental palatalization occurs atword-edges, such as when the third-person possessive prefix y-is added,as in the example above. Given that all consonants are foundword-initially, all consonants can be palatalized. (8) Dieterman (2008)notes that there is no other language family where secondarypalatalization occurs for the entire consonant inventory manifesting amorpheme. The same principles as in Isthmus Mixe are found in ChuxnabanMixe.

[FIGURE 18 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 19 OMITTED]

The phoneme /y/ is distinct from morpheme-induced secondarypalatalization. This is apparent because it does not palatalize theperson prefixes n- and m-.

n- '1st person' + ya'an 'tongue' ->nya'an [njae?aen] 'my tongue'

However, the third person prefix y- palatalizes a followingroot-initial nasal:

y- '3rd person' + niixuy 'shirt' ->[rightarrow] nyiixuy [ni:'zuj] his shirt'

Chuxnaban Mixe also has a palatalization process which occurs incompounds word-medially and is not morpheme-induced. If a word ending inthe palatal glide precedes another word in a compound, the first segmentof the second word is palatalized and voiced.

tey 'truth' + kaapxp ' -> teykyaapxp[tij'gja:psp] 'to tell the truth' to speak'

Phonetically, this process is different from morpheme-inducedpalatalization in that it also causes voicing of the following segment.The same occurs with word-final palatalized consonants, but only if theyare voiced.

mony 'fair, pale' + pu'uts 'yellow -> monypyu'utsteky 'leg' + tu'uk 'one' -> tekychu'ukmony 'fair, pale' [[moji.sup.l][bju.sup.?]uts] 'fair yellow'teky 'leg' [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] 'one-legged'

Palatalized consonants are affected by and trigger voicing anddevoicing of adjacent segments in the same way as non-palatalizedconsonants, i.e. only voiced consonants can cause voicing and onlyvoiceless ones devoicing.

Final devoicing of palatalized nasal: pixyny 'cotton'-> [pi[??]]

If the second word in a compound begins with a palatal glide,palatalization does not carry over to the previous segment:

tsuxk 'green' + yek 'black' -> tsuxkyektsa'am 'plantain' + yok 'neck' -> tsa'amyoktsuxk [[tsugk.sup.l]j[??]k] 'dark green'tsa'am [[tsa.sup.?][am.sup.l]jok] 'plantain neck'

This is different from morpheme-induced final palatalization whichcarries over to a segment to the left and to the right and affectsentire consonant clusters. Moreover, it does not trigger voicing. Thesame has been observed in Isthmus Mixe (Dieterman 2008).

ve'e mtsoojkp [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE 'he/she loves you' IN ASCII]ve'e choojkypy [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE 'he/she loves him/her' IN ASCII]

2.7 Phonological processes affecting consonants

There are five phonological processes affecting or involvingconsonants: (1) obstruent voicing, (2) sonorant devoicing, (4) nasalplace assimilation, (4) consonant cluster reduction, and (5) glottalstop insertion. (1) and (2) are similar in that they both can be seen asvoicing assimilation.

Seven out of the eleven consonants are obstruents: /p, t, k, ?, x,h, ts/. Obstruent voicing occurs after nasals and glides, i.e. aftersonorants, except word-finally, and it occurrs intervocalically, exceptafter aspirated and glottalized vowel nuclei. Obstruent clusters andobstruent geminates are not voiced.

Voicing after nasal: ankeexp 'above'Voicing after glide: puuypyaajk 'femur'Voicing intervocalically: axux 'garlic'Voicing intervocalically pojene 'fast'Voicing after interrupted vowels: pa'akuujts 'sweet herb'No voicing word-finally: maank 'son'No voicing after glottalized vowel: jyuuka'te 'they lived'No voicing after aspirated vowel: naajkemech 'we descend'No voicing in cluster: tuktuujk 'eight'No voicing in geminate: jappek 'there'Voicing after nasal: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Voicing after glide: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Voicing intervocalically: -> [a [??]u[??]Voicing intervocalically [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Voicing after interrupted vowels: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]No voicing word-finally: -> [ma[??][k.sup.h]]No voicing after glottalized vowel: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]No voicing after aspirated vowel: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]No voicing in cluster: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]No voicing in geminate: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]

The voicing pattern can be explained with one phonological rule.Voiceless obstruents are voiced if they occur between two voicedsegments:

[-sonorant] [-voice] [right arrow] [+voice] / [+voice]_[+voice]

Word-edges, aspirated vowels, and glottalized vowels are regardedas voiceless environments, while interrupted vowels act as a voicedsegment. This can be explained with the laryngeal timing of breathinessand glottalization in these vowel nuclei. In breathy and in glottalizedvowels breathiness or creakiness occurs in the last portion of thevowel, hence creating a voiceless environment on the right edge of thenucleus, while in interrupted vowels creakiness occurs in the middleportion of the vowel.

Voicing at word-edges occurs only in shortened forms where thefirst syllable has been dropped. This shows that voicing occurs prior toshortening.

jetu'un 'thus' [hi'du'un] -> tu'un'thus' [du?un]

Morpheme-induced palatalization at word-edges does not causevoicing, while word-medial palatalization does.

No voicing: y- + pak -> pyakVoicing: tey + kaapxp -> teygyaapxpNo voicing: 'his dove' [[p.sup.j]a[k.sup.h]]Voicing: 'to teH the truth' [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]

The lack of voicing in morpheme-induced palatalization can beexplained by metathesis #yCV [right arrow] #CyV, hence leaving avoiceless environment to the left. However, the voicing rules do notalways apply in the same way, as there is token and speaker variation.This points to sound in change in progress (Jany, to appear), similar topatterns seen in Sayula Popoluca (Rhodes 2004).

There are four sonorants, two nasals and two glides. Sonorantdevoicing is also based on voicing assimilation. Sonorants devoiceword-finally in clusters and word-initially before obstruents, i.e. invoiceless environments:

[+sonorant] [-syllabic] [+voice] [right arrow][-voice]/[-voice]_[-voice]

The same as with the voicing rules, word-edges are regarded asvoiceless environments.

Devoicing: kaajpn 'village' [ka[[??].sup.h]p[??]] a'chmp 'custard apple' [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] njot 'my stomach' [[??]hio[t.sup.h]]

Glides do not occur in a voiceless environment; therefore they arenever devoiced. Palatalized and non-palatalized consonants are equallyaffected by the voicing and devoicing rules.

pixyny 'cotton' [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]teyimpyu'uk 'tadpole' [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]

The vowels of cl*tics do not cause voicing, but they prevent finaldevoicing:

kachy 'basket' [katp] -> kachy=en 'in the basket' ['ka[??]in] (=en isa locative)nepyny 'blood' [nepji] -> nepyny=ochy 'a lot of blood' [ne'pji[??]](=ochy 'a lot')

The same as with obstruent voicing, there is some token variationindicating a sound change in progress (Jany, to appear). Obstruentvoicing and sonorant devoicing are common to Mesoamerica and regarded astwo defining traits of this linguistic area (Campbell et al. 1986). Theyhave also been noted in a number of other Mixean languages (Bickford1985; Crawford 1963; Dieterman 2008; Ruiz De Bravo Ahuja 1980;Schoenhals 1982; Van Haitsma 1967; Wichmann 1995). Hence, Chuxnaban Mixerepresents a typical Mesoamerican and Mixean language. Van Haitsma(1976) mentions occasional word-final voicing of obstruents after longand interrupted vowels, in certain word-final clusters, and in caseswhere stem-final /w/ is dropped before /p/. Word-final voicing does notoccur in Chuxnaban Mixe.

Nasal place assimilation has also been reported for a number ofMixean languages (Crawford 1963; Dieterman 2008; Schoenhals 1982; VanHaitsma 1967). Van Haitsma (1976) states that nasal place assimilationoccurs in words other than verbs, and that there is some speakervariation. In Chuxnaban Mixe, a morpheme-final alveolar nasal /n/sometimes assimilates to the following stop in place of articulation.This can be summarized as follows:

/n/ = [n] /_/t/

/n/ = [m]/_/p/

/n/ = [n]/_/k/

tun 'to work', but tun + =pe -> tumpe 'worker'miin 'to come', but miin + -p -> miimp 'I come'wiin 'eye' but wiin + ki'ix -> wiinki'ix 'dark circles around eyes'[wi:n'gi?is]

Following Dieterman (2008), the alveolar nasal could be regarded asan archiphoneme in morpheme-final position, always assimilating in placeof articulation to the following segment. Dieterman (2008) shows for therelated Isthmus Mixe that nasal place assimilation only occurs inmorpheme-final position, preserving the contrast found in the personmarkers n- and m-word-initially. Generally, the same occurs in ChuxnabanMixe.

n-'1st person' + pak 'pigeon' -> npak 'my pigeon' [nbak]m-'2nd person' + tets 'tooth' -> mtets 'your tooth' [mdits

However, occasionally nasal place assimilation is also noted inthis position. Thus, the same as with the (de)voicing rules, theirregular patters can be viewed as sound change in progress.

n- '1st person' + pa'ak 'sweet' -> npa'ak 'my sweet' [rnba?ak]

Nasal place assimilation does not occur with the bilabial nasal/m/.

poxm 'spider' + ta'aky 'to spin' -> poxmta'akyatsem 'pig' + tsu'uch 'meat' -> atsemtsu'uchtsa'am ,plaintain' + kepy 'tree' -> tsa'amkepypoxm 'spiderweb' [po[??][m.sup.l]d[a.sup.?]ajk.sup.j]]atsem 'pork meat' [adz[??][m.sup.l]dz[u.sup.?]ut[integral]]tsa'am 'plaintain part' [ts[a.sup.?]a[m.sup.l]ge[p.sup.j]]

Consonant cluster reduction is a phonological process thatoccasionally occurs in compounding, in particular when the finalconsonant of the first word is the same as the initial consonant of thesecond, i.e. for underlying geminates.

teejk 'house' -> teejkoojp 'build' [TEXT NOT+ koojp 'scatter seed' REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]tutk 'turkey' + -> tutkopk 'plant type' [TEXT NOTkopk 'mountain' REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]

Similarly, Van Haitsma (1976) describes geminate cluster reductionfor the related San Juan El Paraiso Mixe and affirms that word-initiallyunderlying geminates resulting form prefixing of the person markers n-and m- are longer in duration than single consonants. Longer durationfor underlying geminates also occurs in Chuxnaban Mixe, as in chamen'now' ['t[??]am:in]. Other types of consonant clustersalso get reduced. Such reductions are common in numerals.

taxk 'four' + tuujk 'base for five' -> taxtuujk 'nine'jxchikx 'forty' -> jxikx 'forty'mekoxk 'five' + ipx 'twenty' -> meko'px 'hundred'maajk 'ten' + tekeek 'three' -> maajtekeek 'thirteen'

In general, however, there is no cluster reduction in compounding,contrary to what Dieterman (2008) found for Isthmus Mixe where compoundwords drop the final consonant of the first word.

tsaajp 'heaven' + -> tsaajpteejk 'church' [TEXT NOTteejk 'house' REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]teky 'foot' + jot -> tekyjotpaajk 'metatarsus' [TEXT NOT'neck' + paajk 'bone' REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]mamokx 'fifteen' -> mamokxtu'uk 'sixteen' [TEXT NOT+ tu'uk 'one' REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]

Another phonological process involves the insertion of a segment.Vowel-initial words generally add an initial glottal stop to avoidonsetless syllables. It is obligatorily inserted in compounding wheretwo adjacent vowels would occur, and when a prefix is added to avowel-initial word.

yaa + iix + ma 'tpe -> yaa'iixma'tpe 'ghost' [TEXT NOTkuuktaa + ooye REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] -> kuuktaa 'ooye [TEXT NOT 'to improve' REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]n - + a't -> n'a't 'my louse' [[n.sup.?] [a.sup.?]t]m - + uk -> m'uk 'your dog' [[m.sup.?]uk]

2.8 Phonological adaptation of Spanish loans

Spanish loanwords generally experience the same phonologicalprocesses as words of Mixe origin. However, given that Spanish hasadditional phonemes not found in Chuxnaban Mixe, such as contrastivevoiced stops, the voicing rules do not always apply. For instance, inSpanish loans word-initial and word-final voiced stops may occur, aswell as intervocalic voiceless stops.

Word-initial voiced bote 'boot' ['bot[??]]and intervocalicvoiceless stop: from Spanish bota 'boot'Word-initial burre 'donkey' ['bun]voiced stop: from Spanish burro 'donkey'

However, phonological processes triggered by affixing, such asobstruent voicing and metathesis, equally apply to Spanish loans.

Obstruent carton 'box'+ koch 'in' -> cartonkoch [karton'gotvoicing: from Spanish carton 'box' 'in the box' [integral]]Metathesis: y-'his, her' + -> byurre ['bjur[??]] burre 'donkey' 'his donkey'

In compounding, however, the voicing rules do not always apply.

cere 'wax' from Spanish cera + pa'ak 'sweet' -> cerepa'ak 'honey' [se:ri'pa?ak]

3. The Vowel System

The Mixean languages vary greatly in their vowel systems (Suslak2003). For instance, while Totontepec Mixe has nine phonemic vowels(Schoenhals 1982), only six are reported for Coatlan Mixe (Hoogshagen1959, 1997). Nevertheless, all Mixean languages show a phonemic vowellength distinction and a phonemic phonation contrast between plain,aspirated, glottalized, and interrupted vowels. Chuxnaban Mixe has ninevowel qualities [a, e, i, o, u, i, ae, o, y]. Three of the vowelqualities, [ae, o, y], generally do not show a phonemic contrast sincethey result from suprasegmental palatalization and interdialectalborrowing. Two of these vowels, [o] and [y], always occur in palatalizedenvironments, mostly in stem alternations of verbs. The third marginalvowel [ae] shows some variation between speakers and tokens of the sameword. For example, some instances of maajtsk 'two' havepronunciations closer to [a], while others are pronounced with [ae],even by the same speaker. The remaining six vowels manifest clearphonemic contrasts illustrated below with minimal pairs. The vowelphonemes are summarized in Table 3. Corresponding symbols used in theorthography, if different from the IPA symbols, are included in angledbrackets. The marginal three vowels are in parentheses.

The following minimal pairs illustrate the phonemic contrasts.

/i ~ e/ /a ~ u/tsip 'war' kamp 'field'tsep 'plant name' kump 'sweet fruit'/o ~ u ~ e/ /e ~ o/joon 'bird' wek 'hook tool'juun 'hard' wok 'gutter'jeen 'fire'/e ~ e/ /a ~ e/mej 'deep' taajk 'village police'mej 'large' teejk 'house'/a ~ a/ /a ~ a/taak 'mother' maajtsk 'the one who grabs'taak 'suddenly' maajtsk 'two'/u ~ i/tsuk 'mouse'tsik 'coati'/e ~ u/teky 'foot'tuky 'to cut'

The minimal pairs contrasting /a/ and /a/ may result frominterdialectal borrowing, given that Mixean varieties differ mostly intheir vowel systems. Furthermore, there is speaker variation, inaddition to token variation. The words with the fronted vowels aresometimes pronounced with [a] instead of [a], and speakers willgenerally view both pronunciations as being the same word.

taape/taape 'this one'maajtsk/maajtsk 'two'tsak/tsak 'dull'

Moreover, the fronted vowel [a] is often found in palatalizedenvironments, i.e. next to a palatal glide or affected bymorpheme-induced palatalization.

Palatalized environments: unyaapy 'seated' ina'any 'he/she said' ya'an tongue'

The other two marginal vowels, [o] and [y], most often occur inverbs and always in palatalized environments, as shown below. Given thelack of minimal pairs, these vowels are treated as marginal representingfronted allophones of /o/ and /u/ respectively.

yo'opy 'to walk'paayo'opy 'to find out, ask'michoopy 'to count'tsaaipkapnyochy 'reed'chuyo'oyen 'the same'puujpy 'to wash'meyuujy 'get someone used to'amaymuukypy 'to count everything'tyu'uch 'he hid them'jyuuka'te 'they lived'

The effects of suprasegmental palatalization on /o/ and /u/ areillustrated below.

tsu'uch 'meat' -> chu'uch 'his/her meat'puuy 'leg' -> pyuuy 'his/her leg'juuy 'to buy' -> jyuuy 'he/she bought it'jo'kp 'to weave' -> jyo'kypy 'he/she weaved it'noky 'paper' -> nyoky 'his/her paper'

In addition to the different vowel qualities, the complex vowelsystem shows a phonemic contrast between short and long vowels andbetween modal, breathy or aspirated, and glottalized or creaky vowels. Athree-way vowel length distinction, as noted in other Mixean languages(Hoogshagen 1959; Van Haitsma 1976), does not occur in Chuxnaban Mixe(Jany 2007). Non-modal phonation contrasts depend on laryngeal timing.While breathiness occurs only in the last portion of the vowel,glottalization or creakiness can be found in the last, the middle, orthe first portion of the vowel. These timing differences are related todifferences in function. The first two involve a phonemic contrastbetween plain, glottalized, and interrupted vowels. The third occurs invowel-initial words where a glottal stop is inserted initially tofunction as onset. Overall, the contrasts result in the following typesof syllable nuclei: V, VV, [VV.sup.h], V?, and V?V.

3.1 Modal vowels

There are nine vowel qualities [a, e, i, o, u, i, ae, o, y]including three vowel qualities [ae, o, y] that have most likelydeveloped from suprasegmental palatalization causing the fronting of [a,o, u] in palatalized environments. To determine the vowel qualities, thefirst and the second formants for each vowel were measured in fourspeakers, two males and two females. Long vowels in stressed syllablesin monosyllabic words were chosen for the measurements, except for [o]and [y] where not enough examples were available. The most steadyportion of the vowel, generally the middle, was measured over a stretchof 20 ms, as suggested in Ladefoged (2003). Two instances of five wordsper vowel were measured for each speaker. Praat was used to calculatethe formants and Excel to develop the vowel plots with the first formantF1 on the vertical axis and the second formant F2 on the horizontalaxis. Given that F1 inversely correlates with vowel height and F2correlates with backness, the vowel plot roughly represents the vowelspace. The results indicate that there is no overlap in vowel spacebetween the different vowel qualities. Furthermore, [a] and [i] arecentral vowels and [a], [0], and [y] are almost identical in terms offrontness. All four speakers show the same distribution of vowelqualities. The vowel plots for one female and for one male speaker areshown in Figures 20 and 21. The mean formant values are summarized inFigure 22.

[FIGURE 20 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 21 OMITTED]

Figures 20-22 show that the vowel space is distributed identicallyfor the male and the female speaker with higher formant frequencies forthe female speaker as expected, given that women have a smaller vocaltract. For the male speaker, there is greater variation in F2 for [a]showing some instances closer [ae]. This can be explained with theoccasional oscillation between the two vowels mentioned earlier.

Dieterman (2008) shows for the related Isthmus Mixe that vowelsaffected by secondary palatalization, the likely historic source for[ae, o, y] in Chuxnaban Mixe, do not impinge upon other phonemic vowelspaces. Similarly, in Chuxnaban Mixe [ae, o, y] do not penetrate thevowel space of other phonemic vowels, as shown in Figures 20 and 21. Thethree marginal vowels are only found in stressed syllables.Interestingly, Crawford (1984) states that Totontepec Mixe has ninecontrastive vowel qualities in stressed syllables and only six inunstressed syllables. Unlike in Totontepec Mixe, however, in ChuxnabanMixe the phonemic contrasts are not reduced; the three vowels simply donot occur in unstressed syllables.

Allophonic variations for all vowels include fronted allophonesadjacent to palatalized consonants and /y/. The same has been reportedby Dieterman (2008) for Isthmus Mixe. Ruiz de Bravo Ahuja (1980) andCrawford (1984) mention backed vowel allophones before velar consonantsin Tlahuitoltepec Mixe and Totontepec Mixe respectively. The results forChuxnaban Mixe are not conclusive in this regard.

The central high vowel [i] is devoiced word-finally, but only incertain words. The devoicing is not caused by a phonological process,but rather it is inherent to a nominalizing morpheme, as voiced anddevoiced variants occur in the same environment. This is shown below andin Figures 23 and 24.

Voiceless [[??]] xu'kpe 'to smell' '[[TEXT NOTword-finally: REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]] tso'kpe 'to heal' [[sup.l]tso[??] kp[??]] poojkpe 'to sin' '[[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]] jeeno'kpe 'to have a fever' '[[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]] peejkpe 'pain' '[[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]]Voiced [[??]] maa'tspe 'thief' '[[TEXT NOTword-finally: REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]] yaa'o'kpe 'murderer' '[[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]] tsaajtspe 'carpenter' '[[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]] o'kpe 'cadaver' '[[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]]

[FIGURE 23 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 24 OMITTED]

3.2 Breathy vowels

Breathy or aspirated vowels occur with all vowel qualities and arephonemic, as shown below.

/aa ~ a[a.sup.h]/ /a ~ a[a.sup.h]/taak 'mother' pak 'pigeon'taajk 'police' paajk 'bone'/e ~ e[e.sup.h]/ /oo ~ o[o.sup.h]/mek 'strong' poop 'white'xeejk 'bean' poojkp 'to blow'/u ~ u[u.sup.h]/ /ee ~ e[e.sup.h]/yuk 'cold' teech 'father'yuujk 'animal' tseejch 'type of plant'/ee ~ e[e.sup.h]/meet 'they went'meejt 'year'/i ~ i[i.sup.h]/pik 'round'piijk 'ball'

Phonetically, breathy or aspirated vowels are characterized by adecay in intensity, especially during the second half of the vowel, andby post-vocalic aspiration, as can be observed by comparing Figures 25and 26. Similar characteristics have been described for the so-calledballistic syllables: (a) a fortis release of the onset consonant, (b) agradual surge and rapid decay in intensity, and (c) post-vocalicaspiration (Silverman 1997). However, Chuxnaban Mixe aspirated vowelsshow no gradual surge in energy, but rather a gradual decay throughout,as in Figure 26. Unlike in Jalapa Mazatec where non-modal phonation ismost prominent in the first portion of the vowel (Silverman et al. 1995;Silverman 1997), aspiration in Chuxnaban Mixe is confined to the lastpart of the vowel. Contrary to Mixean languages, though, Jalapa Mazatechas contrastive tone. It has been argued (Silverman 1997) that non-modalphonation in Jalapa Mazatec is realized in the first portion of thevowel for tonal contrasts to be retrieved from the second portion.

When /h/ functions as an onset or a coda, its phonetic realizationis different from the aspirated vowels. The turbulence in airflow isclearly stronger, and it is also longer in duration. Furthermore, insyllables where /h/ functions as a coda, the preceding vowel does notexhibit a steady decay in intensity as in aspirated nuclei (see Figures12, 13, 25, and 26).

[FIGURE 25 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 26 OMITTED]

Dieterman (2008) observes the same characteristics for aspiratedvowels in Isthmus Mixe. They show a progressive loss of amplitude fromthe modal portion of the vowel with a weakening of the formantstructures in the breathy portion of the vowel. Crawford (1963) and Ruizde Bravo Ahuja (1980) describe a phonemic distinction between shortbreathy and long breathy vowels in

Totontepec Mixe and Tlahuitoltepec Mixe respectively, while VanHaitsma (1976) and Dieterman (2008) report that there is no suchcontrast in San Juan El Paraiso Mixe and Isthmus Mixe respectively. InChuxnaban Mixe there is no evidence for an additional phonemic lengthdistinction in breathy vowels, the same as in the latter two languages.

3.3 Creaky vowels

Creakiness can occur in any portion of the vowel, i.e. at thebeginning, in the middle, or at the end of the vowel, with a differentfunction linked to each laryngeal timing. The latter two possibilitiesrepresent glottalized and interrupted vowels, each showing a phonemiccontrast, as illustrated below. In glottalized vowels V?, the glottalstop forms part of the syllable nucleus, and it is realized phoneticallyas creakiness during the last portion of the vowel. This can be observedby comparing Figures 27 and 28. The creakiness correlates with a decayin intensity. Interrupted vowels V?V, as in Figure 30, are characterizedby creakiness, as well as a decay in intensity, during the middleportion of the vowel, followed by a re-articulation of the vowel.

/a ~ [a.sup.?]/ /u ~ [u.sup.?]/tap 'you have' tsuk 'mouse'ka'p 'scorpion' ju'k 'owl'/ii ~ [I.sup.?]i/ /uu ~ [u.sup.?]u/kiix 'woman' puuy 's eatpi'ix 'tail' pu'uy 'table'/[u.sup.?] ~ [u.sup.?]u/ /aaj ~ [a.sup.?]a/pu'ts 'yellow' paajk 'bone'pu'uts 'infection' pa'ak 'sweet"/a ~ [a.sup.?]/ /e ~ [e.sup.?]/tap mek 'strong'ka'p met 'mother-in-law'/ii ~ [I.sup.?]i/ /e ~ [e.sup.?]e/kiix tsep 'plant name'pi'ix tsep 'plant getting cut'/[u.sup.?] ~ [u.sup.?]u/ /ee ~ [e.sup.?]e/pu'ts keepy 'type of fish'pu'uts ke 'eky 'he went/left'

[FIGURE 27 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 28 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 29 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 30 OMITTED]

Glottalized and interrupted vowels have also been reported forCopala Trique, a Mixtecan language. Interestingly, Copala Trique alsoexhibits interrupted vowels of the form VhV (Silverman 1997:236), notfound in Chuxnaban Mixe.

Creakiness during the initial portion of the vowel results from theinsertion of a glottal stop at the beginning of a vowel-initial word tofunction as an obligatory onset. The glottal stop is phoneticallyrealized as creakiness during the first portion of the vowel, as inFigure 31. Glottal stops in coda position have not been found.Therefore, a contrast between a vowel-final glottal stop that forms partof the nucleus and one that represents a coda has not been observed,such as for the aspirated vowels where coda /h/ is different fromnucleus /h/.

[FIGURE 31 OMITTED]

3.4 Vowel length

Chuxnaban Mixe, the same as all Mixean languages, shows a phonemicvowel length distinction between short and long vowels. This is alsorepresented in the orthography.

/o~oo/ /i~ii/ /e~ee/mox 'stom ach' tsik 'coati raccon' kepy 'tree'moox 'knot' tsiip 'to bathe' keepy 'bream'/a~aa/ /e~ee/ /u~uu/taak 'mother' mek 'strong' tux 'type of fruit'pak 'pigeon' meet 'they went' puux 'iron'

A three-way phonemic vowel length contrast has been reported forCoatlan Mixe and San Jose El Paraiso Mixe (Hoogshagen 1959; Van Haitsma1976). Hoogshagen (1959) examined possible influencing factors on vowellength in Coatlan Mixe and concluded that the three-way contrast doesnot depend on syllable structure, vowel quality, preceding or followingconsonants, or intonation. Nevertheless, according to Hoogshagen (1997),the three-way contrast is hard to hear for speakers, and is, therefore,not represented in the orthography. Bickford (1985), quoting Nordell,states for Guichicovi Mixe that the three-way vowel length distinctionis not contrastive but conditioned by a fortis/lenis contrast in thefinal consonant whereby half-long vowels always occur before fortisconsonants and full-long vowels before lenis. Bickford (1985) andWichmann (1995) note that the fortis/lenis contrast only occurs insyllable-final position.

Chuxnaban Mixe, as well as Isthmus Mixe, only manifest a two-wayvowel length distinction. Moreover, there is no evidence for afortis/lenis contrast in consonants (Jany 2006; Dieterman 2008). Jany(2006) shows for Chuxnaban Mixe that vowel lengthening is triggered byeither the insertion of a glottal stop in vowel-initial words, the lackof a coda, or by having a fricative coda /x/. When comparing modal andnon-modal phonation the duration measurements in Jany (2006) reveal thatin general modal vowels are shorter than their non-modal counterparts,except for the interrupted vowels. Interrupted vowels are longer thanshort modal vowels, but shorter than long modal vowels (Jany 2006).

While a distinction between short and long vowels is very commonamong the world's languages, a three-way phonemic vowel lengthcontrast is typologically rare (Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996). Three-wayvowel length distinctions occur in some Mixean languages, Yavapai (Tomasand Shaterian 1990), and Estonian (Lehiste 1970). In Estonian, however,the third degree of vowel length is dependent on syllable structure andword patterning (Lehiste 1970).

4. Orthography

The orthography for Chuxnaban Mixe was established in 2008 incollaboration with community members. It is the result of three designstages. When I started documenting the language in 2006, I worked forseveral months with a female speaker, who was living in the UnitedStates, prior to my first visit to the community. At that time, mywritten representation of Chuxnaban Mixe was purely phonetic using IPAsymbols, in order to begin documenting the language and to examine thesound system. Once I defined the phonemes, I developed a tentativephonemic orthography. This served to prepare discussion points for acommunity-approved orthography to be elaborated during my second visitto the village. Village officials decided that orthography design shouldoccur in consultation with younger speakers with a high school diploma,because the younger generation would benefit the most from havingwritten records of their language, culture, and history. The currentorthography was designed in collaboration with young community membersduring my field trip in 2008. My role was to provide guidance withlinguistic issues and spelling options. All decisions were made bycommunity members. The orthography was then informally tested with otheryoung community members and approved. In the design process some changeswere made to my previously elaborated tentative orthography. Theyinclude: (a) the use of voiceless stops <p, t, k> for the voicedallophones [b, d, g] respectively, (b) the use of the symbol <e>instead of &lt;i&gt; for the high central vowel, and (c) withregard to suprasegmental palatalization, only the offglide after apalatalized consonant is written, but not the onglide preceding it, asin noky [nojkj].

In general, the following factors were considered when developingthe orthography: (1) orthographies used for other Mixean languages andthe general orthography established by the Mexican National Institutefor Adult Education (INEA) for all Mixean languages, (2) Spanishorthography, given that community members are literate in Spanish, (3)having the simplest representation possible and, thus, using symbolsfound on basic keyboards rather than special IPA characters, and (4)only representing phonemes rather than allophones. With these fourdesign principles in mind the following decisions were made by thecommunity: (i) only phonemes are represented, i.e. voiced obstruents,such as [b, d, g, dz, d3], are not represented, except in Spanish loans,(ii) the vowels are represented in the same way as introduced by INEAusing dieresis for special vowel qualities, as in a, e, o, u, ratherthan IPA symbols, (iii) Spanish orthography serves as the basis for thepalatalized affricate, represented as <ch>, and for the glottalfricative, written as <j>, (iv) Spanish loans are represented intheir original orthography, (v) suprasegmental palatalization is writtenwith a palatal glide <y> following the palatalized consonant, (vi)long vowels are represented by two consecutive vowels, and (vii) theglottal stop is written as an apostrophe. Some of the decisions madeduring this early stage may need to be revised after the documentationprocess has progressed and after extensive testing is conducted.Overall, the current orthography is very similar to those of otherMixean languages.

5. Conclusions

This paper represents the first comprehensive acoustic study ofChuxnaban Mixe, including a survey of the main consonant and vowelfeatures. While Chuxnaban Mixe shows many areally and typologicallycommon features, such as obstruent voicing in voiced environments, VOTpatterns related to closure duration and place of articulation, nasalplace assimilation, and consonant cluster reduction, among others, italso manifests typologically less common features, such as phonemicglottalization and aspiration of vowels and two distinct types ofpalatalization. Laryngeal timing of creakiness in vowels relates todifferences in phonological function, i.e. distinctions betweenglottalized vowels and interrupted vowels and the insertion of a glottalstop in vowel-initial words. Moreover, the different acousticrealizations of the glottal fricative, equally linked to distinctphonological functions, i.e. an onset, a coda, or part of a phonemicvowel nucleus, illustrate the close relationship between phonetics andphonology and the importance of acoustic analysis for a betterunderstanding of phonology. Another typologically interesting feature ispalatalization, a suprasegmental phenomenon having distinct patternswhen phoneme-induced or when morpheme-induced. Phoneme-inducedpalatalization does not affect a preceding segment, whilemorpheme-induced palatalization carries over to a segment to the leftand to the right and affects entire consonant clusters. Palatalizationalso has an impact on the vowel system, possibly resulting in theemergence of new vowel phonemes in the language.

Whereas many of the same or similar features described here havealso been reported for other Mixean and Mesoamerican languages, very fewstudies include acoustic evidence. Each Mixean community speaks adifferent variety of Mixe, some of which are mutually unintelligible. Inmany cases it is unclear whether a particular variety represents adistinct language or dialect, due to the limited documentation of Mixeanlanguages. This work helps to shed some light on these relationships asit points out phonetic and phonological differences and similaritiesamong Mixean languages. It also advances areal studies by showing howthe Chuxnaban Mixe sound system fits into the Mesoamerican languagearea.

To conclude, although this study is primarily descriptive, itcontributes to linguistic theory by showing how acoustic evidence canlead to a better understanding of phonology. Furthermore, the presenceof irregular patterns indicating a sound change in progress, as observedwith the assimilatory processes, and token and speaker variation ofseveral acoustic features, such as the aspiration and release of stops,VOT, and nasal duration, demonstrate that languages are dynamic systems.Most importantly, however, this work aims at introducing the phoneticsand phonology of a previously undescribed language, thus adding to theknowledge of Mixean and other Mesoamerican languages in general.

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Author's contact information:

Carmen Jany

California State University

Department of World Languages and Literatures

San Bernardino, CA 92407-2393

[emailprotected]

(1) This work was in part supported by a Pilot Project Grant(PPG0044) from the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP)of the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project at SOAS, University ofLondon. The author also wishes to express gratitude to the Mixecommunity in Chuxnaban, in particular to the speakers who shared theirknowledge and provided the data for this study.

(2) One of the affricates, <ch> /t[??]/, generally resultsfrom morpheme-induced palatalization, a suprasegmental phenomenon, andit is often not treated as a phoneme in descriptions of other Mixeanlanguages. It has been included in the phoneme chart here for tworeasons: (1) while morpheme-induced suprasegmental palatalization ofother consonants manifests by having an onglide and an offglide, this isnot always the case for <ch> and (2) in some instances it can notbe traced back to morpheme-induced palatalization.

(3) ibid.

(4) The words used for the measurements were pak'pigeon', pax 'deer', pich 'tortilladough', pik 'round', taaik 'village police',taak 'mother', tun 'mountain, line', tux'yellow fruit', kat 'toucan', kachy'basket', kow 'guitar', kuuy 'rabbit', andkum 'sweet fruit'.

(5) The words used for the measurements were tap 'youhave', tsip 'war', tsaajp 'sky', kat'toucan', nat 'deaf', jut 'hole', pak'pigeon', pik 'round'.

(6) The measured words include xany 'cloudy (water)', xax'type of fish', xets 'soap', xemp'always', pax 'deer', Mix 'woman', neex'daughter', axy 'straight (hair)', pixy'cotton'.

(7) The measured words include maa 'where', mok'corn', mox 'stomach', mits 'cat', kam'field', cham 'now', tsim 'cup', mpom'tomorrow', kemv 'circle, frame', eemv'vein', xuumv 'backpack', nat 'deaf, naax'earth', nets 'armadillo', nen 'gum of themouth', kaan 'salt', pan 'plant to be planted',xun 'sour, bitter', xanv 'cloudy (water)', venv'tall', monv 'short, weak', munv 'potato'.

(8) In the orthography palatalization is represented by a palatalglide /y/ following the palatalized consonant, except for thepalatalized affricate which is represented as <ch>.

Table 1: Chuxnaban Mixe consonant inventory Bilabial Alveolar PostalveolarPlosives p tNasals m nFricatives [integral] <x>Affricates ts (t[integral] <ch>) (3)Glides w Palatal Velar GlottalPlosives k ? <'>NasalsFricatives h <j>AffricatesGlides j <y>Table 2: Chuxnaban Mixe consonant inventory with phonemesfrom Spanish loans Bilabial Alveolar PostalveolarPlosives p/(b) t/(d)Nasals m nFricatives (f) (s) j <x>Affricates ts (t[integral] <ch>)Rhotic (r)/(r)Lateral (l)Glides w Palatal Velar GlottalPlosives k/(g) ? <'>NasalsFricatives h <j>AffricatesRhoticLateralGlides j <y>Table 3: Chuxnaban Mixe vowel inventoryi (y <u>) i <e> ue (0 <o>) o (ae <a>) aFigure 1: Number of tokens for VOT measurements.F=female; M=male. F1 F2 M1 M2 Total k 9 9 6 6 30 p 12 12 12 9 45 t 6 6 6 6 24Total 27 27 24 21 99Figure 3: Number of tokens for closure duration by stopfor each speaker. F=female; M=male. F1 F2 M1 M2 Total k 6 9 9 6 30 p 9 3 3 6 20 t 9 9 9 9 36Total 24 20 21 21 86Figure 22: F1 and F2 mean values for one female and one male speakerMean Formant Values in HertzFemale F1 F2 Male F1 F2u 389 725 u 360 697o 631 947 o 546 839i 482 1379 [??] 412 1185a 967 1451 a 726 1210y 394 2078 Y 392 18450 546 2159 [empty set] 481 1906ae 1024 1864 ae 738 1602i 333 2843 i 349 2414e 569 2731 e 455 2250