Otomanguean stock
The following language families belong to the Otomanguean stock:
Amuzgoan family [Amuzgo] The genetic relationship of many of the languages which are today known
as Otomanguean languages has been long recognized, beginning perhaps most
explicitly with the proposals of Orozco y Berra in 1864. The inclusion of
the families that are now considered to comprise this stock has come
slowly and with considerable research, proposals, and refinements over the
years. Tlapanec is the most recent addition, having been tentatively
linked with Hokan languages earlier. The proposal to link Huave with this
stock has not been widely recognized. For a complete list of the languages
commonly classified as Otomanguean, see the Ethnologue. Mixtecan family Cuicatec, Mixtec, Triqui The Mixtecan language family, one of the largest and most diverse
families in the Otomanguean stock, includes three groups of languages:
Mixtec, Cuicatec, and Triqui (or Trique). These languages are spoken
primarily in the western part of the state of Oaxaca, but Mixtec is also
spoken in neighboring parts of Puebla and Guerrero. While people from neighboring towns can understand each other fairly
well, people from towns that are more than a day's walk apart usually
cannot. One reason for this is that various sound changes have affected
different parts of the Mixtec region. For example, most towns in the
southwestern half of the region have the consonant s in many words, while
most towns in the northeastern half have a soft d (the initial sound of
English this) in the corresponding words. Thus the word for 'deer' is isu
in one part and idu in the other, and the word for 'metate (grinding
table)' is yoso in one part and yodo in the other. (Some towns have
different consonants in these words.) Another reason that it is hard for
people from different towns to understand each other is that they
sometimes use completely different words. For example, the set of pronouns
used in each town often differs from the set used in neighboring towns.
The area where the Mixtecs, Cuicatecs, and Triquis live is known as the
Mixteca, and it includes a wide range of elevations. It was originally a
very fertile area, but parts of it have suffered severe erosion, and it is
now difficult for the people to make a living by growing corn (maize),
beans, and squash in the traditional way. One way in which Mixtecs
supplement their income is by weaving palm leaves into hats, mats, and
baskets, but their earnings from this work are very low. Triqui women
weave items for the tourist trade using their traditional backstrap loom.
A few women in Peñoles still raise silkworms and sell the thread in Oaxaca
City; some men sell homemade charcoal in the Oaxaca market. Another response to economic pressure is emigration, and many people
from this language group live and work in Mexico City, Oaxaca, and other
large cities. They usually remain loyal to their hometown, return each
year for special fiestas, and contribute toward town projects. Many people
also go to northern Mexico, especially the states of Sinaloa, Sonora, and
Baja California, to work in the large agricultural operations there; and
many others go to the United States and to Canada. Much is known about the history of the Mixtec from the pictorial
history books known as codices. These books describe their cosmovision,
and also give the history of some of their kings. One of the most famous
Mixtec kings was Eight Deer Tiger Claw of Tilantongo, who ruled over a
large empire in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Mixtecs were also
superb goldsmiths, potters, and carvers. The most famous collection of
Mixtec artifacts was found in tomb seven at the Monte Alban archaeological
site in Oaxaca. Like other Otomanguean languages, the languages in the Mixtecan family
are tonal, which means that the pitch with which a word is pronounced is
so important that a change in the pitch can change one word into an
entirely different one. The tones are so important that they are written
in the practical orthographies (alphabets) of many Mixtecan languages, at
least on some words. Chicahuaxtla Trique was the first language discovered
to have five contrastive levels of tone, described by Robert Longacre in a
1952 article. Also, tones sometimes change before or after other tones.
Kenneth Pike's description of San Miguel El Grande Mixtec tone was one of
the earliest descriptions of such changes, which are known as tone sandhi.
As is the case in many other languages in the Otomanguean stock, the
normal word order in Mixtecan languages is Verb - Subject - Objects.
Numerals precede the nouns they modify, but possessors and other modifiers
follow them. There is a special set of dependent pronouns which at first
appear to be suffixes on verbs (indicating the subject) or on nouns
(indicating a possessor), similar to the person/number suffixes on verbs
in Spanish. However, as far as the grammar is concerned, they are better
considered to be the actual subject or possessor, because they are not
used when a separate noun follows the verb as subject or the possessed
noun as possessor. © 2004 Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, A.C. http://www.sil.org/mexico/mixteca/00i-mixteca.htm 1/19/2005 |
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