Texistepec language

Texistepec
Wää 'oot
Native to	Mexico
Region	Vera Cruz
Native speakers	100 (2007)
Language family	Mixe–Zoquean Zoquean Gulf Zoquean Texistepec
Language codes
ISO 639-3	poq
ELP	Texistepec

Texistepec, commonly called ether Texistepec Popoluca or Texistepec Zoque, is a Mixe–Zoquean language of the Zoquean branch spoken by around 400 indigenous Popoluca people in and around the town of Texistepec in Southern Veracruz, Mexico.

Within the Mixe–Zoquean family, Texistepec Popoluca is most closely related to Sierra Popoluca.

Texistepec Popoluca has been documented primarily in work by Søren Wichmann, a Danish anthropological and historical linguist and Ehren Reilly, a former graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. Reilly's work was a part of the larger Project for the Documentation of the Languages of Mesoamerica, under the leadership of the University of Pittsburgh's Terrence Kaufman, and contributed to Kaufman's project of deciphering Epi-Olmec writing.

Less than 100 native speakers of Texistepec Popoluca remained when Søren Wichmann, Ehren Reilly, and Terrence Kaufman conducted their research between 1990 and 2002, and the language was moribund, with no new speakers acquiring the language natively, due to the prevalence of Spanish. Today, all remaining speakers, are elderly, if any survive at all. However, according to a publication from the Program of Revitalization, Strengthening, and Development of the Languages of the Indigenous Nationals, there was a recorded 238 speakers in Vercruz, Mexico INARI

Phonology

The phonemes /l/ and /r/ do not occur natively within the Texistepec language. These two phonemes are borrowed from Spanish phonology and have become integrated into Texistepec phonology (Reilly).

Consonants

Bilabials: stop- /p/, /b/ -nasal- /m/ Alveolar: stop- /t/, /d/ /dʲ/ -nasal- /n/ -lateral, trill- /l/, /r/ Palatal: nasal- /ɲ/ -affricates- /t͡s/ -fricatives-/s/ Velar: stop- /k/ -velar- /ɳ/ Glottal: stop- /ʔ/ -fricatives- /h/

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	/p/,  /b/	/t/,  /d/   /dʲ/		/k/	/ʔ/
Nasal	/m/	/n/	/ɲ/	/ɳ/
Lateral, Trill		/l/,  /r/
Affricates		/t͡s/	/t͡ʃ
Fricatives		/s/	/ʃ/		/h/

Vowels

Vowels ɨ, u, ɛ, ɔ, a

Vowels	Front	Central	Back
High		/ɨ/	/u/
Mid-low	/ɛ/		/ɔ/
Low			/a/

Vowel Phonemes:

Underspecified:

	ɛ	ɨ	a	u	o
high		+		+
back			+
round				+	+

 

Fully Specified

	ɛ	ɨ	a	u	o
high	-	+	-	+	-
back	-	+	+	+	+
round	-	-	-	+	+

“Long and short vowels are also contrastive in lexical representations as is evident from the following minimal pair:

t͡ʃɛːɲ                      ‘honey’

t͡ʃɛɲ                        ‘shit’

(Reilly 2002, 11)

Morphology

Sample of forms inflected in second person for palatal glide and nasal autosegment

(17)	‘key’	‘candle’	‘bean’	‘go’	‘honey’
UR:	Nj-jaːpɛʔ	Nj-daj	Nj-sɨk	Nj-dɨk	Nj-t͡ʃ_ːɲ
Metathesis	Njjaːpɛʔ	Ndjaj	Nsjɨk	Nj	Nt͡ʃj_ːɲ
Palatalization	Ndʲaːpɛʔ	Ndʲaj	Nʃjɨk	Nj	Nt͡ʃj_ːɲ
N-Spreading	ɲaːpɛʔ	ɲjaj	ʒjɨk	ɲjik	nd͡ʒ_ːɲ
Relinking	---	---	---	---	nd͡ʒːɲ
j-Deletion	---	---	ʒik	ɲik	---
Peak Filter	---	---	---	---	nd͡ʒːɲ
SR	ɲaːpɛʔ	ɲjaj	ʒik	ɲik	nd͡ʒːɲ

“This inventory distinguishes nasal stops /m/ and /n/ from oral stops /b/ and /d/, respectively…/d/ and /b/ occur in complementary distribution with /n/ and /m/, with the oral stops appearing in onsets and the nasals appearing in the codas” (Reilly 2004, 18).

 

Nasalization Processes                                   Palatalization Processes

X.        /^N-b/ -->[m]                                         A.        /j-Ci/ --> [Ci]   ;           /Ci/ --> [Cɛ] elsewhere

            /^N-d/ --> [n]

                                                                        B.        /j-Cɨ/ --> [Ci]

Y.        /^N-p/ --> [m͡b]

            /^N-t/ --> [n͡d]                                        C.        /j-s/ --> [ʃ]

            /^N-k/ --> [n͡g]                                                    /j-t/ --> [tʃ]

            /^N-{ʔ,h}V/ --> [{ʔ,h} Ṽ]                                  /j-d/ --> [d^j]

            /^N-{w,j}V/ --> [{w̃, j̃}Ṽ]

            /^N-{s, ʃ}/ --> [{z, ʒ}]                           D.        /j-[-COR]/ --> [Cj]

(Ehren, Wayment)

Personal and Aspect Markers

 

“Imperfective aspect is indicated by a proclitic ʔu, and Perfective aspect is indicated by a proclitic maʔ.” (Wichmann via Reilly 2004, 36). “A third aspect functions very much like a future tense, indicated by a suffix –p(ɛʃ)” (Reilly 2004, 36).

 

Cross-referencing morphology for all possible argument structures (Reilly 2007, 1581)

Subj-->Obj (any asp’t)	Subj-->Obj (any asp’t)	Subj (imperf.)	Subj (perf.,fut)
1--> 3    1st-A   /N-/	3--> 1    1st-B   /k+/	1    1st-A   /N-/	1    1st-B   /k+/
2--> 3    2nd-A  /j-N-/	3--> 2    2nd-B  /k+j-/	2    2nd-A  /j-N-/	2    2nd-B  /k+j-/
3--> 3    3rd-A  /j-/		3    3rd-A  /j-/	3    ∅
1--> 2 /k+N-/ ;  2-->1 /k+jN-/ = portmanteau

(Reilly 2007, 1581)

 

Transitive:                              Intransitive:

ERG/NOM                                                      ERG/NOM                  ABS

            1/3       ^N-                     1^st Person                    ^N-                     k-

            1in/3    ta^N-                  1^st Person Exclusive   ta^N-                  te-/ta-

            2/3       ^Nj-                    2^nd Person                   ^Nj-                    kj-

            3/3       j-                     3^rd Person                   j-                     ∅

ABS

            3/1       k-

            3/1in    te/ta-

 

            1/2       k^N-

            2/1       k^Nj-

(Reilly 2004, 54)

 

Personal Markers

 

Comparison of personal marker contrast between Texistepec Popoluca speakers and other Zoque languages:

A	Proto-Zoque	Sierra Popoluca	Texistepec Popoluca	San Miguel Chimal	Chiapas
1ex	*än-	an-	n-	‘än=	(ä) N-
1in	*tän-	tan-	ta=n-	dän, tän	ndä-
2	*min-	iñ-	ny-	‘äm=	(mi) N-
3	*äy-	i-	y-	‘äy=/’ äy	y-
B
1ex	*ä-	a-	k=	dä=	∅
1in	*tä-	ta-	ta	-	tä-
2	*mi-	mi-	k=y-	äm=, 3/2 mi=Ny-
3	*∅-	∅-	∅-	∅=	∅-
Local
1/2	*mi+än	mi+an > miñ	k=n-	mix=, mix+’än	N-
2/1	*ä+in(ʔ)	a+iñ > an-	k=ny-	mix=	N-

(Wichmann 2004, 209)

 

References

INARI (Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas). 2009. Programa de Revitalización, Fortalecimiento y Desarrollo de las Lenguas Indígenas Nacionales 2008-2012.

Reilly, Ehren. 2002. A Survey of Texistepec Popoluca Verbal Morphology. Unpublished undergraduate thesis. Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota

Reilly, Ehren. 2004. Promiscuous Paradigms and the Morphologically Conditioned "Ergative Split" in Texistepec Popoluca (Zoquean). Proceedings of Berkeley Linguistics Society 30, Special Session on the Morphology of Native American Languages. February, 2004.

Ehren, R. and Adam Wayment. nd. Modeling inter-speaker variation in Texistepec Popoluca overapplication of reduplication. (Poster)

Wichmann, Søren. 1994. Underspecification in Texistepec Popoluca phonology. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 27.2: 267-285.

Wichmann, Søren. 2004. La gramaticalización de un paradigma de auxiliares en popoluca de Texistepec. 2:205-220.