Texistepec language
| Texistepec | |
|---|---|
| Wää 'oot | |
| Native to | Mexico |
| Region | Vera Cruz |
Native speakers | 100 (2007)[1] |
Mixe–Zoquean
| |
| 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
Morpho-Phonological Alterations
| (17) | 'key' | 'candle' | 'bean' | 'go' | 'honey' |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UR: | Nj-jaːpɛʔ | Nj-daj | Nj-sɨk | Nj-dɨk | Nj-t͡ʃ_ːɲ |
| Metathesis | Njjaːpɛʔ | Ndjaj | Nsjɨk | Ndjɨk | Nj-t͡ʃ_ːɲ |
| Palatalization | Ndjaːpɛʔ | Ndjaj | Nʃjik | Ndjik | Nt͡ʃj_ːɲ |
| N-Spreading | ɲaːpɛʔ | ɲjaj | ʒjik | ɲjik | nd͡ʒj_ːɲ |
| Relinking | — | — | — | — | nd͡ʒjːŋ |
| j-Deletion | — | — | ʒik | ɲik | — |
| Peak Filter | — | — | — | — | nd͡ʒiːɲ |
| SR | ɲaːpɛʔ | ɲjaj | ʒik | ɲik | nd͡ʒiːɲ |
“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 2002, 18).
Template:Multicol
Nasalization Processes
X. /N-b/ → [m]
- /N-d/ → [n]
Y. /N-p/ → [m͡b]
- /N-t/ → [n͡d]
- /N-k/ → [n͡g]
- /N-{ʔ,h}V/ → [{ʔ,h} Ṽ]
- /N-{w,j}V/ → [{w̃, j̃}Ṽ]
- /N-{s, ʃ}/ → [{z, ʒ}]
Template:Multicol-break
Palatalization Processes
A. /j-Ci/ → [Ci],/Ci/ → [Cɛ] elsewhere
B. /j-Cɨ/ → [Ci]
C. /j-s/ → [ʃ]
- /j-t/ → [tʃ]
- /j-d/ → [dj]
D. /j-[-COR]/ → [Cj]
Template:Multicol-end
(Reilly 2005)
Aspect Markers
“The use of a single marker... is sufficient to indicate the persons and grammatical functions... The GFM [Grammatical function morpheme] system in TEX [Texistepec Popoluca] always uses only a single prefix on a given verb.” This shows a more complex pattern than “simple accusative, ergative or aspect-split pattern”. ... ”Group X marks the A as Ergative but leaves P unmarked. Group Y marks the Past Absolutive but leaves the A unmarked. Group Z seems to be a separate and autonomous set. This pattern, where sometimes the P is marked and sometimes the A is marked, is called inverse alternation. (Reilly 2004, 53-54)"
| Transitive | Intransitive | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ERG/NOM | ERG/NOM | ABS | |||
| Group X | 1/3 | N- | 1st Person | N- | k- |
| 1in/3 | taN- | 1st Person Exclusive | taN- | te-/ta- | |
| 2/3 | Nj- | 2nd Person | Nj- | kj- | |
| 3/3 | j- | 3rd Person | j- | Ø | |
| ABS | |||||
| Group Y | 3/1 | k- | |||
| 3/1in | te/ta- | ||||
| Group Z | 1/2 | kN- | |||
| 2/1 | kNj- |
(Reilly 2004, 54)
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)
Personal aspect markers
“Imperfective aspect is indicated by a proclitic ʔu, and Perfective aspect is indicated by a proclitic maʔ.” ... A third aspect functions very much like a future tense, indicated by a suffix –p(ɛʃ). (Reilly 2004, 36-37)”
“The cross-referencing of core arguments in Texistepec Popoluca employs a paradigm of affixes (Set A) and a paradigm of clitics (Set B).… Also, cross-referencing for first and second persons always aligns with the verb stem, often at the expense of any third person argument in the clause. This is known as “inverse alignment” (Klaiman 1993). In Texistepec Popoluca, inverse clauses … lack subject agreement. (Reilly 2004, 133)”
| 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 | |||
Cross-referencing morphology for all possible argument structures (Reilly 2007, 1581)
References
- ^ Texistepec at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
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; 127-138.
Reilly, Ehren. 2005. Choosing just the right amount of over-application: An acquisition puzzle in Texistepec Popoluca. In HUMDRUM Conference on Optimality Theory, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Reilly, Ehren. 2007. Morphological and phonological sources of split ergative agreement. 117: 1566-1590.
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.
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