Rosemary Beam de Azcona

This paper concerns a semantic change whereby a continuous aspect prefix was reinterpreted as marking realis mood. This change took place in Chatino and then diffused to the Southern Zapotec subgroup, contributing to the genetic diversification of the Zapotec languages. Proto-Zapotecan marked irrealis mood with *k- and did not mark realis. *n- indicated continuous aspect and could concatenate with perfective *ku- to render a resultative reading. A continuous-marked positional verb *n-te later grammaticalized as a progressive prefix in Chatino. As both perfective and progressive refer to (at least partially) realized situations, *n- was reanalyzed as a marker of realis mood that could concatenate with aspectual viewpoint prefixes. The realis prefix is shown to be one of several traits diffused from Chatino which contribute to the creation of the Southern Zapotec clade and its divergence from Monte Albán Zapotec.

While the phenomenon of tonogenesis is well represented in the literature, diachronic tone change in already-tonal languages has received less attention. This paper considers two types of tonal morphology used to mark the “potential” inflectional category on verbs in Coatec Zapotec (aka Di′zhke′). Some verbs are marked with upstep. Coatec upstepped tones are emergent tonal contrasts that are developing out of high register allotones which assimilated to a historical high tone on a now-deleted preceding syllable. Other verbs display patterns of tone ablaut such that a verb with underlying low or falling tone surfaces with high or rising in the potential. Both upstep and tone ablaut in Coatec can be traced to an earlier floating high tone that could dock onto different syllables according to a set of ranked constraints. Using a combination of internal and comparative reconstruction, details of the earlier tonal system are revealed. This is the first published treatment of Proto-Zapote...

This paper provides a detailed description of inflectional classes of verbs based on TAM-marking morphology in Coatec Zapotec. This description is then used as a standard for comparison with other Zapotec languages spoken in the Southern Sierra region of Oaxaca, Mexico, which is considered by the author to be a diffusion zone. A comparison of 10 varieties belonging to four languages finds that the most diverse TAM-marking systems are found in the western part of the Southern Sierra while the system of inflectional classes greatly simplifies as one moves eastward. Contact and diffusion are considered to be crucial in the retention or loss of conservative features and the spread of innovations such as nasalization of certain prefixes.

This paper updates the reconstruction of the stative aspect prefix in Proto-Zapotecan as *n- and tracks innovations in stative marking. An early change is proposed to have deleted preconsonantal nasals, rendering segmentally unmarked stative forms of consonant-initial verbs in varieties of Zapotec then spoken in and around the city of Monte Albán. Contact with Chatino may be a factor in the retention of preconsonantal *n in Zapotec varieties spoken to the south. A fuller stative prefix, usually *na-, arose later from a grammaticalized form of the stative-marked copula (Munro 2007; Uchihara 2021). *na- is more productive than *n- and provides the basis for a new proposed “Eastern Zapotec” genetic grouping. However, the isogloss for *na- crosscuts the earlier isogloss for preconsonantal nasal deletion, showing that any model of Zapotecan linguistic history needs to address not only divergence but also convergence. Ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence provide a social context to...

En la Sierra Sur de Oaxaca, dos cuentos mesoamericanos, “El aprendiz del Rayo”y “La visita al dueño de los animales”, se han combinado con un cuento de moraleja que serelaciona con un tabú sobre la caza, la carne y el adulterio. Aquí se presentan dos versionesen dos lenguas zapotecas de esta región: el zapoteco coateco y el zapoteco miahuateco. Unaintroducción presenta notas sobre el folclor mesoamericano y zapoteco, y sobre el desarrollode ortografías prácticas para estas lenguas.

... En la clase C el completivo se marca con/ng/y una vocal o deslizada ... Rieeni, aquel va Rieeni, aquellos van PRETÉRITO PERFECTO singular plural Cuyaaya, yo fui Piootonoo, nosotros ... irá Cheeni, aquellos irán IMPERATIVO singular plural Cuyee, ve tú Cola chee lachee, id ...

Zapotecan languages belong to the Otomanguean stock and consist of two major subgroups: Zapotec and Chatino. They are primarily spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico, and elsewhere in diaspora, particularly in California but also in other parts of the United States and Mexico. Zapotecan languages are spoken in a contiguous area and although all are related genetically, many languages exist in regional diffusion zones such that new changes spread areally. Similarly, individual Zapotecan “languages” often consist of dialect continua.Zapotecan languages are tonal and also have contrastive phonation types, such as a contrast between modal (V), checked (VɁ), and rearticulated (VɁV) vowels. Some Valley Zapotec languages also have breathy voice, partially due to contact with Mixe. Vowel nasalization is a prominent feature of Chatino and a marginal feature of some Zapotec languages. Consonants usually fall into two contrastive series in Zapotec, commonly termed “fortis” and “lenis,” though the phonetic ...

Resumen español: Este artículo describe el calendario ritual de 260 días practicado en San Bartolomé Loxicha. En la cultura de los Loxicha la población se divide en dos grupos: los xa'yint, que son tradicionalistas, y los xa'xtiíl, que son personas con tradiciones hispanizadas. El calendario prescribe cuándo personas de estos dos grupos deben llevar a cabo sus ritos y es parte de un sistema mántico para predecir fechas de buen y mal augurio. Ciertos días están asociados con deidades zapotecas y la estructura del calendario revela algunos aspectos de la cosmovisión de este pueblo de habla di'zdéh (zapoteco miahuateco). Resumen inglés: This article describes the 260-day ritual calendar as practiced in San Bartolomé Loxicha. In the culture of the Loxichas the population is divided into two grupos: the xa'yint, who are traditionalists, and the xa'xtiíl, whose traditions are hispanized. The calendar prescribes when each group should carry out their rituals and predicts days of good or bad luck. Certain days are associated with Zapotec deities and the structure of the calendar reveals certain aspects of the cosmovision of this di'zdéh (Miahuatec Zapotec) speaking community. 5 palabras claves: calendario ritual, zapoteco, Sierra Sur, Mesoamérica, religión zapoteca. VERSIÓN PRE-PUBLICACIÓN. EN PRENSA EN CUADERNOS DEL SUR.

This paper provides a detailed description of inflectional classes of verbs based on TAM-marking morphology in Coatec Zapotec. This description is then used as a standard for comparison with other Zapotec languages spoken in the Southern Sierra region of Oaxaca, Mexico, which is considered by the author to be a diffusion zone. A comparison of 10 varieties belonging to four languages finds that the most diverse TAM-marking systems are found in the western part of the Southern Sierra while the system of inflectional classes greatly simplifies as one moves eastward. Contact and diffusion are considered to be crucial in the retention or loss of conservative features and the spread of innovations such as nasalization of certain prefixes.

Literature on inclusory constructions in Austronesian and Australian languages describes an inclusory pronominal as an essential element of this construction type. Southern Zapotec languages lack grammatical number, including in the pronominal system, and because of this inclusory constructions in Southern Zapotec languages have quite different structures. Pronouns can be optional or even absent from these constructions and instead quantifiers become an essential element, indicating the superset that the whole construction refers to. This paper proposes a diachronic development for this construction type in Southern Zapotec languages, including grammaticalization of the superset word to a comitative marker. Another unusual characteristic of Southern Zapotec inclusory constructions highlighted here is the obligatory use of a possessed noun phrase to indicate the included subset. The Southern Zapotec variations on the IC highlight the need to consider how both supersets and subsets are indicated in IC’s worldwide.

RESUMEN
En la Sierra Sur de Oaxaca, dos cuentos mesoamericanos, “el Aprendiz del Rayo” y “la Visita al Dueño de los Animales”, se han combinado con un cuento de moraleja que se relaciona con un tabú sobre la caza, la carne, y el adulterio. Aquí se presentan dos versiones en dos lenguas zapotecas de esta región: el zapoteco coateco y el zapoteco miahuateco. Una introducción presenta notas sobre el folclor mesoamericano y zapoteco, y sobre el desarrollo de ortografías prácticas para estas lenguas.

PALABRAS CLAVE: Rayo, zapoteco, folclor, ortografía, Sierra Sur

ABSTRACT
In the Southern Sierra Madre of Oaxaca, two Mesoamerican tale types, “Thunder’s Apprentice” and “The Visit to the Animal Master,” have combined with a morality tale having to do with a taboo about hunting, meat, and adultery. Two versions are presented here in two Southern Zapotec languages: Coatec Zapotec and Miahuatec Zapotec. An introduction contains notes about Mesoamerican and Zapotec folklore and about orthography development for these languages.

KEYWORDS: Lightning, Thunder, Zapotec, folklore, orthography, Sierra Sur

Los pronombres de lenguas zapotecas normalmente ocurren en dos juegos, uno más independiente y otro más dependiente. El segundo grupo frecuentemente se analiza como un juego de clíticos (Jones y Church 1985, Black 1994, Munro y López et al. 1999, Beam de Azcona 2004, y ver Marlett 1993 para más discusión). La definición de “clítico” varía mucho en la literatura de lingüística general y aunque muchas veces parte de su definición incluye la concatenación (versus la fusión), uno puede encontrar casos de análisis de clitizicación que incluyen algún tipo de morfología fusional (p.ej. Luis 2009:12). Sullivant (2015: 304) describe marcación de persona no concatenativa en una lengua zapotecana, el chatino de Tataltepec, como históricamente derivada de la clitización, por su posición a final de la frase (o compuesto) nominal. En el zapoteco miahuateco también encontramos marcación de persona que parece fusional pero que muestra afinidades fonológicas con otros marcadores que sí se pueden analizar como clíticos en la lengua. Si el chatino de Tataltepec nos da un caso de un clítico que con el tiempo se transformó en morfología fusional, el zapoteco miahuateco nos da un ejemplo semejante pero en un estado más preliminar.
En los siguientes ejemplos tenemos sustantivos poseídos por la primera persona singular e inclusiva y un verbo con sujeto de primera persona. A nivel subyacente podemos considerar que se concatenan los marcadores de persona a las raíces, pero en la superficie vemos cierto grado de fusión, ya que en el verbo ‘vayamos’ vemos que el sujeto de indica por la laringización y nasalización de la vocal de la raíz verbal.

[jaʔã ˦.˥] [jaã̰ ˦˧˨] [jã̰ ˥˦]
/jaʔ ˦ =ã  ˥  / /jaʔ ˦ =ãʔ/ /ja ˦ =ãʔ/
‘mi mano’ ‘nuestras manos’ ‘vayamos’

Para explicar la diferencia entre estos tres (y semejantes) ejemplos, tenemos que referirnos a procesos de elisión, disimilación, un tono flotante y diferentes realizaciones de tono y laringización en clíticos vs. raíces. Estos dos últimos son interesantes porque en otras lenguas otomangues se ha explicado la variación en el tono y la laringización vis-a-vis la prominencia silábica (Arellanes Arellanes 2015, Hernández Mendoza 2014), pero aquí se describe variación debido al contexto morfosintáctico (aunque los dos conceptos podrían coincidir, ya que en esta lengua monosilábica los enclíticos podrían considerarse como únicos casos de sílabas no prominentes).
Referencias
Arellanes Arellanes, Francisco (2015) Rasgos laríngeos y estructura métrica en el zapoteco de San Pablo Güilá: del contraste pleno a la atenuación y la neutralización. Tono, acento y estructuras métricas en lenguas mexicanas. Ed. Esther Herrera Zendejas. El Colegio de México. Centro de Estudios Lingüísticos y Literarios. México, D.F. pp. 157-206
Beam de Azcona, Rosemary G. 2004. A Coatlán-Loxicha Zapotec Grammar. Tesis de doctorado, UC Berkeley.
Black, Cheryl A. 1994. Quiegolani Zapotec Syntax. Tesis de doctorado, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Hernández Mendoza, Fidel (2014) Prominencia silábica en el triqui de Chicahuaxtla. Proceedings of the Workshop on the Sound Systems of Mexico and Central America. Ed. Ryan Bennett, Rikker Dockum, Emily Gasser, Dolly Goldenberg,Ryan Kasak,Patrick Patterson. Yale Department of Linguistics, 2014. Online publication. http://ling.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/ssmca-proceedings/papers/Hernandez-2014-Triqui-SSMCA.pdf
Jones, Ted E. and Ann D. Church. 1985. Personal Pronouns in Guelavía Zapotec. SIL-México Workpapers 7:1-15.
Luis, Ana R. 2009. Patterns of clitic placement: Evidence from ‘mixed’ clitic systems” en Patience Epps y Alexandre Arkhipov, eds. New Challenges in Typology: Transcending the borders and refining the distinctions. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Marlett, Stephen A.. 1993. “Zapotec Pronoun Classification”. International Journal of American Linguistics 59 (1). University of Chicago Press: 82–101. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1265471.
Munro, Pamela and Felipe H. Lopez with Olivia V. Méndez, Rodrigo Garcia, and
Michael R. Galant. 1999.  San Lucas Quiaviní Zapotec Dictionary. UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Publications.

Sullivant, John Ryan. 2015. The Phonology and Inflectional Morphology of Cháʔknyá,

Una charla preparada por Rosemary Beam de Azcona, Emiliano Cruz Santiago y Juan Juárez Antonio, e impartido por estos dos últimos en nombre de los tres en el centro cultural y académico "San Pablo" en 2013. Un video de la charla se encuentra en https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqEVOF93cG0&list=PL4zSolBT3TTu5tKSTFkOB-7UeDHbUYuNN