mul$dialectal+orthography+and+ presentaon% … · 2017. 5. 12. · 3/1/15 1...

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Mul$dialectal orthography and the wri$ng of vowels in Mixe

Rodrigo Romero Méndez [email protected]

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

PresentaAon

Mixe communiAes face some challenges: •  They want a unified wriAng system for all of the dialects. •  But, many people want to write their own dialect slightly

different from other communiAes. •  No one wants to change the way they already write…

–  some else should do it.

This talk is an academic exercise showing how a mulAdialectal orthography could be achieved.

•  The ideal soluAon becomes too deep. •  An alternaAve soluAon is presented.

Cultural unity Self idenAficaAon

Main Mixe communiAes

More conservaAve

More innovaAve

Dialectal chain

Brief history of the Mixe orthography

•  [Epi-‐Olmec wriAng system. Not really Mixe, probaply proto-‐zoque.]

Justeson & Kaufman 1993

Jama ‘day’

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•  [Epi-‐Olmec wriAng system. Not really Mixe, probaply proto-‐zoque]

•  Colonial Period: Quintana’s Instrvccion Chiris-ana, Confessonario, etc (1729a, 1729b, 1733). – There are other documents in the communiAes, such as Coatlán, Juquila...

–  It is necessary to recover them before they get destroyed by the community or just due to bad condiAons.

– The wriAng system did not have conAnuity.



•  Colonial Period: Quintana’s Instrvccion Chiris-ana, Confessonario, etc.

•  Summer InsAtute of LinguisAcs – Not a unified orthography. – Correspondence between lehers and allophones – Based on the Spanish orthography.




•  Summer InsAtute of LinguisAcs •  Secretaría de Educación Pública (Department/Ministry of EducaAon) – Not have a unified wriAng system. – The lehers change from publicaAon to publicaAon. – They are based on Spanish




•  Summer InsAtute of LinguisAcs •  Secretaría de Educación Pública (Department/Ministry of EducaAon)

•  Current Mixe orthography

Mixe orthograpy

•  The Mixe orthography was created in the 1980’s –  collaboraAve effort between community members and linguists

(cf. Valiñas, 1991). •  One explicit goal of that process was to create a single

wriAng system for all Oaxaca mixe languages. •  It is a widespread orthography as it is used almost officially

in some communiAes, •  it appears in recent publicaAons (Díaz, 2008; Zavala, 2013a,

b; Romero-‐Méndez, 2013; inter alia), •  It is taught to schoolteachers. •  it is taught in some high schools and in two colleges

throughout the Mixe territory. •  Bible translaAon (at least Quetzaltepec Mixe).

Mixe Orthography

•  It uses the laAn alphabet. •  It is intended to have a high correspondence between phonemes and graphemes (Reyes, 2005; Romero, 2013).

•  It works very well for wriAng consonants. •  Only phonemes are wrihen, –  Voicing, leniAon, and palatalizaAon are not represented.

•  There are many issues that have to be resolved in order to have a complete orthographic system.

•  but it works fairly well… –  except for vowels!

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Vowels in the Mixe orthography

•  When the Mixe orthography was developed, they did not know enough about mixe sound systems.

•  Except for Totontepec Mixe, not a single phonology had been made. [although cf. Hoogshagen 1959]

•  But they did not take into account Totontepec Mixe. –  Those descripAons were wrihen using phonotagmemics, and

were in English (Crawford 1963). •  They only had access to the surface forms for a few mixe

languages, but they wanted to have a unified orthography for all Mixe languages.

•  The way they decided to do it was using the same set of symbols for all dialects... each community decided how to adapt it to their language.

i ɨ u e o

a

Guichicovi Mixe i u e ɘ o a ɐ

Alotepec Mixe

i u e ɘ o ɛ a ɐ

Zacatepec Mixe i ɨ u e o a ʌ

Ayutla Mixe

i ɨ u e ɜ o ɛ ɐ ɔ

Totontepec Mixe

i y ɨ u e ø o æ a ʌ

Mixistlán Mixe

Due to the influence of the palatal glide as part of the coda

a) /n-‐koʂ-‐jp/ ‘he finishes it’ 1A-‐punch-‐NEU;INDEP;TR

[nɡeʃ]

b) /n-‐mʌʦ-‐j/ ‘I grab it’ 1A-‐grab-‐NEU;DEP [n̥maʧ]

How do Mixe language got all those vowels?

Different effects of the palatalizaAon

The palatalizaAon has two different effects on the vowel systems:

•  It does not allow vowels to lower.

•  It causes fronAng of back vowels

Romero-‐Méndez, forthcoming AcousAc analysis of vowels in 26 Mixe dialects

Proto-‐Mixe-‐Zoque and Lowland Mixe

i

e

a

o

u ɨ

cf. Wichmann 1995

Lowering I

i

e

ɐ

o

u ɨ

æ a

Lowland Mixe and Midland Mixe.

When NOT followed by a palatal

When followed by a palatal

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Lowering II

i

e

a

o

u ɨ

ʌ

Midland Mixe and South Highland

When not followed by a palatal When followed by a palatal

Lowering III

i

e

a

o

u ɨ

ʌ

Core South Highlands.

When not followed by a palatal



u

Lowering IV

i

e

a

o ɨ

æ ɔ

North Highlands

When NOT followed by a palatal

Front Vowels

•  Vowel lowering

•  Vowel fronAng

FronAng I: Half way

i

e

a

o

u ɨ

ʌ

ɘ

ɨ̝ When followed by a palatal

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FronAng II: all the way

i

e

a

o

u ɨ

ʌ


FronAng III: rounding

Yacochi, Mixistlán, Ocotepec, Tepuxtepec

i

e

a

o

u ɨ

ʌ

y

ø


Central vowel

i

e

a

o

u ɨ

ʌ

ɘ

ɨ̝ When followed by a palatal

Non-‐front vowels

Non stressed vowels

i

e

a

o

u ɨ

ʌ

ɘ

Ayutla Mixe Coatlán Mixe

[i]

followed by palatal i followed by palatal ɨ followed by palatal u

Ayutla Mixe Coatlán Mixe

[e] not followed by palatal i followed by palatal o

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/o/ followed by a palatal

[o] Coatlán [ɜ] Ocotepec [e] Ayutla [ø] Mixistlán

WriAng vowels

i

e

a

o

u ɨ

«ö» Belmar 1902; Suslak 2005

«a», «u» Hoogshagen & Hoogshagen 1993 «û», «ô» Quintana 1729

«ï» SEP 2004; Guzmán 2012

«ü» SEP 2004 «ø» SEP 1983; SEP 1984

«ë» INEA 2005, Reyes 2005; Díaz, 2008; Zavala,2013a, b; Guzmán 2012; Romero 2013; inter alia.

«i» «u»

«e» «o»

«a»

Problems with the current orthography

RepresentaAon based on similariAes with /a/ «a» in Spanish:

Dialect A Dialect B

e æ

a

e

a

a

ʌ

Not followed by a palatal

Followed by a palatal



«e» «e»

«a» «a» «ä»

«a» «ä»

Problems with current orthography

«ajkx» «äjkx»

Dialect A

Dialect B

ʔaʰkʂ ʔæʰkʂ

ʔaʰkʂ ʔʌʰkʂ

‘fish’ ‘chayote’ (vegetable)

‘chayote’ ‘fish’

< *a < *e

< *e < *a

Problems with the current orthography

RepresentaAon based on similariAes with /a/ in Spanish:

Dialect C

e æ

a



«e»

«a»

«ä»

ɐ «?»

Recap

•  All Mixe vowel systems can be understood as having a basic six-‐vowel system.

•  Then two things might happen: – Lowering when not followed by a palatal. – FronAng when followed by a palatal.

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SoluAon I

•  All Mixe vowel systems can be understood as having a basic six-‐vowel system.

•  Then two things might happen: – Lowering when not followed by a palatal. – Frontred when followed by a palatal.

Let us write with a single leher these six vowels.

Let us write the changes with a diacriAc.

A leher for the six basic vowels

Front Non-‐front i ɨ u e o a

A leher for the six basic vowels

Front Non-‐front i ï ï ɨ ü u e ë ö o a ä

Add a diaeresis to the alternate form.

Problems

•  The problem with this soluAon is that it becomes too deep.

•  It is phonologically consistent, •  but phoneAcally there is no relaAon between sounds and graphemes.

PhoneAcally Phonologically

[i] followed by palatal i i ɨ ï u ü

For Ayutla Mixe: Problems

•  The other problem is that «ë» is already used for represenAng /ɨ/.

•  Even though this is actually problemaAc, there is already a 30 years old tradiAon.

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SoluAon II

i

e

a

o

u ë

For the sixth vowel:

For the five vowels similar to Spanish:

When the change results in an exisAng vowel, do not write it.

SoluAon II

i

e

a

o

u ë



ä When the change does not result in an exisAng vowel, write it with a dieresis.

ö

SoluAon II

i

e

a

o

u ë



ä When the change does not result in an exisAng vowel, write it with a dieresis.

ö

ë

SoluAon III i

e

a

o

u ë

ä à æ å

Concluding remarks

•  In order to have a mulAdialect orthography, it is necessary to have phoneAc and phonological descripAons of many dialects.

•  That is not enough. –  It is also necessary to undersdand the phonological processes

that caused the historical change. •  However, o�en Ames part of the speakers want a unified

orthography, –  while other want to write their dialect in a slightly differently, –  this gives them idenAty (cf. Suslak 2003).

•  I want is to write Mixe in a way that is useful to wedest possible audience.

References •  Belmar, Francisco. 1902. Estudio del Idioma Ayook. Oaxaca: Imprenta del Comercio. •  Crawford, John Chapman. 1963. Totontepec Mixe phonotagmemics. Norman: SIL. •  Díaz, J. G. 2008. Ii’pyxyukpët Ayuujk. México: CEA-‐UIIA •  Heap, D. 2006. Dialect chains. In Encyclopedia of LinguisAcs. •  Hoogshagen, Searle, and Hoogshagen, Hilda Halloran de. 1993. Diccionario mixe de Coatlán, Oaxaca. México:

InsAtuto LingüísAco de Verano. •  Hoogshagen, Searle. 1959. Three ContrasAve Vowel Lengths in Mixe. ZeitschriL für Phone-k 12:111-‐115. •  INEA. 2005. Ayuujk najktsonta’aky neky kyäjpxën, neky jyä’äyën. Ayuuk ää. Empiezo a leer y escribir en mi lengua.

Mixe. Paejxpajt ayuujk-‐amaxän. Vocabulario mixe-‐español. México: InsAtuto Nacional para la Educación de los Adultos.

•  Katz, Leonard y Ram Frost. 1992. The reading process is different for different orthograpies: The orthographic depth hypothesis. En Frost y Katz (eds.) Orthography, phonology, morphology, and meaning, pp. 67-‐84. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

•  Quintana, fray AugusAn de. 1729a. Doctrina Chris-ana, y Declaracion de los Principales Mysterios de Nvestra Santa Feê Chatholica, con vn Tratado de la Confesion Sacramental. Puebla, México: Viuda de Miguel de Ortega Bonilla.

•  Quintana, fray AugusAn de. 1729b. Instrvccion Chrisiana, y guia de ignorantes para el cielo en lengva mixe. Puebla, México: Viuda de Miguel de Ortega Bonilla.

•  Quintana, fray AugusAn de. 1733. Confessonario en lengua mixe. Con vna Construccion de las Oraciones de la Doctrina Chris-ana, y un Compendio de Voces Mixes, Para enseñarse â prononciar la dicha lengua. Publicado por el Comte de Charencey.

•  Reyes Gómez, Juan Carlos. 2005. Aportes al proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje de la lectura y la escritura de la lengua ayuuk. Oaxaca, México: CEA-‐UIIA.

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References •  Romero Méndez, Rodrigo. 2013. Historias mixes de Ayutla. Te’nte’n ja’ mëjjä’ätyëjk myatyä’äkt. Así

contaron los abuelos. México: UNAM. •  Romero Méndez, Rodrigo. Forthcoming. La evolución de los -mbres vocálicos en lenguas mixes. Los

efectos de la palatalización. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. •  SEP. 1983. Lecto-‐escritura en lengua mixe. Libro del maestro. Mixe, Ayutla, Zona Alta, Oaxaca.

México. •  SEP. 1984. N’ayuuk nekZ. Mi libro Mixe, primer grado, Alotepec, Oaxaca. •  SEP. 2004. N’a n’ïyük. Lengua mixe, zona media. Oaxaca. •  SEP. N’ayuuk lipötsy. Mi primer libro-‐Primer grado, Guichicovi. •  Suslak, Daniel. 2003. The story of ö: Orthography and cultural poliAcs in the Mixe Highlands.

Pragma-cs 13 (4): 551-‐563. •  Suslak, Daniel. 2005. The future of Totontepecano Mixe: youth and language in the Mixe highlands.

Tesis de doctorado, University of Chicago. •  Valiñas, Leopoldo. 1991. Apuntes para una dialectología del mixe. Anales de Antroplogía 28:

437-‐456. •  Wichmann, Søren. 1995. The rela-onship among the Mixe-‐Zoquean languages of Mexico. Salt Lake

City: University of Utah Press. •  Zavala, L. (comp.). 2013a. Nëwempët matya’aky. Aguilar (trad.). México: Ediciones del Hermitaño. •  Zavala, L. (comp.). 2013b. Nëwempït matyä’äky. Comix (trad.). México: Ediciones del Hermitaño.

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