Solteco Zapotec

Last updated
Solteco Zapotec
Native to Mexico
Region Oaxaca
Extinct (date missing)
Oto-Manguean (MP)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 None (mis)
Glottolog None

Solteco Zapotec is an extinct Zapotec language of western Oaxaca, Mexico. It was perhaps the most divergent Zapotec language. [1]

Contents

"Solteco" is a generic name used for several varieties of Zapotec.

There are very few written sources for Solteco. The largest record of Solteco is found in the responses to an 1886 vocabulary questionnaire. The questionnaire indicates that the Solteco language was already in disuse, but an unnamed 92-year-old woman from San Ildefonso Sola was able to provide Solteco vocabulary.

Classification

Solteco has consistently been identified as a relative of the Chatino and Zapotec language families, but there is some debate as to where it belongs in the subclassification of Zapotecan: whether Solteco is an independent third branch of Zapotecan, [2] or part of the Zapotec branch, [3] which is the current consensus. Based on some traits shared, including positional restrictions on the historical development affecting labialized velars and the presence of a lateral-initial animacy prefix, Solteco can be considered a member of the Western Zapotec group of languages, which also includes the Zapotec languages of Totomachapan, Lachixío, Mixtepec, and Los Altos. [4]

Features of Solteco

Solteco has only partially participated in the develarization of Proto-Zapotecan labialized velar consonants (*kw, *kkw > *b, *p). Proto-Zapotecan *kw appears in Solteco as /b/ only in initial contexts, and the fortis *kkw remains a labialized velar /kw/. [5]

Proto-Zapotecan laterals appear in Solteco as nasal consonants in words reconstructed with nasal vowels. This is unlike other Zapotec languages, where these laterals are preserved. [6]

Solteco words in the 1886 vocabulary survey sometimes are transcribed with a letter n in the middle of words. One researcher has suggested that this n may indicate the nasalization of the preceding vowel. [6]

Related Research Articles

Click consonants, or clicks, are speech sounds that occur as consonants in many languages of Southern Africa and in three languages of East Africa. Examples familiar to English-speakers are the tut-tut or tsk! tsk! used to express disapproval or pity, the tchick! used to spur on a horse, and the clip-clop! sound children make with their tongue to imitate a horse trotting.

Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth.

A labialized velar or labiovelar is a velar consonant that is labialized, with a -like secondary articulation. Common examples are, which are pronounced like a, with rounded lips, such as the labialized voiceless velar plosive and labialized voiced velar plosive. Such sounds occur across Africa and the Americas, in the Caucasus, etc.

Labial–velar consonants are doubly articulated at the velum and the lips, such as. They are sometimes called "labiovelar consonants", a term that can also refer to labialized velars, such as the stop consonant and the approximant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oto-Manguean languages</span> Language family of Mexico and, previously, Central America

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zapotec languages</span> Group of related indigenous Mesoamerican languages

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The Chatinos are an indigenous people of Mexico. Chatino communities are located in the southeastern region of the state of Oaxaca in southern central Mexico. Their native Chatino language are spoken by about 23,000 people, but ethnic Chatinos may number many more. The Chatinos of San Juan Quiahije call themselves neq-a tnya-j and their language Chaq-f tnya-b.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chatino language</span> Indigenous Mesoamerican languages of Mexico

Chatino is a group of indigenous Mesoamerican languages. These languages are a branch of the Zapotecan family within the Oto-Manguean language family. They are natively spoken by 45,000 Chatino people, whose communities are located in the southern portion of the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

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Izi is an Igboid language spoken in Ebonyi state in Nigeria. It forms a dialect cluster with the closely related languages Ikwo, Ezza, and Mgbo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centum and satem languages</span> Indo-European linguistic classification

Languages of the Indo-European family are classified as either centum languages or satem languages according to how the dorsal consonants of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) developed. An example of the different developments is provided by the words for "hundred" found in the early attested Indo-European languages. In centum languages, they typically began with a sound, but in satem languages, they often began with.

Highland Chatino is an indigenous Mesoamerican language, one of the Chatino family of the Oto-Manguean languages. Dialects are rather diverse; Ethnologue 16 counts them as three languages as follows:

Zenzontepec Chatino, also known as Northern Chatino, or "Chatino Occidental Alto" is an indigenous Mesoamerican language, one of the Chatino family of the Oto-Manguean languages. It is not intelligible with other Chatino languages. It is spoken by one of the most isolated groups in Oaxaca, the Chatino people in the municipalities of Santa Cruz Zenzontepec and San Jacinto Tlacotepec, and in the former municipality of Santa María Tlapanalquiahuitl.

Texmelucan Zapotec is an Oto-Manguean language of the San Lorenzo Texmelucan Municipality in western Oaxaca, Mexico. It is a divergent Zapotec language, having only 10% intelligibility with its closest relative, Zaniza Zapotec. Both go by the name Papabuco.

Lachixío Zapotec is a Zapotec language of Oaxaca, Mexico. It is spoken in the Sola de Vega District by around 3000 speakers in Santa María Lachixío and San Vicente Lachixío. While many other Zapotec languages have suffered major language shifts to Spanish, most children in these towns are raised with Zapotec and learn Spanish at an early age.

References

  1. Smith Stark, Thomas C. (2007). Algunas isoglosas zapotecas. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Instituo de Investigaciones Antropológicas and Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas. pp. 69–131. ISBN   978-970-32-3248-2.
  2. Mechling, William H. (1912). "The Indian Linguistic Stocks of Oaxaca, Mexico". American Anthropologist. 14 (4): 643–682. doi:10.1525/aa.1912.14.4.02a00080. ISSN   0002-7294.
  3. Suárez, Jorge A. (1972). "La clasificación del papabuco y del solteco". Anuario de Letras. 10: 219–232.
  4. Sicoli, Mark A. (2015). Agency and verb valence in Lachixío Zapotec. Valence Changes in Zapotec. pp. 193–194. ISBN   9789027267788.
  5. Smith Stark, Thomas C. 1999. El solteco y el zapoteco occidental: Un aprecio a partir de los vocabularios de Peñafiel. Ms. https://ailla.utexas.org/islandora/object/ailla:243828
  6. 1 2 Sullivant, J. Ryan (2016). "Reintroducing Teojomulco Chatino". International Journal of American Linguistics. 82 (4): 393–423. doi:10.1086/688318. ISSN   0020-7071. S2CID   151822311.