Soyaltepec Mazatec is a Mazatecan language spoken in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, notably in the towns of Santa María Jacatepec and San Miguel Soyaltepec, and on Soyaltepec Island.
| Soyaltepec Mazatec | |
|---|---|
| (San Miguel Soyaltepec) | |
| Temascal Mazatec | |
| Native to | Oaxaca, Mexico |
| Region | San Felipe Jalapa de Díaz |
Native speakers | 28,000 (2000)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | vmp |
| Glottolog | soya1237 |
Due to flooding from the construction of a dam, the Soyaltepec-speaking area has had an influx of speakers of other Mazatecan languages. Perhaps only 900 people, mostly monolingual, still speak the original variety of Soyaltepec.[1]
See Mazatecan languages for a detailed description of these languages.
Phonology
editVowels
editThe Soyaltepec Mazatec dialect contains five vowel sounds and nasals:
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i, ĩ | u, ũ |
| Mid | ɛ, ɛ̃ | o, õ |
| Open | a, ã |
Consonants
edit| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | (p) | t̪ | k | ʔ | ||
| Affricate | t͡s | t͡ʃ | ||||
| Fricative | f | s | ʃ | h | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||
| Rhotic | ɾ | |||||
| Approximant | w | l | j |
Glottal-sonorant consonants: /hm, hn, hɲ, ʔm, ʔn, ʔɲ, ʔw, ʔj/
Nasal-obstruent consonants: /nt, ŋk, nt͡s, nt͡ʃ/
- [p] occurs only in borrowed words.
- /w/ in word-initial positions may also be heard as a voiced fricative [β].
- /ʃ, t͡ʃ/ may be optionally heard as retroflex [ʂ, t͡ʂ] before a back vowel.
- Glottal-sonorant consonants /hm, hn, hɲ/ are articulated as voiceless nasal sounds [m̥, n̥, ɲ̊] when in surface form.
- Nasal-obstruent articulated consonants may also be heard as voiced [nd, ŋɡ, nd͡z, nd͡ʒ].[2]
References
edit- ^ a b Soyaltepec Mazatec at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Beal, Heather (2011). The segments and tones of Soyaltepec Mazatec. University of Texas at Arlington.