This project will produce and use extensive primary documentation (over 100 hours of digital recordings and time-coded transcriptions) to analyze the phonetics, phonology, and morphosyntax of Yoloxóchitl Mixtec (YM), a little-studied, isolated Mixtecan verb-initial language spoken by 15,000 people in four villages within a 12 kilometer radius in coastal Guerrero, Mexico. The complex phonetics and phonology of Mixtecan languages (floating tones, sandhi, and the diversity of tonal sequences on the bimoraic tone-bearing-unit) is of significant theoretical interest. YM is noteworthy for its inventory of 5 tone levels and 18 sequences on the bimoraic tone bearing unit. Nasalization in Mixtecan languages has also attracted significant interest and here too YM is unusual in that nasal vowels are limited to word-final syllables. Syllable-initial vowels in disyllabic stems are never nasal. Finally, the acoustics of stress has received little attention in Mixtecan studies although the nature of stress in tonal languages is a complex topic of considerable theoretical concern. These and other topics in YM phonetics and phonology will be studied by an interdisciplinary research team, including a native speaker with a masters degree in linguistics and a team of phoneticians and phonologists.
Like other Mixtecan languages, YM is verb initial, a basic word order sequence represented in only approximately ten percent of world languages. This project will provide a detailed morphosyntactical study of this unusual type and address specific research questions, such as the pragmatic and discourse implications of nonbasic word order. The development of both an extensive corpus of transcribed natural recordings and elicitation material targeting specific questions in YM morphology and syntax will provide an unusually rich set of materials for linguistic research. In sum, this project will provide extensive primary documentation and establish an analytical base for future linguistic studies, particularly in phonetics, phonology, and morphosyntax, areas in which YM is of typological interest.
