This three year project extension is designed to advance the comparative study of Mixe Zoquean (MZ) and Zapotecan (Zn) languages. It extends and completes a project begun on a smaller scale in 1994 and turned into a large scale project for 1995 1998. The project aims to produce dictionaries and text collections for the 10 MZ languages and 11 of the perhaps 20 Zn languages (with representation from all the branches). This data is needed to provide the foundation both for comparative reconstruction and for subsequent grammatical description. The dictionaries classify morphemes and stems in great detail, and document ethnobiology, names, and sound symbolism. The lexical collections are electronically databased. Dictionaries will be posted on the WorldWideWeb and will also appear as printed books. The dictionaries produced by this project are more extensive than any otherwise available, having 4500 to 6000 entries. The proposed work is significant in several areas. Both MZ and Zn languages have structural properties of interest to current linguistic theory, although they are structurally highly dissimilar. Notably, MZ has ergativity and OV morphosyntax, and Zn has tones and an often opaque system of prefixes and proclitics on verbs. The project has the potential to make a major contribution to early Mesoamerican cultural and linguistic history; MZ languages were spoken by Olmecs, and were influential at the Olmec era and subsequently in affecting many other languages in the area. It contributes to the ongoing decipherment of epi Olmec wnting; the interpretation of its texts depends heavily upon MZ comparative studies, which were crucial in the original decipherment. Zn comparative studies, though lagging behind MZ studies, are already advancing the decipherment of Oaxacan writing. Finally, it includes a major language salvage operation, helping to preserve an important part of the linguistic heritage of the Americas.
