Mixe-Zoquean and Zapotecan Documentation and Comparative Linguistics

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This three-year project is designed to advance the comparative study of MixeZoquean (MZ) and Zapotecan (Zn) languages. No MZ language has more than a rudimentary syntactic description, and for most even morphological description is incomplete. We are targeting Ayapa, Oluta, Oaxaca Zoque, Soteapan, and Texistepec for work in these areas, building on the foundation provided last season. The project will also build a lexical and textual foundation for those MZ languages that were not investigated in previous seasons: Highland Mixe, Lowland Mixe, and (conditions permitting) Chiapas Zoque. There are fairly large vocabulary collections for these languages, but some phonological features are unclear or underspecified, morpheme classification is not adequate, and text collections are lacking. Zn languages are mostly not fully documented, and the same needs exist as for MZ. Three Zapotec languages (Isthmus, Guelavi*a, and Oaxaca environs) and one Chatino language (Zenzontepec)are targeted for initial documentation of the type done in 1993 and 1994. 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 writing; 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 salvag e operation, helping to preserve an important part of the linguistic heritage of the Americas.