Mixe-Zoquean and Zapotecan Documentation and Comparative Linguistics

这个为期三年的项目扩展旨在推进米斯佐昆语（MZ）和萨波特坎语（Zn）的比较研究。它扩展并完成了1994年开始的小规模项目，并于1995年至1998年转变为大规模项目。该项目旨在为10种MZ语言和大约20种Zn语言中的11种（包括来自所有分支的表示）生成字典和文本集合。这些数据是为比较重构和随后的语法描述提供基础所必需的。这些词典对语素和词干进行了非常详细的分类，并记录了民族生物学、名称和声音象征主义。词汇集是电子数据库。词典将被发布在万维网上，也将以印刷书籍的形式出现。这个项目制作的词典比其他任何可用的词典都要广泛，有4500到6000个条目。拟议的工作在几个领域具有重要意义。MZ和Zn语言都具有当前语言学理论所关注的结构特性，尽管它们在结构上非常不同。值得注意的是，MZ具有作格性和OV形态句法，而Zn具有音调，动词的前缀和倾向性往往不透明。该项目有可能对早期中美洲文化和语言历史做出重大贡献；MZ语言是奥尔梅克人说的，在奥尔梅克时代很有影响力，随后影响了该地区的许多其他语言。它有助于持续破译epi Olmec wint；对其文本的解释在很大程度上依赖于MZ比较研究，这在原始解读中至关重要。Zn比较研究虽然落后于MZ研究，但已经在推进对瓦哈卡文字的解读。最后，它还包括一项重大的语言拯救行动，帮助保护美洲语言遗产的重要组成部分。

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.