CHIQUIHUITLÁN MAZATEC

  1. Facts
  2. Sources of the data
  3. Orthography
  4. Inflectional classes by person marking pattern
  5. Inflectional classes by person suffixes
  6. Stem changes and the marking of aspect-mood
  7. Inflectional classes by tone

Facts

Chiquihuitlán Mazatec is a Mazatec language spoken in the village of San Juan Chiquihuitlán in the state of Oaxaca. The 2000 census estimated the existence of 1,500 speakers. It is the most divergent of Mazatec languages.



Sources of the data

Jamieson Carole, 1996. Diccionario mazateco de Chiquihuitlán, Oaxaca. Tucson, SIL Publications. Available online.

Jamieson Carole, 1988. Gramática mazateca del Municipio de Chuiquihuitlan, Oaxaca. Mexico City: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.

Jamieson Carole, 1982. Conflated subsystems marking person and aspect in Chiquihuitlán Mazatec verb, International Journal of American Linguistics 48, 139-167.

Orthography

We have made slight modifications to the practical orthography used in the source materials.

IPA notation
Source notation
Our notation
NASALITY Vn
LENGTH VV
β v b
ʔ h ʔ
ʃ x
č
h j h
j y

Tone

Mazatec has a very complex tonal system. While most of the tones are involved in the maintenance of lexical contrasts, some are only found in verbal inflection.

Level 1 High ho¹ ‘two’
2 Mid-High sa² ‘moon’
3 Mid-Low ntsa³ ‘my hand’
4 Low hnu⁴ ‘corn-field’
Rising 21 Mid-High > High seen²¹ ‘I don´t sing’
31 Mid-Low > High khɛɛ³¹ ‘fault’
41 Low > High skwɛɛ⁴¹ ‘s/he'll see’
42 Low > Mid-High čhoo⁴² ‘egg’
Falling 14 High > Low tsa¹⁴ ‘sack’
34 Mid-Low > Low tyha³⁴ ‘arm’
24 Mid-High > Low sen²⁴ ‘sorrow’
214 Mid-High > High > Low fiin²¹⁴ ‘we don't arrive’
414 Low > High > Low xtiin⁴¹⁴ ‘we won't dance’

Inflectional classes by person marking pattern

Verbs fall into at least three classes attending to how they encode the person of the subject.

Personal endings
‘remember’
1SG bas-ɛ
1PL.EXCL čas-in
1PL.INCL čas-en
2SG čas-e
2PL čas-un
3SG bas-ɛ
Masc
Fem
Animal
3PL
Active pronouns
‘get closer’
matiña ngaʔan /matiña-ʔan
matiña ngayin /matiña-yin
matiña ngayaan /matiña-yaan
matiña ngaye /matiña-ye
matiña ngayun /matiña-yun
matiña
matiña cha
matiña na
matiña chu
matiña me
Inactive pronouns
‘have’
thin
thin nihi
thin naha
thin ri
thin nuhu
thin
thin rɛ cha
thin rɛ na
thin rɛ chu
thin rɛ me

The database gives information about all such verbs. Verbs which require pronouns – active (subject-like) or inactive (object-like) – have little morphology, which leaves the verbs with personal endings as the morphologically complex ones.

Inflectional classes by person suffixes

Verbs which take person suffixes fall into different inflectional classes, according to the set of suffixes they take, as presented in the table below. The database indicates the class membership of each verb (INV. stands for invariable).

POSITIVE POLARITY
1SG 2SG 3rd 1PL
EXCL
1PL
INCL
2PL
INV.
I a e a in an un
II an in an in an un
III e e e in en un
IV ɛ e ɛ in en un
V ɛ i i in en un
VI eʔen iʔin eʔen iʔin een uʔun
VIII en in en in een un
IX o e o in on un
X.a u i u in un un
X.b un in un in un un
NEGATIVE POLARITY
1SG 2SG 3rd 1PL
EXCL
1PL
INCL
2PL
_ _ _ _ _ _
an in ain in an un
an in ain in an un
en in in iin en un
en in in in en un
en in in in en un
een iin iin iin een uun
een iin iin iin een uun
on in uain in on un
un in in in un un
un in in in un un

NOTE: Classes II, VIII and X.b have nasal endings, while Class VI has a laryngeal vowel.

Stem changes and the marking of aspect-mood

Verbs inflect for various aspect-moods, but only two are relevant for morphological purposes. In the so-called ‘neutral’ aspect some verbs undergo a stem change involving the 1st person singular and the 3rd person vs. everything else, while others don't. This information is given in the database.

basɛ baka
‘remember’ ‘burn’
1SG basɛ ba³ka¹
1PL.EXCL č+asin ba²kin²⁴
1PL.INCL č+asen ba²kan²
2SG č+ase ba²ke²
2PL č+asun ba²kun²
3 basɛ ba³ka²

The completive, or past tense, is built on the neutral form by the marker ka-, probably a clitic, while the progressive has ti-. The forms for the neutral aspect are used when aspect is not on focus. The incompletive is built in more complex ways which also involve stem alternations.

baka ‘burn’
NEUTRAL INCPL
NEUTRAL CPL PROG
1SG ba³ka¹ ka=ba³ka¹ ti=ba³ka¹ kua³ka¹
1PL.EXCL ba²kin²⁴ ka=ba²kin²⁴ ti=ba²kin²⁴ kua⁴kin²⁴
1PL.INCL ba²kan² ka=ba²kan² ti=ba²kan² kua⁴kan⁴²
2SG ba²ke² ka=ba²ke² ti=ba²ke² kua⁴ke²
2PL ba²kun² ka=ba²kun² ti=ba²kun² kua⁴kun²
3 ba³ka² ka=ba³ka² ti=ba³ka² kua⁴ka²

Inflectional classes by tone

The verb baka ‘burn’ illustrates that tone is not only involved in the realisation of person, but also in the expression of aspect-mood.

baka ‘burn’
NEUTRAL INCPL
1SG 3-1 3-1
1PL.EXCL 2-24 4-24
1PL.INCL 2-2 4-42
2SG 2-2 4-2
2PL 2-2 4-2
3 (3-2) (4-2)

The tones in the form used for the 3rd person are lexical (indicated below by X). Inflectional tone replaces lexical tone. Verbs fall into different tonal classes, which are indicated in the database.

CLASS Positive Neutral
3 1SG 2SG 1PL.EXCL 1PL.INCL 2PL
A-11/4-rep X-X 3-1 3-1 3-14 3-31 3-1
A-11 X-X 3-1 3-1 3-14 3-31 3-1
B-1 X-X 1 1 14 31 1
B-1/4-rep X-X 1 1 14 31 1
B-11 X-X 1-1 2-2 2-24 2-2 2-2
B-11/4-rep X-X 1-1 2-2 2-24 2-2 2-2
B-14 X-X 1-4 2-2 2-24 2-2 2-2
B-31 X-X 3-1 2-2 2-24 2-2 2-2
B-31/4-rep X-X 3-1 2-2 2-24 2-2 2-2
C X-X 14-3 14-3 14-34 14-42 14-3
D-11 X-X 1-1 3-2 3-24 3-2 3-2
D-31 X-X 3-1 3-2 3-24 3-2 3-2
CLASS Negative Neutral
1SG 2SG 1PL.EXCL 1PL.INCL 2PL
A-11/4-rep 4-41 4-41 4-414 4-41 4-41
A-11 2-21 2-21 2-214 2-21 2-21
B-1 21 21 214 21 21
B-1/4-rep 41 41 414 41 41
B-11 2-21 2-21 2-214 2-21 2-21
B-11/4-rep 4-41 4-41 4-414 4-41 4-41
B-14 2-21 2-21 2-214 2-21 2-21
B-31 2-21 2-21 2-214 2-21 2-21
B-31/4-rep 4-41 4-41 4-414 4-41 4-41
C 24-41 24-41 24-414 24-41 24-41
D-11 1-1 3-2 3-24 3-2 3-2
D-31 3-1 3-2 3-24 3-2 3-2


CLASS Positive Incompletive
3 1SG 2SG 1PL.EXCL 1PL.INCL 2PL
A-11/4-rep 4-X 3-1 4-1 4-14 4-31 4-1
A-11 4-X 3-1 3-1 3-14 3-31 3-1
B-1 4-X 1-1 2-2 2-24 2-2 2-2
B-1/4-rep 4-X 1-1 4-2 4-24 4-2 4-2
B-11 4-X 1-1 2-2 2-24 2-2 2-2
B-11/4-rep 4-X 1-1 4-2 4-24 4-2 4-2
B-14 4-X 1-1 2-2 2-24 2-2 2-2
B-31 4-X 3-1 2-2 2-24 2-2 2-2
B-31/4-rep 4-X 3-1 4-2 4-24 4-42 4-2
C X-X 14-3 14-3 14-34 14-42 14-3
D-11 4-X 1-1 3-2 3-24 3-2 3-2
D-31 4-X 3-1 3-2 3-24 3-2 3-2

Note: We have not been able to reconstruct the Negative Incompletive with certainty.