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I. A reconstruction of Proto Central Zapotec tone 1 (Joe Benton; first draft: May 15, 2001; latest update: March 6, 2005; title changed Oct. 1, 2010)
0. Introduction
This is the first of a series of three sub reconstructions of Zapotec tone. The results from these three will then be combined for a reconstruction of the oldest level of tone in Proto Zapotec (PZ).
For data, I use the 430 cognate sets representing seven variants of Zapotec found in the reconstruction of PZ done by María Teresa Fernández de Miranda (F M). One of these modern varieties, Rincón, has lost all tonal contrasts and will not be mentioned any more in this study. The other six modern Zapotec varieties found in F M’s reconstruction are the following. The order of these variants reflects the order of my reconstructions: 2
Central: San Pablo Villa de Mitla Isthmus (Juchitán de Zaragoza)
Southern: Santa Catarina Cuixtla Santa María Coatlán
Northern: San Juan Atepec San Baltazar Yatzachi el Alto (hereafter referred to as “Villa Alta”)
Because of F M’s premature death in 1966, she was not able to publish her reconstruction. It was published posthumously in 1995 by El Colegio de México and the Instituto Nacional de Anthropología e Historia (INAH). Michael J. Piper and Doris A. Bartholomew were the editors of this version.
In this first installment, I provide a reconstruction of what I believe was the tone system of Proto Central Zapotec, represented by Mitla and Isthmus Zapotec. Out of the 430 cognate sets found in F M’s reconstruction, just over 340 (about 80%) have cognates for both Mitla and Isthmus. In two subsequent reconstructions, I reconstruct the tone systems of the Southern branch (represented by Cuixtla and Coatlán) and the Northern branch of Zapotec (represented by Atepec and Villa Alta). 3
While my focus in this and subsequent studies is on tone reconstruction, I necessarily discuss the other suprasegmental features which occur in Zapotec as they interact with tone. Two types of laryngealization (*V V and *V ) and vowel length (*V:) have already been reconstructed in F M’s published reconstruction. In my reconstruction of the Central branch of Zapotec, I find that only one type of laryngealization (*V ) is necessary, because I reconstruct a contrast between high intensity (*CVh) and low intensity (*CV) syllables. F M reconstructs vowel length in addition to laryngealization for PZ, but I do not see a need to reconstruct vowel length for Proto Central Zapotec.
1 Doris Bartholomew reviewed earlier drafts of this and the following reconstructions, while Thomas Willet reviewed an earlier draft of this reconstruction of Proto Central Zapotec. Thank you, Doris and Tom, for greatly improving my work. All errors are, of course, my own. 2 For Proto Southern Zapotec, I include data from San Lorenzo Texmelucan (according to some, a variety of the “Papabuco” branch of Zapotec). Even though F M does not include this variant in her reconstruction of PZ, San Lorenzo sheds light on developments of high intensity syllables in Proto Southern Zapotec. 3 I follow Piper and Bartholomew’s classification (1995:5). 2
1. Summary of suprasegmental contrasts for Proto Central Zapotec
1.1 Tonal contrasts I reconstruct Proto Central Zapotec (PCZ) as having three level tones: *High (hereafter *H, except in the appendix, where it is represented as *1), *Mid (hereafter *M, except in the appendix, where it is represented as *3), and *Low (hereafter *L, except in the appendix, where it is represented as *4). *M tone occurs only on monosyllabic roots with laryngealized vowels. *L tone was by far the most common, and was probably the default tone in the system. “Level” tones probably had some pitch movement, but less than the pitch movement in the contour tones I mention below.
Furthermore, I reconstruct PCZ as having two contour tones: *Rising (hereafter *Rising or *R, except in the appendix, where it is represented as *41) and *Falling (hereafter *Falling or *F, except in the appendix, where it is represented as *14). 4
For this reconstruction of the tone system of Proto Central Zapotec (as with following reconstructions), I have assumed that vowels are the only Tone Bearing Units (TBUs), but that not all TBUs had an underlying tone assigned to them. For those TBUs with no underlying tone, a default tone (in this case, *Low) was assigned to them. 5
1.2 Laryngealization As I mention above, I reconstruct only one type of laryngealization for PCZ: *V . This is because of the additional high intensity/low intensity syllable contrast mentioned below. In F M’s data, laryngealized vowels with a weak interrupting glottal stop (V V) are rare in Mitla. 6 I consider that apparent contrasts between laryngealized vowels (V V) and those with a hard glottal stop (V ) can be explained on the basis of syllable type and tone, as they also can in PCZ.
4 Another analysis of *Falling tone is that it represents a *Rising L sequence on a single unlaryngealized vowel nucleus and a *H L sequence on a single laryngealized vowel nucleus. The *L portion of the sequence is lost in Isthmus. While this tone occurs only on unlaryngealized vowels in Mitla, Isthmus cognates usually have laryngealization. 5 This is the view proposed by autosegmental phonology in general, and Pulleyblank (1986) in particular. For example, when a Mitla cognate of the shape CVhC4 corresponds to an Isthmus cognate of the shape CV 4CV 4, I have reconstructed a *L tone on the stressed penultima, and no tone on the unstressed ultima:
Mitla Isthmus my reconstruction F M’s reconstruction
agua nihs 4 ni 4sa 4 *nih 4sa *nisa
Another example of a type of root which had only one tone is abrir . For this and other roots like it, I have reconstructed a *Rising tone on the stressed penultima, which then spread onto the unstressed ultima: Mitla Isthmus my reconstruction F M’s reconstruction
abrir al 41 ru 4 a 4le 1 * a 41 la( ) * ala Ru (M,I)
6 Eleanor Briggs collected the Mitla data used in F M, and she apparently did not hear weakly laryngealized vowels (personal communication with Morris Stubblefield, who subsequently studied Mitla Zapotec and published a dictionary and grammar sketch (Stubblefield and Stubblefield 1991)). Stubblefield and Stubblefield write laryngealized vowels as double vowels. 3
1.3 High and low-intensity syllables In my reconstructions, *V h indicates reconstructed high intensity syllables with laryngealization, while *Vh indicates reconstructed high intensity syllables without laryngealization. Reconstructed low intensity syllables (*V or *V) do not have aspiration. For a more detailed discussion of syllable intensity, see installment II, which is my reconstruction of Proto Southern Zapotec.
Isthmus reflexes of laryngealized vowels in high intensity syllables always have two vowels, with a fairly hard, interrupting glottal stop (V V), while Isthmus reflexes of laryngealized vowels on low intensity syllables always have a single vowel with a weaker glottal stop in the coda position (V ). If they occur with a true *Low tone (not a *Mid tone), Mitla reflexes of laryngealized vowels on high intensity syllables have a hard glottal stop in the coda position (V ). Otherwise, Mitla reflexes for laryngealized vowels on either high intensity or low intensity syllables usually have no laryngealization of any kind. In cases where laryngealization is present, it is in the form of a weak glottal stop between two laryngealized vowels (V V), which Briggs usually did not hear. A more accurate representation of laryngealization in Mitla Zapotec can be found in Stubblefield and Stubblefield (1991).
In Isthmus, the contrast between high intensity and low intensity syllables with unlaryngealized vowels has been lost. The Mitla reflex for high intensity syllables with *L tone is aspiration (Vh). 7 Otherwise, the contrast between high intensity and low intensity syllables with unlaryngealized vowels has also been lost In Mitla.
2. Details of the reconstruction I now give the basis on which I arrived at my conclusions in section 1, beginning with tone reconstructions for roots with ultimate stress, and then the tone reconstructions for bisyllabic roots with penultimate stress. While occasional examples are given for trisyllabic roots with penultimate stress, they are usually ignored, since this study focuses on tone reconstructions for mono and bi syllabic roots.
2.1 Tone on monosyllabic roots
2.1.1 Tone on monosyllabic roots with unlaryngealized vowels
According to my tone reconstructions for roots with unlaryngealized vowels, Proto Central Zapotec (PCZ) had *H and *L as level tones, and the contour tones *Rising and *Falling. On monosyllabic roots, these tones have the following reflexes. Note that “1” represents the highest tone and “4” the lowest. A lower case “h” after a capital “V” (for vowel) indicates aspiration in Mitla, and a capital “L” as part of the word represents a fortis lateral in Mitla:
7 Other modern varieties of Zapotec with aspiration have a wider distribution of tone with aspirated vowels. For example, all three phonemic tones (High, Low, Rising) in Guevea de Humboldt can occur on aspirated syllables (data from Marks 1980:47):
ahs 1 ‘jump’ dahg 4 ‘eat’ ahb 41 ‘owe’
4
Unlaryngealized vowels in monosyllabic roots in PCZ:
*CVh Mitla Isthmus
*H V1 V41 *L Vh 4 V4
*CV Mitla Isthmus
*H V4 V41 *L V4 V4
There is no clear distinction between *CVh and *CV syllable types with *Rising and *Falling tones:
Mitla Isthmus
*Rising V41 V41 *Falling V14 V1
Examples:
*H on *CVh
Mitla Isthmus
4 1 4 41 (na ) ni (la a ) ni aquí 2 ga 1 nga 41 ese
*H on *CV
Mitla Isthmus
i 4 i 41 ¿qué? t u 4 tu 41 ¿quién?
*L (or no underlying tone) on *CVh
Mitla Isthmus
loh 4 lu 4 cara dzuhl 4 ia 4 comal rauh 4 ro 4 comer 4 4 nah na decir 1 s rah 4 (wa 4) ra 4 enfermo doh 4 du 4 espiga gih 4 gi 4 fuego zah 4 za 4 grasa t ah 4 (ru 4) a 4 llenar d ah 4 a 4 lleno (k a 4) bäh 4 be 4 mohoso 5
lah 4 la 4 nombre gih 4 gie 4 piedra beh 4 (ri 4) bi 4 sentarse (gu 4)d eh 4 i 4 tarde yuh 4 yu 4 tierra ruh 4 ru 4 tos
*L (or no underlying tone) on *CV
Mitla Isthmus
zu 4 (ru 4) zu 4 existir bya 4 bia 4 nopal
*Rising
Mitla Isthmus
be 41 ri 4 bi 41 escoger zu 4d i 41 i 41 tranquilo
*Falling
Mitla Isthmus
(bi 4) ki 14 (gu 4ba 4) gi 1 bambú ( ) Lya 14 (na 4) nda 1 fiebre
2.1.2 Tone on monosyllabic roots with laryngealized vowels
In addition to *H, *L, *Rising and *Falling tones on monosyllabic laryngealized roots, I also posit *M, 8 which in my previous reconstructions corresponded to PZ **High and **Rising (hereafter **H/R) on high intensity syllables, and **L H and **L R on normal intensity syllables. It may be best to say that, at the Proto Central Zapotec (PCZ) level, *M tone had a level or slightly rising contour that did not preserve laryngealization as did *L tone (which probably had a falling contour). When I provide examples for laryngealized vowels in PCZ with *M, I provide supporting data from Atepec (which tends to have the most conservative tone system of all the variants in F M’s data) and my reconstructions for tone at the PZ (i.e., the oldest) level. Apparently, laryngealization in Mitla was lost or weakened on all roots with tones that were not from PZ **L, **H L, or **Falling. Some kind of an originally falling contour was apparently required to fully preserve laryngealization in Mitla. The fact that Falling tone in Mitla does not preserve laryngealization is another indication that this tone does not come from a true **L, **H L or **Falling tone in PZ.
8 I reconstruct a register tone instead of a gliding tone because syllable intensity is not contrastive on syllables with contour tones in PCZ. Another possible tone reconstruction is a tone sequence. However, a tone sequence is less likely than a single tone on roots that reconstruct as true monosyllables. 6
Laryngealized vowels, monosyllabic roots in PCZ, or bisyllabic roots with final stress:
*CV h Mitla Isthmus
*H V4 V V 41 *M V4 V V 4 (formerly **H/R in PZ, but now **M) *L V 4 V V 4 (PZ **L, **H L & **Falling)
*Rising (No examples exist in F M’s data) *Falling V14 V V 4, V V 41
*CV Mitla Isthmus
*H V4 V 41 *M V4 V 4 (formerly PZ **L H/L R, but now **M) *L V 4 V 4 (PZ **L, **H L & **Falling)
*Rising V4, V 41 V 1 *Falling V14 V 4, V 41
Examples:
*H on *CV h
Mitla Isthmus gloss Atepec PZ
bi 4d a 4 bi 41 a a 41 brujo
*H on *CV
Mitla Isthmus gloss Atepec PZ
4 4 41 re (ra ) ri aquí 1 -- -- (bä 4) wi 4 bui 41 guayaba wi 1
*M on *CV h (from former PZ **H/R, but now PZ **M):
Mitla Isthmus gloss Atepec PZ
du 4 do o 4 cuerda tuu 43 * do o 3 la 4 la a 4 el 9 la 3 * la 3/le 3
9 equivalent to the article in Spanish 7
*M on *CV (from former PZ **L H/L R, but now PZ **M):
Mitla Isthmus gloss Atepec PZ zi 4 (ri 4) zi 4 comprar * zi 3/ si 3 Mi 4 (ri 4) ni 4 hablar nne 4 * Ni 3 La 4 (ri 4) nda 4 oler lla 43 * La 3
*L on *CV h
Mitla Isthmus gloss Atepec PZ ya 4 ru 4 ya a 4 bailar ye 3e3 ro 4 rua a 4 boca ru 1a3 4 4 3 3 1 4 yu yo o casa 2 yu u * yo ka 4 (re 4) ka a 4 coger zä 4 ze e 4 elote da 1a3 * ze: (h) 1 4 (M,I,Cu,Co) i 4 i i 4 nariz i 3na 1 * i h 4na da 4 da a 4 petate ta a 13 * da (h) 14 ni 4 ñe e 4 pie ni 3a3 lu 4 lu 4, li i 4 tú lu 3 * lu: 4 1 (A,M,I,Cu) do 4 (ri 4) do o 4 vender tti 3, tti 4
*L on *CV
Mitla Isthmus gloss Atepec PZ rä 4 re 4 beber ri 1ya 4 4 4 4 4 lui ru lui enseñar 2 lui 4 4 4 ke (do o ) ki excremento 1
*Rising
No examples exist in F M’s data of *Rising with *CV h. *Rising on *CV :
Mitla Isthmus
(laz 4) do 4 (la 4 i 4) do 1 corazón (na 4) ga 41 (na 4) ga 1 verde
*Falling
*Falling on *CV h
Mitla Isthmus tsu 14 i i 4 diez
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*Falling on *CV
Mitla Isthmus
(gi 4) ba 14 (gi 4) ba 4 cielo gi 14 gie 4 flor ga 14 ga 4 nueve
The following may reflect a *Falling H sequence on *CV h, at least for Isthmus:
Mitla Isthmus
(du 4) il 14 ia a 41 algodón ( ob 4) nil 14 ( u 4ba 1) nia a 41 nixtamal bäi 14 be eu 41 luna
The following examples may reflect a *Falling H sequence on *CV , at least for Isthmus:
Mitla Isthmus
La 14 (na 4) nda 41 amargo de 14 (n) di 41 este na 14 na 41 mano
2.2 Tone on bisyllabic roots
2.2.1 Tone on bisyllabic roots with unlaryngealized vowels
The following charts give the correspondences for the various kinds of tone combinations that I reconstruct for bisyllabic roots without laryngealization. Note that when I discuss “bisyllabic” roots, I am only discussing bisyllabic roots with penultimate stress, not ultimate stress. Because of the role of stress in conditioning tone patterns in PZ, I restrict my reconstructions to roots of the shape *(CVCV) CV(CV), where “ ” indicates stress. For this reason, I treat polysyllabic roots in PCZ with ultimate stress as monosyllabic roots. Numbers in parentheses indicate the frequency of a given combination. Because Mitla lost final, unstressed vowels, there is usually only one tone for the Mitla reflex. The symbol “ ” indicates the correspondence between Mitla and Isthmus.
When *H and *L tone begin a tone sequence, there are tonal differences between bisyllabic roots of the shapes *CVhCV and *CVCV. However, when *Falling or *Rising tone begin a sequence, there are no tonal differences between *CVhCV and *CVCV roots:
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Initial *H and *L tone:
*CVhCV
*H *L *R *F
*H Vh4 41 4 (2)
*L Vh4 4 41 Vh4 4 4 Vh4 4 1 Vh14 4 4 (18) (70) (2) (1)
*CVCV
*H *L *R *F
*H 4 41 4 (2)
41 41 4 (2)
*L 4 4 41 4 4 4 (1) (7)
Initial *Rising and *Falling tone:
*CVhCV and *CVCV:
*H *L *R *F
*R 41 4 4 (4)
4 1 4 (1)
*F 14 4 41 (1)
Examples:
*H L on *CVhCV:
Mitla Isthmus
(be 4) gohp 4 (n) gu 41 pi 4 armadillo ehn 4 (ni 4sa 4) i 41 ni 4 saliva
10
The following probably reflects *H L on *CVCVh:
Mitla Isthmus
(yed 4) Lyuh 4 (gi 4 i 4) la 41 yu4 mundo
*H L on *CVCV:
Mitla Isthmus
lu 41 h lu 41 u 4 barba 41 4 41 4 gol (na ) go la viejo 1
*L H combinations were fairly common on *CVhCV. 10 Since *L Rising combinations are very scarce, *Rising may have become *H following *L in this environment: 11
Mitla Isthmus
ihz 4 ru 4 i 4 i 41 reír gihb 4 ri 4 gi 4ba 41 cocer yeht 4 gi 4 i 41 espina behN 4 binni 41 gente bähL 4 la 4de 41 lugar dohb 4 du 4ba 41 maguey gahp 4 ri 4 ga 4pa 41 manipular yahl 4 ra 4lle 41 nacer uhn 4 o 4no 41 ocho wihd 4 wi 4 e 41 pasado mañana bähgw 4 ri 4 di 4nde 41 pelear tohp 4 ri 4 do 4pa 41 reunirse nahN 4 na 4nna 41 saber gahd 4 ga 4 e 41 siete 4 4 41 yahp na pa tener 1 gahL 4 ga 4nde 41 veinte
10 In installment IV (Proto Zapotec), I show that many of these *L H sequences developed from **L Ø. 11 It is not clear whether or not *H Rising occurs on bisyllabic roots, since I have only one cognate set which may reconstruct with this tone pattern. The following cognate set is probably best considered as residue, and illustrates what may have been a *H Rising sequence on *CVCV, or perhaps a *H L Rising sequence on *CVCVCV:
Mitla Isthmus
gu 4tyats 41 gu 41 a 4 i 1 iguana
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*L R on *CVhCV:
Mitla Isthmus
behd 4 ri 4 bi 4 i 1 gritar (llamar) Lehb 4 ru 4 ndu 4bi 1 soplar
*L F on *CVhCV:
Mitla Isthmus
Läih 14 la 4ya 4 dientes
*L L combinations (or, more likely, *L Ø or *Ø Ø) were the most common combination on *CVhCV:
Mitla Isthmus
(ba 3) Lahg 3 (ba 4) nda 4ga 4 hoja luh 4 ri 4 lu 4 e 4 acabar nihs 4 ni 4sa 4 agua yeh 4 ya 4 u 4 aguacate Nahs 4 na 4se 4 anteayer yahg 4 ya 4ga 4 árbol yuh 4 yu 4 i 4 arena yahz 4 ra 4ze 4 bañar giht 4 gi 4 ha 4 (i 4ke 4) cabello yehk 4 i4ke 4 cabeza nehz 4 ne 4za 4 camino niht 4 ni 4te 4 caña 4 4 4 4 ro lihz li e casa 1 gah 4 ga 4 a 4 cerca 4 4 4 4 4 d ihM u mi , ju mmi cesto 1 4 4 4 rohb ru ba cesto 2 yähz 4 ge 4za 4 cigarillo byahdz 4 bi 4a4 i 4 ciruela yehN 4 ya 4ni 4 cuello (gid 4) lahd 4 gi 4di 4 la 4di 4 cuerpo (git 4) yahp 4 ya 4pe 4 chayote 4 4 4 4 4 na bahn ri ba ni despertarse 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 bahn ri ba ni , na ba ni despertarse 2 Niht 4 ru 4 ni4ti 4 destruir gehs 4, yehs 4 r a4si 4 dormir neh 4 na 4 na 4 i 4 dulce yahn 4 ria 4na 4 escocer dehts 4 de 4 e 4 espalda t ehb 4 ru 4 i 4bi 4 espantar bahl 4 be 4lle 4 estrella nahL 4 na 4 na 4nda 4 frío ehb 4 ri 4 u 4bi 4 frotar gih 4 gi 4 i 4 hierba lahn 4 la 4na 4 hollín yëL 4 yihd 4 ge 4la 4 gi 4di 4 huarache 12 dzuht 4 i 4ta 4 hueso kohp 4 na 4 gu 4pa 4 húmedo ihg 4 i 4ga 4 jícara giht 4 ri 4 gi 4te 4 jugar ziht 4 zi 4tu 4 lejos luhd 4 lu 4 i 4 lengua bahN 4 be 4ñe 4 lodo dzuhn 4 ri 4 i 4ña 4 llegar kohb 4 ku 4ba 4 masa nihz 4 ni 4za 4 mazorca dzuhn 4 i 4ña 4 miel w ahd 4 (ru 4 g )a 4 e 4 mojarse yeht 4 ra 4ti 4 morir yehs 4 gi 4su 4 olla dyahg 4 dia 4ga 4 oreja gih 4 ri 4 gi 4 e 4 pagar zihn 4 zi 4na 4 palma guhd 4 gu 4 a 4 pantano dohL 4 do 4nda 4 pecado gihd 4 gi 4di 4 piel yehd 4 gi 4 i 4 pueblo bi 4zin 4(wahg 4) bi 4 zi 4ña 4 rata gih 4 gi 4 e 4 red 4 4 4 ihb i bi rodilla 1 4 4 4 4 yek ihb i bi rodilla 2 4 4 4 4 ty:ahz ri e za romper 2 zehd 4 zi 4di 4 sal rehn 4 ri 4ni 4 sangre na 4bihdz 4 na 4bi 4 i 4 seco zohb 4 zu 4ba 4 sentado lahd 4 la 4ri 4 tela d ehb 4 re 4 i 4bi 4 temer yäht 4 ge 4ta 4 tortilla tehb 4 to 4bi 4 uno laht 4 ri 4 la 4te 4 vaciar yahk 4 ra 4ku 4 vestirse
For contrast, I show *L L (or more likely *L Ø or Ø Ø) on *CVCV:
Mitla Isthmus bäs 4 bi 4zu 4 abeja k an 4 kua 4na 4 hierba comestible ag 4lo 4 a 4ga 4 mejilla 4 4 4 yäl ge la milpa 2 4 4 4 yen rie ne oír 1 4 4 4 goL gu la suave 1
*L H (or perhaps Ø H) on *CVCV:
Mitla Isthmus rob 4 ru 4 ru 4ba 41 rociar 13
*Rising L on *CVhCV or *CVCV:
Mitla Isthmus
na 4 kob 4 na 4 ku 1bi 4 nuevo
*Falling H on *CVhCV or *CVCV:
Mitla Isthmus
t oN 14 o 4nna 41 tres
Since High Low sequences are scarce in Isthmus Zapotec on unlaryngealized bisyllabic roots with penultimate stress, it is probably safe to hypothesize that *Rising L sequences generally became a L L sequence in this environment in Isthmus Zapotec. For contrast, I show what were probably *H L sequences:
*H L on *CVCV:
Mitla Isthmus
lu 41 h lu 41 u 4 barba 41 4 41 4 gol na go la viejo 1
*Rising L on *CVCV:
Mitla Isthmus
gat 41 na 4 gu 4 i 4 amarillo na 4 lag 41 na 4 la 4ga 4 ancho dob 41 na 4 do 4pa 4 corto d äl 41 ri 4 e 4la 4 encontrar
2.2.2 Tone on bisyllabic roots with laryngealized vowels
The following chart gives the correspondences for the various kinds of tone combinations that I reconstruct for bisyllabic roots with laryngealization. As above, numbers in parentheses indicate the frequency of a given combination. Since Mitla lost final, unstressed vowels, there is usually only one tone for the Mitla reflex of tone sequences. The form of reconstructed laryngealization is given in parentheses after the tone reflex, and “Ø” means that there is no underlying tone:
14
Laryngealized roots, *CV hCV
*H *L *Ø *R *F
*H
*L 4 4 41 4 4 4 4 4 1 (5) (5) (1) (*CV hCV) (*CV hCV ) (*CV h.V)
*Ø 4 4 4 (21) (*CV hCV ) *R
*F 14 4 41 14 4 4 (2) (6) (*CV hCV) (*CV hCV )
Laryngealized roots, *CV CV
*H *L *Ø *R *F
*H 41 1 1 3 1 4 (4 41 4) (4 1 4) (1) (1) (1) (1) (*CV CV ) (*CV CV) (*CVwV ) (*CV CV )
*L 3 4 4 4 4 4 Vh4 4 1 (1) (1) (2) (*CV CV ) (*CV CV ) (*CVCV )
*Ø 41 4 1 (12) (*CVCV )
*R
*F 14 4 4 (2) (*CV CV )
15
Examples of tone combinations on bisyllabic roots with *CV h in the stressed, penultimate syllable:
*L H (*CV hCV)
Mitla Isthmus ga t 4 ri 4 ga a 4 e 41 aplastar sa N 4 sa a 4na 41 dejar gu t 4 ru u 4ti 41 matar s ga N 4 ri 4 ga a 4ña 41 escarbar be ts 4 bi i 4 i 41 piojo
*L Ø (*CV hCV )
Mitla Isthmus
Le 4 nda a 4ya 4 bendecir gin 4 gi i 4na 4 chile i N 4 i i 4ini 4 hijo gu t 4 ru 4 gu u 4 a 4 mezclar
*L R (*CV h.V)
Mitla Isthmus ge 4 gi i 4u1 cal
*Ø Ø (*CV hCV )
Mitla Isthmus yed 4 gi i 4ru 4 agujero gi 4 gi i 4 i 4 bosque roL 4 ru u 4nda 4 cantar 4 4 4 godz gu u ze cazar 2 säu 4 ry 4 se e 4gu 4 cerrar tyug 4 ru 4 cu u 4gu 4 cortar bäL 4 be e 4nda 4 culebra k än 4 ru 4 kua a 4ni 4 despertar gis 4 ri 4 gi i 4zi 4 distribuir 4 4 4 4 sed ru si i di enseñar 1 bi 4syäL 4 ru 4 se e 4nda 4 enviar d uN 4 ri 4 u u 4ni gotear Läb 4 ri 4 nda a 4be 4 hervir gib 4 ri 4 gi i 4bi 4 lavar t äi 4 a a 4wi 4 lento t äl 4 e e 4la 4 marido 4 4 4 yäl ge e la noche 2 yan 4 ya a 4na 4 olote did 4 di i 4 a 4 palabra, idioma 4 4 4 yeu gi i gu río 1 16 gäb 4 ri 41 ga a 4bi 4 sobar
*Falling H (*CV hCV)
Mitla Isthmus na 4 roL 14 na 4 ro o 4nde 41 babear yal 14 ya a 4la 41 copal
*Falling Ø (*CV hCV )
Mitla Isthmus gai 14 ga a 4yu 4 cinco gib 14 gi i 4ba 4 fierro bedz 14 be e 4 e 4 león gud 14 gu u 4 i 4 moco deb 14 du u 4bi 4 pluma tsun 14 i i 4ñu 4 quince
Examples of tone combinations on bisyllabic roots with *V in the stressed, penultimate syllable:
*H H (*CV CV )
Mitla Isthmus ren 41 na 4 ri 1ni 1 tierno
*H L (*CV CV)
Mitla Isthmus yol 3 na 4yu 1la 4 largo
*H Ø or *L R Ø (*CV CV )
Mitla Isthmus
(na 4)ga ts 4 na 4 gi 1 i 4 escondido
*L L (*CV CV )
Mitla Isthmus bä kw 3 bi 4ku 4 perro 17
*L Ø (*CV CV )
Mitla Isthmus
ba t 4 be 4te 4 zorrillo
*Falling Ø (*CV CV )
Mitla Isthmus
14 4 gu gu u humo 1 yas 14 ya 4se 4 negro
There are no cases of *L Rising or *Ø Rising tone patterns on *CV CV( ) roots with penultimate stress. The following examples suggest that laryngealization was inserted into the unstressed ultima of Isthmus roots that were probably *CVhCV or *CVCV, and had Rising tones on the stressed penultimate syllable:
*Rising (*CVhCV( ))
Mitla Isthmus
bahb 4 ba 4ba 1 comezón lähd 4 ri 4 la 4di 1 quitar
*Rising (*CVCV( ))
Mitla Isthmus
al 41 na 4 a 4le 1 abierto al 41 ru 4 a 4le 1 abrir 41 4 1 Man ma ni animal 1 na 4 kits 41 na 4 ki 4 i 1 blanco ek 41 ru 4 e 4ge 1 desatar na 4 dip 41 na 4 di 4pa 1 duro daM 41 da 4ma 1 lechuza ob 41 u 4ba 1 maíz ki 41 ni 4sa 4 ki 4 i 1 orina Nab 41 ri 4 na 4ba 1 pedir bedz41 bi 4 i 1 rana du 41 na 4 du 4 u 1 valiente
18
2.2.3 Difficult to explain developments in laryngealization on bisyllabic roots with penultimate stress
For certain cognate sets with penultimate *L tone on bisyllabic roots with penultimate stress, the reconstruction of glottalization is problematic.
For the first two sets of correspondences, in Isthmus Zapotec it appears that *V and *V h on an unstressed ultima may have spread onto a stressed penultima with a *L tone. The first two sets of correspondences illustrate this type of correspondence for glottalization. Similarly, when *V occurred on an unstressed ultima with *Rising tone, the stressed penultima may have received the same type of laryngealization if it carred a *L tone The development of glottalization for the third and fourth sets of correspondence is less clear, and the precise type of glottalization cannot be reconstructed.
The first three sets of correspondences probably had a *L L, *L Ø or even a Ø Ø tone sequence, while the fourth and fifth sets of correspondences probably had a *L H and a *L Rising tone sequence:
Mitla Isthmus
*CVh 4CV 4 CVhC 4 CV 4CV 4 *CVh 4CV h4 CVhC 4 CV V 4CV 4 *CV 4CV 4/CVh 4CV 4 CV C 4 CV 4CV 4
*CVh 4CV 1/CV h 3CV 1 CVh( )C 4 CV h 4CV 41 *CVh 4CV 41 CV C 4 CV 4CV 1
Examples:
PCZ Mitla Isthmus *CVh 4CV 4 CVhC 4 CV 4CV 4
yehd 4 gi 4ri 4 ocote yahs 4 ra 4sa 4 mascar yehd 4 gi 4 u 4 grano zi 4 lahz 4 ri 4 zi i 4 la 4 i 4 descansar gihts 4 gi 4 i 4 papel dehd 4 ri 41 di 4di 4 pasar yuhd 4 ri 4 u 4 u 4 podrir 4 4 4 ahn a na abajo 1 (zi 4 )lahdz 4 (ri 4 zi i 4)la 4 i 4 descansar lahts 4 la 4 i 4 llano, llanura
PCZ Mitla Isthmus *CVh 4CV h 4 CVhC 4 CV V 4CV 4
dzuhn 4 i i 4ña 4 trabajo 4 4 4 behdz bi i i semilla 2
19
PCZ Mitla Isthmus
*CV 4CV 4/CV 4CV 4 CV C 4 CV 4CV 4
yo t 4 ri 4 u4tu 4 moler
PCZ Mitla Isthmus
*CVh 4CV 1/CV h 4CV 1 CVh( )C 4 CV 4CV 41
gihd 4 ri 4 gi i 4de 41 agujerear gihts 4 gi i 4 e 41 metate bihb 4 ri 4 bi i 4bi 41 sacudir ya hn 4 ri 4 a a 4na 41 permanecer
PCZ Mitla Isthmus
*CVh 4CV 41 CV C 4 CV 4CV 1
ke p 4 ki 4pi 1 ombligo
3. Bibliography
Briggs, Elinor. 1961. Mitla Zapotec grammar. México: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano and Centro de Investigaciones Antropológicas de México.
Fernández de Miranda, María Teresa. 1995. El Protozapoteco, ed. by Piper, Michael J., and Doris A. Bartholomew. México: El Colegio de Mexico y Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH).
Marks, Donna. 1980. “Morphophenemics of the Guevea de Humboldt Zapotec verb” in S.I.L. Mexico workpapers 4.43 83.
Pickett, Velma y colaboradores. 1965. Vocabulario zapoteco del Istmo. Vocabularios Indígenas Mariano Silva y Aceves 3. México: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
Piper, Michael J., and Doris A. Bartholomew. 1995. El Protozapoteco. México: El Colegio de Mexico y Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH)
Pulleyblank, Douglas. 1986. Tone in lexical phonology. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.
Stubblefield, Morris y Carol Miller de Stubblefield. 1991. Diccionario zapoteco de Mitla, Vocabularios y diccionarios “Mariano Silva y Aceves”, 31, México, ILV.
1
II. A reconstruction of Proto Southern Zapotec tone (Joe Benton, first draft completed on June 13, 2001; most recent update: June 22, 2004)
0. Introduction
This is the second of a series of three sub reconstructions of Zapotec tone. The results from these three sub reconstructions will then be combined for a reconstruction of the oldest level of tone in Proto Zapotec (PZ). As with the reconstruction for Proto Central Zapotec, I use the 430 cognate sets representing seven varieties found in María Teresa Fernández de Miranda’s reconstruction of PZ, published by Piper and Bartholomew in 1995. Hereafter, I refer to María Teresa Fernández de Miranda as F M.
Out of the 430 cognate sets found in F M’s reconstruction, only 191 have clear cognates for both Santa Catarina Cuixtla and Santa María Coatlán, the modern varieties used in this reconstruction of the tone system of Proto Southern Zapotec. This is only about 44% of the total number of cognate sets in F M, and is only about 56% of the 340 cognate sets found for Proto Central Zapotec (San Pablo Villa de Mitla and Juchitán de Zaragoza).
As I mention in my reconstruction of the tone system of Proto Central Zapotec, my focus in this study is on tone reconstruction. I also necessarily discuss other suprasegmental features of Zapotec as they interract with tone. Although F M reconstructs two types of laryngealization (*V V and *V ) for PZ, only one type (*V ) needs to be reconstructed for Proto Southern Zapotec. This laryngealization is in addition to vowel length (*V:), which F M also reconstructs for PZ.
Besides one type of laryngealization and vowel length, I reconstruct an additional constrast in syllable type, namely high intensity and low intensity. High intensity syllables in Proto Southern Zapotec (written as *CVh) very likely came from **CVh, and were probably very similar to ballistic syllables found in modern varieties of Amuzgo and Chinantec. Syllables without a post vocalic **h are the likely source of low (or normal) intensity syllables. In Proto Southern Zapotec, * (i.e., laryngealization) as well as vowel length can occur on both high intensity and low intensity syllables.
Bauernschmidt (1965) and Mugele (1982) describe ballistic syllables in Amuzgo and Chinantec, respectively. While they do not agree about where peak intensity occurs in ballistic syllables, they do agree that intensity falls suddenly in ballistic syllables, in contrast with a more gradual intensity fall in controlled syllables. Bauernschmidt has the following to say about controlled and ballistic syllables in Amuzgo of Xochistlahuaca:
“...controlled syllables are characterized by a smooth, sustained release,which continues to a peak of intensity about the mid point of the syllable nucleus and is followed by a gradual, controlled decay...Ballistic syllables are characterized by a quick, forceful release and a rapid crescendo to a peak of intensity early in the nucleus, followed by a rapid, uncontrolled decrescendo with fade of voicing.” (Bauernschmidt 1965:471)
In his instrumental study of controlled and ballistic syllables in Lalana Chinantec, Mugele notes that:
“...controlled syllables have an early peak of intensity followed by a gradual decrease in intensity, while ballistic syllables have a later peak of intensity followed by a sudden drop of intensity.” (Mugele 1982:83)
2
Mugele also notes that ballistic syllables in Lalana Chinantec are shorter than controlled syllables, whether the vowel of each syllable is long or short; and that ballistic syllables in Comaltepec and Lalana have postvocalic aspiration (1982:89).
1. Summary of suprasegmental contrasts for Proto Southern Zapotec
1.1 Tonal contrasts I reconstruct Proto Southern Zapotec (PSZ) as having three tones: *High (hereafter *H, except in the appendix where it is *1), *Low (hereafter *L, except in the appendix where it is *4), and *Rising (hereafter *Rising, except in the appendix where it is *41). As in Proto Central Zapotec (PCZ), *L was the most common tone and was probably also the default tone. *H, *L and *Rising occurred both individually and in sequences.
*H probably had a short, level contour, while *L probably had a high falling, relatively long contour, since it correllates most often with vowel length. *Rising probably had a low rising contour.
1.2 Laryngealization Neither Cuixtla nor Coatlán have more than one type of phonemically contrastive laryngealization, and I consider that the same was true for PSZ. The reason for this was probably the contrast between high and low intensity syllables.1
1.3 High-intensity and low-intensity syllables As I mention above, I reconstruct a contrast between high intensity (*CVh) and low intensity (*CV) syllable types for PSZ. The primary justification for positing this contrast for PSZ is tone correspondences between Coatlán and another variant of Zapotec (San Lorenzo Texmelucan), which is not in F M’s data.
San Lorenzo Texmelucan Zapotec has four phonemic tones: High (1), Mid (3), Low (4) and Falling (14). More importantly, certain stressed roots with Low tone and some unstressed pronominal clitics with High tone cause following roots with Low tone to be perturbed to Falling tone. Note that I write Low tones on roots causing progressive tone perturbation as 4P :
1 One other Zapotec variant included in this study (San Lorenzo Texmelucan) does have a clear contrast between /V / and /V V/. However, an examination of the wordlist in Speck (1978:125 136) reveals that both kinds of laryngealization primarily contrast on roots with low tone. It is quite possible that some cases of laryngealized vowels in Texmelucan have no underlying tone. This may be the reason for the apparent surface contrast in laryngealization. For all other tones, there appears to be some kind of complementary distribution between tone and type of laryngealization. Below are some statistics I have compiled for Texmelucan, omitting obvious Spanish loan words:
Tone symbol occurrences percentage of total /V / /V V/
High 1 98 19.0% 16 High Perturb 1P 1 .2% High Low 14 29 5.6 % Mid 3 54 10.5% 16 Low Perturb 4P 34 6.7 % 2 Low 4 293 56.8 % 36 107
3
tub 4 ‘one’ k up 4P ‘two’ gop 4 ‘armadillo’ tub 4 gop 4 ‘one armadillo’ k up 4P gop 14 ‘two armadillos’
Santa María Coatlán has six tones: High (1), Mid (3), Low (4); High falling (14), Mid falling (34) and Low rising (41). The perturbing tones of San Lorenzo Texmelucan have the following regular correspondences (indicated by an “X”) with those of Santa María Coatlán:
Texmelucan perturbing tones (4P, 1P) Coatlán 1 X 3 X 4 14 34 X 41
These correspondences (between perturbing tones in San Lorenzo Texmelucan and the tones of Santa María Coatlán) suggest that the six tones of Santa María Coatlán can be placed into two groups. The tones of the first group (Coatlán 1, 34, 3) probably occurred on high intensity syllables (*CVh), while the tones of the second group (4, 14, 41) probably occurred on low intensity syllables (*CV): 2
*CVh *CV
*High Coatlán 1 Coatlán 4 *Low Coatlán 34 Coatlán 14 *Rising Coatlán 3 Coatlán 41
2. Details of the reconstruction
2.1 High-intensity syllables
Before proceeding with the details of this tone reconstruction of Proto Southern Zapotec (PSZ), I first discuss tone correspondences between perturbing roots in San Lorenzo Texmelucan, Cuixtla and Coatlán.
Out of five hundred and fifteen roots (excluding obvious Spanish loanwords) found in appendix I from Speck (1978), thirty five (about 7%) cause progressive tone perturbation of the type noted above. I list all of these perturbing roots below, although I do not have cognates from Cuixtla or Coatlán for all of them. My focus in this section is to establish that perturbing roots in San Lorenzo Texmelucan most commonly correspond to tones 1, 3, and 34 in Coatlán. On this basis, I posit the existence of high
2 It may seem counter intuitive to claim that PSZ *High has reflexes of Coatlán 1 and 4 on ballistic and controlled syllables, respectively; while PSZ *Low has reflexes of Coatlán 34 and 14 in the same environments. The best comparative explanation for my claim is that PZ *Falling and *Low fell together in PSZ, yielding Coatlán reflexes for PSZ *Low that look more like what was *Falling in Proto Zapotec.
4 intensity syllables (*CVh) in Proto Southern Zapotec (PSZ), which were in contrast with low intensity syllables (*CV).
Note that some Texmelucan roots are listed twice. This is because there are occasionally two cognates in Coatlán per perturbing root in Texmelucan, and each Coatlán cognate has a different tone pattern. Speck (1978:125 136) gives his glosses in English, but I have translated all of these glosses into Spanish. The use of Spanish glosses for Speck’s data provides a better fit with the glosses in Piper and Bartholomew (1995), which are in Spanish.
The numbering of the cognate sets below does not reflect their order in either Speck (1978) or Piper and Bartholomew (1995). Instead, I have grouped them into five subgroups: 1 5, 6 11, 12 17, and 18 35. Cognate sets 1 5 correspond to tones 14, 4, and 41 in Coatlán, although in two cases there are two Coatlán cognates for only one Texmelucan cognate. Cognate sets 6 11 have Coatlán cognates with tone 34, although two sets have Coatlán cognates with alternate pronunciations of tone 14 and 4. Cognate sets 12 17 have Coatlán cognates with tone 1, although set 16 has a Coatlán cognate with an alternate pronunciation of tone 3, and set 17 has a Cuixtla cognate with tone 3. Cognate sets 18 35 have no Coatlán cognates, but are listed to show the full range of Texmelucan roots with perturbing tones:
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán
1. miel zin 4P m zin 3 m in 14 2. veinte gal 4P gal 3 gal 14 , ga: 34 la 3 3. hollín nan 4P blan 3 ndan 4 4. caliente a 4P ä 4 ä 4, ä 34 5. ocho suñ 4P on 3 o 41 n a3
6. siete gagy 4P gaz 3 ga:d 34 a3 7. frío rag 4P na:l 4 k al 34 8. venado jiñ 4P m zin 4 m in 34 9. sal, duro zed 4P ted 3 zed 34 10. tú (sg.) ru 1P lu: 4 lo: 34 11. corto ub 4P u4 ub 34 veinte gal 4P gal 3 ga: 34 la 3, gal 14 caliente a 32P ä 4 ä 34 , ä 4
12. cena che 4P rse s e 1 13. vida mbañ 4P ban 3 ban 1 14. dos kyup 4P op 3 to 1pa 3 15. lleno a 4P ze: 3 ä 1 16. metate gye 4P ge:s 3 gi 1, gi 3 17. hermana (de mujer) bily 4P bel 1 bäl 3
18. leche nigy 4P ni s 3 19. mamey gyily 4P ya:l 3 20. muchos zañ 4P 21. conejo bi 4P 22. bonito kyit 4P 23. mojado is 4P 24. importante lily 4P 25. rasposo e 4P 26. zapote le w 4P 27. mulo bany 4P 28. de mal genio tany 4P 29. ídolo nab 4P 30. grupo, unido nak 4P 5
31. frágil u 4P 32. esférico ndub 4P 33. espina gye 4P 34. redondo yub 4P 35. afilado, puntiagudo lyu 4P
It is worth noting the number of times the six tones of Coatlán correspond to perturbing roots in Texmelucan. As noted above, there is a strong correspondence between tones 1, 3, and 34 in Coatlán and perturbing roots in Texmelucan:
Tones in Coatlán Number of reflexes for perturbing roots in Texmelucan 1: 5 3: 6 4: 2 14: 2 34: 8 41: 1
There is the strongest correspondence between roots with tone 3 in Cuixtla and perturbing roots in Texmelucan:
Tones in Cuixtla Number of reflexes for perturbing roots in Texmelucan 1: 1 3: 13 4: 5
It is difficult to determine what the original tones were for the perturbing roots in Speck’s data. Since tone 3 in Cuixtla most often correspondes to *L tone on either a high intensity or low intensity syllable in Proto Southern Zapotec, my best guess is that perturbing roots in Texmelucan reflect a sequence of *L H, *L L, or *L Rising tone on what were high intensity syllables. Although there is usually no evidence from Texmelucan, Cuixtla or Coatlán for laryngealization on perturbing roots in Texmelucan, F M frequently reconstructs laryngealization on perturbing roots in Texmelucan. High intensity syllables may have had weak, phonetically predictable laryngealization. 3 For this reason, it is no surprise that F M reconstructs laryngealization for roots that I propose had high intensity syllables but no laryngealization.
For cognate sets 12 16, I generally reconstruct a *L H tone sequence with a high intensity syllable for Proto Southern Zapotec (PSZ). With the exception of cena (for which there is no Cuixtla tone given) the Cuixtla cognates have tone 3 while Coatlán has a tone 1 on the stressed syllable. Note that my reconstructions are under “PSZ”, while F M’s reconstructions are under “F M”:
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán PSZ F-M
12. cena che 4P rse s e 1 * ¢e h 4 1 * ¢e ; * ¢e; * e 13. vida mbañ 4P ban 3 ban 1 * bah 4ni 1 * bani 14. dos kyup 4P op 3 to 1pa 3 * oh 4pa 1 yah 41 * opa; * o pa 15. lleno a 4P ze: 3 ä 1 * dza: h 4 1 * ¢a ; * dza 16. metate gye 4P ge:s 3 gi 1, gi 3 * gi:h 4¢i 1; gi:h 4¢i 41 * gi i¢i; * gi¢i
3 This proposal is based on the phonetic realization of aspirated syllables in Chichicapan, which is usually [V: V], though they can also surface as [V:] with high tone and [VhV] with a low high sequence and a word final /–n/. 6
Note that these reconstructions differ from those found in Piper and Bartholomew’s published version of F M. For example, for metate , F M reconstructs interrupting laryngealization and no vowel length: *ßgi®i¢i . For Texmelucan (Tex), Cuixtla (Cu) and Coatlán (Co), there is no evidence of laryngealization even though I posit that the stressed syllable is high intensity.
For cognate sets 6 11, I usually reconstruct a *L L tone sequence with a high intensity syllable for Proto Southern Zapotec (PSZ). Numbers usually had the suffix *-yah 41 :
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán PSZ F-M
6. siete gagy 4P gaz 3 ga:d34 a3 * ga:h 4dzi ( yah 41 ) * gadzi; * gati 7. frío rag 4P na:l 4 k al 34 * rah 4gV 4 (Tex) * ziLa ; * naLa * na:h 4La 4 (Cu) * k ah 4La 4 (Co) 8. venado jiñ 4P m zin 4 m in 34 *bi dzih 4na 4 *bi dzina 9. sal, duro zed 4P ted 3 zed 34 * zeh 4de * zede ; * sede 10. tú (sg.) ru 1P lu: 4 lo: 34 *lu:h 4 4 * lu ; * lo ; * li 11. corto ub 4P dop 1 u4 ub 34 * do 4pa 4 (Cu) * dopa; * toba; * oh 4pa 4 * opa (Tex, Co.) veinte gal 4P gal 3 ga: 34 la 3, gal 14 * gah 4La yah 41 , * gaLa ( RV) * gala 14 (Co) caliente a 4P ä 4 ä 34 , ä 4 * dza 4 4 (Tex) * dza a; * ¢a a * dza 1 (Cu, Co) * ¢ah 4 4 (Cu, Co)
As with cognate sets 12 16, I do not see the need to reconstruct laryngealization for sets 6 11 in Proto Southern Zapotec, although Piper and Bartholomew sometimes do. For example, Piper and Bartholomew reconstruct *ßdza®a and *ߢa®a for caliente , whereas I reconstruct *ßdza®/*ßdza and *ßtsah .
For cognate sets sixteen and seventeen, I reconstruct a *L R tone sequence on a high intensity syllable:
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán PSZ F-M hermana bily 4P bel 1 bäl 3 * beh 4La 41 * beLa; * gila; (de mujer) * ila; * bila metate gye 4P ge:s 3 gi 3, gi 1 * gi:h 4¢i 41 ; * gi:h 4¢i 1 * gi i¢i; gi¢i
*Rising tone on high intensity syllables seems to occur most frequently in conjuction with numbers, and was probably the tone of a number suffix, *-yah 41 . Texmelucan cognates for these are not always perturbers, indicating that at least some of the Texmelucan cognates lost the high intensity syllable and/or the *Rising tone contrast in this final, unstressed position:
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán PSZ F-M dos kyup 4P op 3 to 1pa 3 * oh 4pa 1( yah 41 ) * opa; * o pa cuatro tap 4 thap 3 da: 34pa 3 * ta 4pa 4 yah 41 * tapa
7
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán PSZ F-M cinco ga ay 4 ga y 3 a3 gai 41 ya 3 * ga 4 yah 41 (Cu) * ga ayu * ga 41 yah 41 (Co) * ga y 4 (Tex) seis u up 4 op 3 o: 34 ba 3 * so h 4pa 4 (Tex) * o opa; * soh 4pa 4 yah 41 (Cu, Co) * opa siete gagy 4P gaz 3 ga:d 34 a3 * ga:h 4dzi 4 yah 41 * gadzi; * gati ocho un 4P on 3 on 41 a3 * o 4nu 41 yah 41 * onu diez ti i 4 si 3 i3 ti 3 ya 4 * ¢i h 4 ( ya 4/1 ) * ¢i i; * ¢i; * i i quince ti in 4 si n 3 a3 tin 1 na 3 * ¢i hn yu 4 (Tex) * ¢i nu ; * ¢i h4n yah 41 (Cu, Co) * ¢i i nu ; * i i nu veinte gal 4P gal 3 ga: 34 la 3, gal 14 * gah 4La 4( yah 41 ) * gaLa ( RV)
Finally, the Cuixtla and Coatlán cognates for sets 1 5 probably lost the high intensity syllable contrast. Nevertheless, variant pronounciations of some of these roots in Coatlán reconstruct with a high intensity syllable:
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán PSZ F-M
1. miel zin 4P m zin 3 m in 14 * dzih 4na 4 (Tex) * dzina * dzi 4na (Cu, Co) 2. veinte gal 4P gal 3 gal 14 , ga: 34 la 3 * ga 4la ( RV) (Cu, Co) * gaLa ( RV) * gah 4La ( yah 41 ) (Co, Tex) 3. hollín nan 4P blan 3 ndan 4 * nah 4na 1 (Tex) * lana; * Lana; * la 4na 1 (Cu) * rana * ra 4na 1 (Co) 4. caliente a 4P ä 4 ä 4, ä 34 * dzah 4 4 (Tex) * dza a; * ¢a a *dza 1 (Cu, Co) * ¢ah 4 4 (Cu, Co) 5. ocho suñ 4P on 3 o 41 n a3 * oh 4nu 41 yah 41 (Tex) * onu * o 4nu 41 yah 41 (Cu, Co)
In sum, it seems best to conclude that all perturbing roots in Texmelucan Zapotec reconstruct as having a high intensity syllable and a tone sequence with an initial *Low. When I reconstruct tone sequences for PSZ, I take the Cuixtla reflex as indicating the first tone of a sequence, and the Coatlán reflex as indicating the second tone. Cognate sets 1 5 reconstruct as having *L L, *L H and *L Rising sequences, while sets 6 11 generally reconstruct as having a *L L sequence and sets 12 17 most often reconstruct as having a *L H sequence.
In my following reconstructions of Proto Northern Zapotec and Proto Zapotec itself, I note that roots of the shape ** CVh 4CV became * CVh 4CV 1. Perturbing roots in Texmelucan Zapotec are probably the result of a similar tone raising rule, resulting in roots of the shape * CVh 4CV 1 and * CVh 41 . When final, unstressed vowels were lost on bisyllabic roots in Texmelucan (resulting in roots of the shape * CVhC 41 ), the final *High tone tended to “float” (be re assigned) onto the stressed vowel of a following root: * CVhC 41 * CVC 4 became CVhC 4 CVC 14 .
2.2 Tone I identify the following environments as being significant conditioning factors for tone reconstruction in Proto Southern Zapotec: low intensity versus high intensity syllable type, 8 unlaryngealized versus laryngealized, and open versus closed. I have organized these different conditioning factors in the following way:
Open roots: (monosyllabic roots in Proto Zapotec)
*CV(w/y) *CVh(w/y) *CV (w/y) *CV h(w/y)
Closed roots: (usually bisyllabic roots in Proto Zapotec)
*CVC *CVhC *CV C *CV hC
I have found the following reflexes for individual tones. Note that I divide tone reflexes into those for roots with high intensity and low intensity syllables:
Low intensity syllables
Cuixtla Coatlán *H 4 4 *L 3 14 *R 1 41
High intensity syllables
Cuixtla Coatlán *H 1 1 *L 3 34 *R 1 3
For tone sequences, I have the following reflexes, giving Cuixtla reflexes first. For reflexes of tone sequences, the Cuixtla reflex usually reflects the initial tone, while Coatlán reflex usually reflects the second tone. Reflexes for *L L sequences do not fit this pattern. 4 *L can begin tone sequences on either high intensity or low intensity syllables. Although *H and *Rising tone are in contrast, the high intensity low intensity syllable contrast often acts as a conditioning factor between them. For example, *H does not begin tone sequences on high intensity syllables, while *Rising does not begin tone sequences on low intensity syllables. In the following examples, the symbol “ ” means “corresponds to”. The tone of the Cuixtla cognate is given first, then the tone of the Coatlán cognate:
4 *L tone clearly had a high falling contour. It is not surprising that the reflexes of *L L sequences merged with those for *H tone in Cuixtla, since the pitch of the first *L tone was probably noticeably higher than that for the second *L tone in a *L L sequence.
9
Low intensity syllables:
*H *L *R
*H 4 14 4 41 *L 3 4 1 14 3 41 *R
High intensity syllables:
*H *L *R
*H *L 3 1 4 34 3 3 *R 43 4 43 14
After giving all of the examples of the different combinations of tone on open and closed roots with each syllable type, I summarize the distribution of tone with respect to these environments.
2.2.1 Tone on open roots I have found the following individual tones and tone sequences on open roots of the type *CV (w/y) and *CVh(w/y). I first show the reflexes for single tones. It appears that *H and *Rising are in complementary distribution on *CV(w/y) and *CVh(w/y) syllable types. *H occurs only on low intensity syllables, while *Rising occurs only on high intensity syllables:
*CV(w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán
*H 4 4 *L 3 14 *R
*CVh(w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán
*H *L 3 34 *R 1 3
Examples:
*H on *CV(w/y):
Cuixtla Coatlán
m bey 4 m be 4 araña 4 4 m bi: m bi mosca 2 10
*L on *CV(w/y):
Cuixtla Coatlán go: 3 go: 14 camote r lo: 3 n do 14 cara te: 3 zää 14 grasa n do: 3 n zo 14 parado
*L on *CVh(w/y):
Cuixtla Coatlán
i 3 e: 34 nariz bew 3 be: 34 peine
*Rising on *CVh(w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán pa 1 ( i1) pa 3 ¿d ó nde ?
I also reconstruct the following tone sequences for open, unlaryngealized roots:
*CV(w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán
*H L 4 14 *L H 3 4
*CVh(w/y)
*H L *L H 3 1 *L L 4 34 *L R 3 3 *R L 43 14
Examples:
*H L on *CV(w/y):
Cuixtla Coatlán n de: 4 n zä: 14 elote ki: 4 gi: 14 f uego ke: 4 ge: 14 piedra
11
*L L on *CVh(w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán
ä 4 ä 4, ä 34 caliente
*L Rising on *CVh(w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán
no 3 no 3 con
*Rising L on *CVh(w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán
le: 43 lä: 14 nombre ye: 43 yä:14 temascal
I find it rather odd that no individual tones occur on open roots of the type *CV (w/y). I do, however, find evidence for all three single tones on open roots of the type *CV h(w/y):
*CV (w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán
*H *L *R
*CV h(w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán
*H 1 1 *L 3 34 *R 1 3
Examples:
*H on *CV h(w/y):
Cuixtla Coatlán
be 1 bä 1 cielo do 1 do: 1 cuerda 1 1 nya nia milpa 1 m be 1 m be 1 luna ma 1 ma 1 animal
12
*L on *CV h(w/y):
Cuixtla Coatlán re: 3 te: 34 cá ntaro yi: 3 ge: 34 cerro la: 3 la: 34 hoj a i: 3 i: 34 j ícara ya 3 ya: 34 mano
*Rising on *CV h(w/y):
Cuixtla Coatlán yey 1 gi: 3 cal
I have found the following tone sequences on open roots of the type *CV (w/y) and *CV h(w/y):
*CV (w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán
*H L 4 14 *H R 4 41 *L H 3 4 *L L 1,13 14 *L R 3 41
*CV h(w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán
*L H 3 1 *L L 4 34 *L R 3 3
Examples
*H L on *CV (w/y):
Cuixtla Coatlán
li 4 lo: 14 cercado do 4 do: 14 espiga
13
*H R on *CV (w/y):
Cuixtla Coatlán mbe: 4 mbe: 41 tortuga ye 4 gä 41 ya 3 nuev e
*L H on *CV (w/y):
Cuixtla Coatlán si 3 i3 ti 3 ya 4 diez ya: 3 ya: 4 árbol ti 3 lo 1¢i 4 intestino
*L H on *CV h(w/y):
Cuixtla Coatlán
3 1 na na: ahora 2 lyo 3 lio 1 cuev a 3 1 lu n lu enseñar 2 ye 3 ge 1 f lor ni: 3 ni 1 hablar na 3 na 1 madre bdo 3 bdo 1 plá tano
*L L on *CV (w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán ta 1 nza: 14 fri j ol da: 13 da: 14 petate
*L R on *CV (w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán
3 41 lu lu enseñar 2 (nit 1) to: 3 (ni¢ 1) do 41 mar kwaw 3 kwa: 41 nube, oscu ro n wi 3 n zwi 41 guayaba (be:l 4 un3) di 3 (u) zi: 31 rayo ga y 3 (a 3) gai 41 (ya 3) cinco
14
*L R on *CV h(w/y)
Cuixtla Coatlán
(m bez 3 )ye: 3 (m be 1 )ge 3 bramar ti 3 (n) zi 3 comprar (ke: 4)le 3 (n) dei 3 dientes si 3 i3 ti 3 (ya 4) diez mb yu 3 (i 3) mi 3yu 3 ex tinguir (gu:3) do: 3 (lip 1) do 3 iglesia
2.2.2 Tone on closed roots
I have found the following individual tones and tone sequences on closed roots of the type *CVC and *CVhC. I first show the reflexes for single tones. As with *CV(w/y) roots, there is no *Rising tone. However, on *CVhC roots, all three tones occur individually:
*CVC
Cuixtla Coatlán
*H 4 4 *L 3 14 *R
*CVhC
Cuixtla Coatlán
*H 1 1 *L 3 34 *R 1 3
Examples:
*H on *CVC
Cuixtla Coatlán
m bel 4 mbäl 4 estrella m en 4 m en4 gente
*H on *CVhC
Cuixtla Coatlán
gat 1 go¢ 1 mascar
15
In the following cognate sets, the Cuixtla cognates probably had a low intensity syllable, while the Coatlán cognates had a high intensity syllable:
Cuixtla Coatlán
yap 4 ya:p 1 chayote yi 4 n ki 1 pagar
*L on *CVC
Cuixtla Coatlán
ye 3 ni 14 aguacate na 3 en 3 u än 14 amplio yu: 3 yu 14 arena mbup 3 m gup 14 armadillo ned 3 nez 14 camino ab 3 (ya: 3) ab 14 cá scara bya:z 3 n at 14 ciruela zi:l 3 til 14 comal 3 14 gab ndab decir 2 yi 3 gi 14 hierba mbla:n 3 m lan 14 liebre iz 3 lyo 3 gi 14 lu 14 mundo ni:l 3 nil 14 nix tamal i:s 3 n it 14 reír wes 3 wi 13 hermano wit 14 tith 3 zeth 13 lej os
*L on *CVhC
Cuixtla Coatlán
yek 3 gek 34 cabeza thap 3 da: 34 pa 3 cuatro na 3 lat 3 la¢ 34 delgado ye:z 3 ge: 34 fibra ( de i xtle) sith 3 tid 34 hueso n gin 3 gin 34 golpear yak 3 nyak 34 sanar
*Rising on *CVhC
Cuixtla Coatlán
bel 1 bäl 3 hermana m blat 1 m bil 3yat 3 mosq uito ( o f 3 lo: 3) nit 1 (n ob 1) ni¢ 3 nadar
I have found the following tone sequences on roots of the type *CVC and *CVhC: 16
*CVC
Cuixtla Coatlán
*H L 4 14 *L H 3 4 *L L 1 14 *L R 3 41
*CVhC
*H L *L H 3 1 *L L 4 34 *L R 3 3
Examples:
*H L on *CVC
Cuixtla Coatlán yet4 ge¢ 14 olla mbel 4 mbäl 14 pescado ye:z 4 ge 14 pueblo
*L H on *CVC
Cuixtla Coatlán
up 3 u4 up 4 chupar yä¢ 3 yä¢ 4 dormir lo:z 3 lu 4 lengua m bak 3 m bek 4 perro m bit 3 m bit 4 rana na 3biz 3 bit 4 seco
*L H on *CVhC
Cuixtla Coatlán m bez 3 ( ye: 3) m be 1 (ge 3) bramar mbid 3 ren 3 mbid 1 chinche ak 3 äk 1 desatar 3 3 1 3 na ban ( da: ) ban ( me ) despertarse 2 lab 3 n lab 1 herv ir ye:s 3 gi 1 metate ga:l 3 gal 1 nacer na 3 gat 3 nga¢ 1 negro kub 3 kub 1 nuev o 17 te 3 dib 3 a3 s tub 1 otro gos 3 ngo 1a3 mezclar
*L L on *CVhC
Cuixtla Coatlán yen 4 yen 34 cuello na:l 4 k al 34 f río
*L L on *CVC
Cuixtla Coatlán nit 1 ni¢ 14 agua yeth 1 geth 14 calabaza
*L R on *CVC
Cuixtla Coatlán n zob 3 n op 41 maíz 3 41 n gey n gä mosca 1
*L R on *CVhC
Cuixtla Coatlán yad 3 (n a 1) yaz 3 bañar 3 3 3 (men u )liz lit casa 1 na 3kop 3 u3gop 3 hú medo 3 3 zen än humo 2 yith 3 n gith 3 j ugar ye:s 3 gi 3, metate gi 1 ye 3 ge 3 red i:z 3 i 3 seno, leche dzi 3 op 3 o: 34 ba 3 seis gaz 3 ga: 34 d a3 siete
18
All three individual tones occur on closed laryngealized roots of either syllable type:
*CV C
Cuixtla Coatlán
*H 4 4 *L 3 14 *R 1 41
*CV hC
Cuixtla Coatlán
*H 1 1 *L 3 34 *R 1 3
Examples:
*H on *CV C
Cuixtla Coatlán
tha f 4 zab 4 metlapil ye th 4 gä s 4 cigarillo
*H on *CV hC
Cuixtla Coatlán
is 1 ¢o 1 espalda 1 1 yal täl noche 2 yan 1 yan 1 olote
*L on *CV C
Cuixtla Coatlán ye r 3 ge t 14 aguj ero (mbel 4) ki th 3 m gid 14 arco iris le n 3 län 14 adentro ley 3 u3 lei 14 bendició n ptan 3 bzan 14 hermana/ o la s 3 lat 14 llanura yon 3 n zob 4yon 14 llorar gon 3 gon 1 “ mzin 3 m in 14 miel yal 3 guth 3 gäl 14 gu d 14 muerte ker 3 ki t 14 ombligo m din 3 wa 3 m zin 14 wa 14 rata 3 3 14 (yek ) ib i b rodilla 1, 2 19
3 14 biz bi t semilla 2 3 13 an an abaj o1 ftya f 3 u3 zia b 13 hué r f ano yin 3 gin 13 palma
*Rising on *CV C
Cuixtla Coatlán bel 1 bäl 41 carne
*Rising on *CV hC
Cuixtla Coatlán te f 1 n za p 3 deber
I have found the following tone sequences on closed roots of the type *CV C and *CV hC:
*CV C
Cuixtla Coatlán
*H L 4 14 *L H 3 4 *L L 1 14 *H R 4 31 *L R 3 41
*CV hC
*H L *L H 3 1 *L L 4 34 *L R 3 3 *R H 43 4 *R L 43 14
Examples:
*H L on *CV C
Cuixtla Coatlán
4 14 ka f ka b contestar 2 ga 4 ga 14 cerca
20
*L H on *CV C
Cuixtla Coatlán blan 3 ndan 4 hollín ( il 1 )id 3 (gel 1) gi d 4 huarache n dub 3 nzob 4 sentado
*L H on *CV hC
Cuixtla Coatlán
il 3 il 1 algodó n yin 3 gin 1 chile ken 3 kan 1 escarbar fsin 3 b in 1 espuma yi f 3 gi b 1 f ierro t i 3 ti 1 medir gu s 3 gu 1 moco, pus di s 3 di z 1 palabra na f 3 s nab 1 pedir i: s 3 b i 1 piña si n 3 a3 tin 1 na 3 quince lop 3 lo b 1 barrer dob 3 do:b 1 maguey kop 3 ko b 1 masa
*L L on *CV C
Cuixtla Coatlán yi 1 gi 14 bosq ue
*L L on *CV hC
Cuixtla Coatlán yi 4 ge:g 34 hielo mbed 4 mbe z 34 abej a (n te) lan 4 dan 34 hambre
*H Rising on *CV C
Cuixtla Coatlán
kib 4 kib 31 coser
21
*L Rising on *CV C
Cuixtla Coatlán
n gon 3 n gon 41 buey n gi:d 3 n gid 4 gallina tan 3 nzian 41 parir n i th 3 n di s 41 ardilla on 3 n on 41 correr mbel 3 mbäl 41 culebra yan 3 yan 41 dej ar nol 3 kol 41 largo sa l 3 al 41 marido al 1 na 4 al 3 n al 31 me 3 abrir
*L Rising on *CV hC
Cuixtla Coatlán
wan 3 wan 3 señor kop 3 go p 3 hú medo m be:z 3 m bi 3 leó n , tigre n gu s 3 gu 3 (ya 1) codo
*Rising H on *CV hC
Cuixtla Coatlán
ngo:l 43 ngol 4 zopilote
*Rising L on *CV hC
Cuixtla Coatlán
ni:d 43 ni s 14 mazorca SVC nz é®à
The following is a summary of the different combinations of root and syllable types, glottalization and tones that I reconstruct for Proto Southern Zapotec:
Open roots
Unlaryngealized Laryngealized
*CV(w/y) *CV (w/y)
single tones single tones
*H: 4 4 *H: *L: 3 14 *L: *R: *R: 22
tone sequences tone sequences
*H L: 4 14 *H L: 4 14 *H R: *H R: 4 41 *L H: 3 4 *L H: 3 4 *L L: *L L: 1,13 14 *L R: *L R: 3 41 *R H: *R H: *R L: *R L:
*CVh(w/y) *CV h(w/y)
single tones single tones
*H: *H: 1 1 *L: 3 34 *L: 3 34 *R: 1 3 *R: 1 3
tone sequences tone sequences
*H L: *H L: *H R: *H R: *L H: 3 1 *L H: 3 1 *L L: 4 4,34 *L L: *L R: 3 3 *L R: 3 3 *R H: *R H: *R L: 43 14 *R L:
Closed roots:
Unlaryngealized Laryngealized
*CVC *CV C
single tones single tones
*H: 4 4 *H: 4 4 *L: 3 14 *L: 3 14 *R: *R: 1 41
tone sequences tone sequences
*H L: 4 14 *H L: 4 14 *H R: *H R: 4 31 *L H: 3 4 *L H: 3 4 *L L: 1 14 *L L: 1 14 *L R: 3 41 *L R: 3 41 *R H: *R H: *R L: *R L:
23
*CVhC *CV hC
single tones single tones
*H: 1 1 *H: 1 1 *L: 3 34 *L: 3 34 *R: 1 3 *R: 1 3
tone sequences tone sequences
*H L: *H L: *H R: *H R: *L H: 3 1 *L H: 3 1 *L L: 4 34 *L L: 4 34 *L R: 3 3 *L R: 3 3 *R H: *R H: 43 4 *R L: *R L: 43 14
2.3 Vowel length
Vowel length has been reconstructed by F M in the version published by Piper and Bartholomew. Since neither F M nor Piper and Bartholomew reconstruct tone, they did not have any way to correllate tone and vowel length. In this section, I make some general correllations between syllable type, tone and vowel length.
First, Coatlán tended to delete root final semivowels (*w and *y) on stressed syllables. When this occurred, Coatlán often lengthened the preceding vowel:
Cuixtla Coatlán
bew 3 be: 34 peine kwaw 3 kwa: 41 nube, oscu ro
m bey 4 m be 4 araña yey 1 gi: 3 cal 3 41 n gey n gä mosca 1
Second, vowel length occurs most often in PSZ on open, monosyllabic roots (including those with final * w or * y) with high intensity syllables. When they occur with vowel length, these roots usually have an individual *Low or final *Low tone in a sequence. On open, monosyllabic roots with low intensity syllables, vowel length is most likely to occur with *High Low or *High Rising sequences.
In high intensity syllables of closed (* CVC) roots, vowel length occurs most often with a *Low High tone sequence (see metate , nacer and piña below). In low intensity syllables of closed roots, vowel length occurs most often with an individual *Low, a final *Low in a sequence, or a final *Rising tone in a sequence (see nix tamal , reír , pueblo and gallina below). The lower incidence of vowel length in closed roots (which came from PZ ** CVCV) may reflect ultimate stress in Proto Zapotecan, when Zapotec and Chatino were a common language.
24
I have assembled the following statistics for vowel length from the 191 cognate sets used to reconstruct PSZ. I begin with high intensity syllables, where vowel length is most likely to occur, offering illustrative examples after each set of statistics.
Roots with a single *Low tone:
*CV( )h *CV( )hC(V)
V V: V V: 1 6 10 4
The following examples illustrate these statistics:
*Low on *CV( )h
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán Proto Southern Zapotec
3 34 4 romper 1 le lä * Le h
*Low on *CV:( )h
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán Proto Southern Zapotec cá ntaro re 4 re: 3 te: 34 *re: h 4 cerro yi: 3 ge: 34 * gi: h 4ya hoj a l ag 4 la: 3 la: 34 * La: h 4 (Cu, Co) * La hga 4 (Tex) j ícara i: 3 i: 34 * i: h 4 mano ya a 4 ya 3 ya: 34 * ya: h 4 nariz i 3 e: 34 * i:h 4
*Low on *CV( )hC(V)
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán Proto Southern Zapotec abej a bez 4 mbed 4 mbe z 34 * be h 4zu 4 cabeza ik 4 yek 3 gek 34 * gih 4k RV corto ub 4P dop 1 u4 ub 34 * oh 4pa 4 (Tex, Co) * do 4pa 4 (Cu) cuello yen 4 yen 4 yen 34 * yehN 4 4 delgado na 3 lat 3 la¢ 34 * lah 4si golpear n gin 3 gin 34 * gih 4na hueso rit 4 sith 3 tid 34 *rih 4ta (Tex) * ¢ih 4ta (Cu) * ih 4ta (Co) peine beg 4 bew 3 be: 34 * beh 4gu sal, duro zed 4P ted 3 zed 34 * zeh 4de sanar yak 3 nyak 34 * yah 4ka
25
*Low on *CV:( )hC(V)
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán Proto Southern Zapotec fibra ( de i x tle ) g e 4 ye:z 3 ge: 34 * ge:h 4dze seis u up 4 op 3 o: 34 ba 3 * so h 4pa (Tex) * so:h 4pa (Cu) * so:h 4ba yah 41 (Cu) siete gagy 4P gaz 3 ga:d 34 a3 * ga:h 4dzi ( yah 41 ) veinte gal 4P gal 3 ga: 34 la 3, gal 14 * ga:h 4La ( yah 41 )
Roots with *Low tone as the final member of a sequence:
*CV( )h *CV( )hC(V)
V V: V V: 1 4 4 2
The following examples illustrate these statistics:
Final *Low on *CV( )h
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán Proto Southern Zapotec
caliente a 4P ä 4 ä 34 , ä 4 * dzah 4 4 (Texmelucan) * dza 1 (Cuixtla, Coatlán) * ¢ah 4 4 (Cuixtla, Coatlán)
Final *Low on *CV:( )h
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán Proto Southern Zapotec fri j ol za a 4 ta 1 nza: 14 * za h 4 4 (Tex) * sa h 4 4 (Cu) * za: 4 4 (Co) nombre le: 43 lä: 14 * le:h 41 4 temascal y 4 ye: 43 yä: 14 * ye:h 41 4 (Cu, Co) *y 4 (Tex) tú( sg .) ru 1P lu: 4 lo: 34 *lu:( )h 4 4
Final *Low on *CV( )hC(V)
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán Proto Southern Zapotec
hambre (n te) lan 4 dan 34 * La h 4na 4 miel in 4P mzin 3 m in 14 * dzi 4na (Cu, Co) *bi dzih 4na 4 (Tex) palma g in 4P yin 3 gin 13 *gih 4na 4 (Tex) * gi 4na (Cu, Co) venado jiñ 4P m zin 4 m in 34 *bi dzih 4na 4
26
Final *Low on *CV:( )hC(V) hielo g ey 14 yi 4 ge:g 34 * ge: h 4gi 4 (Cu, Co) * ge: 1gi 4 (Tex) mazorca g ez 4 ni:d 43 ni s 14 * ge:za (Tex) * ni:h 41 za 4 (Cu) * ni: 41 sa 4 (Co)
On roots with high intensity syllables, vowel length also occurs with either a single *High or a final *High tone in a sequence:
*CV:( )h * CV:( )hC(V) *High 1 1 *Low High 1 3 *Rising High 1
The following examples illustrate these statistics:
*CV:( )h
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán Proto Southern Zapotec
cuerda do 1 do: 1 * do: h 1 lleno a 4P ze: 3 ä 1 * dza: h 4 1
*CV:h( )C(V)
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán Proto Southern Zapotec chayote yap 4 yap 4 yap 1 * ya: 1pV (Cu) * ya:h 1pV (Tex, Co) metate gye 4P ge:s 3 gi 1, gi 3 * gi:h 4¢i 1 or gi:h 4¢i 41 nacer ga:l 3 gal 1 * ga:h 4la 1 RV piña b i 4 i: s 3 b i 1 * i: h 4dzV 1 zopilote l a 1, ku us 4 ngo:l 43 ngol 4 * La u, * ku hsV (Tex) * go:h 41 LV 1 (Cu) * go: 41 LV 1 (Co)
On low intensity syllables, vowel length in PSZ appears to be limited to roots with a single *Low, final *Low in a sequence, or final *Rising tone in a sequence:
*CV:( ) * CV:( )C(V) V: V: *Low 2 *High Low 1 1 *Low Rising 1 *High Rising 1
27
The following examples illustrate these statistics:
*Low tone
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán Proto Southern Zapotec nix tamal ni:l 3 nil 14 * Ni: 4la reír rig 4 i:s 3 n it 14 * ri 4d i (Tex) * i: 4¢i (Cu) * i 4zi (Co)
Final *Low tone in a sequence:
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán Proto Southern Zapotec f uego g i4 ki: 4 gi: 14 * gi: 1 4 pueblo g e 4 ye:z 4 ge 14 * ge: 1dze 4
*Final *Rising tone in a sequence:
Gloss Texmelucan Cuixtla Coatlán Proto Southern Zapotec cangrej o be 14 mbe: 4 mbe 1 *(be¢u ) be: (gu) 1 41 mbe: 41 (tortuga) gallina g id 1 n gi:d 3 n gid 4 * gi: 4di 41
4. Bibliography
BAURENSCHMIDT, AMY. 1965. Amuzgo syllable dynamics. Language 41.471 83.
MUGELE, ROBERT L. 1982. Tone and ballistic syllable in Lalana Chinantec. PhD. dissertation. Austin Texas: University of Texas.
FERNÁNDEZ DE MIRANDA, MARÍA TERESA. 1995. El Protozapoteco. Piper, Michael J., and Doris A. Bartholomew, eds. México: El Colegio de Mexico y Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH)
ROBINSON, DOW F. 1963. Field notes on Coatlán Zapotec. Hartford Seminary Foundation studies in Linguistics 7.
RUEGSEGGER, MANIS and JANE RUEGSEGGER. 1956. Vocabulario zapoteco del dialecto de Miahuatlán del estado de Oaxaca [2a. ed.]. México: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
SPECK, CHARLES H. 1978. The phonology of Texmelucan Zapotec verb irregularity. M.A. thesis, University of North Dakota: Grand Forks, North Dakota.
1
III. A reconstruction of Proto Northern Zapotec tone 1 (Joe Benton; first draft: August 22, 2001; last update: July 25, 2002 (*High High note 4 Oct. ’04, & note on PZ *Rising added in Dec. ’07. ); title changed on Oct. 1, 2010)
0. Introduction
This is the third of a series of three sub reconstructions of Zapotec tone. The results from these three sub reconstructions will be combined for a reconstruction of the oldest level of tone in Proto Zapotec (PZ). As with the reconstruction for Proto Central Zapotec and Proto Southern Zapotec, I use the 430 cognate sets representing seven varieties found in the reconstruction of PZ done by María Teresa Fernández de Miranda (F M).
Out of the 430 cognate sets found in F M’s reconstruction, 316 have cognates for both the Serrano de Atepec and San Baltazar Yatzachi el Alto (hereafter referred to as “Villa Alta”), 2 the modern varieties used in this reconstruction of the tone system of Proto Northern Zapotec. However, for only 211 of these cognate sets can I reconstruct tone with any confidence (about 67%). 3 The number of cognate sets for which I reconstruct tone is only about 49% of the total number of cognate sets in F M, and is only about 62% the 340 cognate sets found for Proto Central Zapotec (San Pablo Villa de Mitla and Juchitán de Zaragoza).
1. Summary of suprasegmental contrasts for Proto Northern Zapotec
1.1 Tonal contrasts For Proto Northern Zapotec (PNZ), I reconstruct the register tones *High and *Low, and the contour tones *Rising and *Falling. Based on tone rules posited by Bickmore and Broadwell (1998) in Atepec, *Falling tone may have been the result of a sequence of *High and *Rising. 4 Each of these tones could occur singly or in sequences, although *Rising only followed another *Rising, and *Falling only followed another *Falling.
1 Note that I do not distinguish between normal and retroflexed /s,z/ and / , / for either Atepec or Villa Alta. The distinction in retroflexion is phonemic, and is orthographically marked by a dot under the retroflexed version of each of these consonants.
2 F M probably used Nellis (1983) as well as Butler’s field notes from Yatzachi el Alto as sources for her data.
3 More than in Proto Central and Proto Northern Zapotec, there are many tone reflexes which have only one or two cognate sets. This is not enough data for me to confidently posit a reconstruction. I therefore focus on tone reflexes represented by at least four cognate sets.
4 Bickmore and Broadwell (1998) consider all surface contour tones in Sierra Juárez (Atepec) Zapotec to be sequences of register tones. They also posit a rule of Contour Simplification for this variety of Zapotec. If three tones occur on a single syllable nucleus, the right most tone is deleted (1998:59). For example, an underlying Low High sequence which receives an additional High tone on the left (H LH) is reduced to a High Low sequence (HL). (added in Dec. ’07: The rules for *Rising tone in Proto Zapotec appear to contradict this hypothesis: *Rising appears to have become *Falling before both *H and *L, probably because both *H and *L had falling contours, as they do in the Loxicha area today.)
2
1.2 High-intensity and low-intensity syllables Because the association between laryngealization type and tone is not always clear in either Atepec or Villa Alta, the evidence for a high intensity low intensity syllable contrast is weaker in PNZ than in the other two branches of Zapotec I compare in this study. I still posit its existence for two reasons: (1) a high intensity low intensity syllable contrast provides what I consider to be an essential key to explaining tone correspondences for PNZ which would otherwise be difficult if not impossible to explain by other means, and (2) the existence for a high intensity low intensity contrast is well motivated in Proto Central and Proto Southern Zapotec.
1.3 Laryngealization
Unlike Proto Central and Proto Southern Zapotec, it appears that a contrast developed between interrupted (*V V) and checked (*V ) vowels in Proto Northern Zapotec. The contrast is clearest in Villa Alta. Tone sequences do not occur on checked vowels (V ) in either Atepec or Villa Alta, but interrupted vowels (V V) can carry individual tones or tone sequences, even though tone sequences occur most often on interrupted vowels. 5
5 Below are some statistics that I have compiled for the Atepec and Villa Alta data found in Piper and Bartholomew’s 1996 published version of Fernández de Miranda’s reconstruction. The contrast between interrupted (V V) and checked (V ) vowels appears to be strongest in Villa Alta:
Atepec Villa Alta individual sequences of individual sequences of tones: V V V tones: V V V tones: V V V tones: V V V 1 1 50 1 1 1 5 27 1 1 6 3 3 76 3 3 11 3 12 39 3 3 6 4 1 24 4 4 2 4 14 57 4 4 8 13 1 3 1 3 6 13 3 1 3 7 14 3 4 1 14 1 1 3 4 8 41 2 3 1 4 31 2 3 1 5 43 4 4 3 43 4 3 1 3 14 3 14 1 14 4 14 4 1
On the basis of distribution, V V in Atepec can probably be analyzed as a couplet composed of a checked vowel followed by a plain vowel. Out of the cognate sets used in this tone reconstruction, only one example of V V occurs in the penultimate position in Atepec, ta 3 a 1thi 3 dormir , and it is associated with a tone sequence. Otherwise, V V in Atepec only occurs in monosyllabic roots of the shape CV V .
3
2. Details of the reconstruction
2.1 Individual tones
As in Proto Central and Proto Southern Zapotec, I assume that a contrast existed in Proto Northern Zapotec between high intensity (*CVh) and low intensity (*CV) syllable types. I reconstruct the following tones for each syllable type, giving the Atepec reflex first, then the Villa Alta reflex:
*CVh *CV
Atepec Villa Alta Atepec Villa Alta *High 1 1 1 4 *Low 3 3 3 4 *Rising 43 4 4 4 *Falling 13,14 13,14 13,14 4
In the following examples, note that a dash ( ) either before or after a word or root indicates a morpheme break (e.g., a a 4 arriba ), parentheses around a portion of a root indicate material not present in a cognate form (e.g., (i 3 ) di 1 agrio ), a capital “H” represents the Habitual aspect, a capital “P” represents the Potential aspect, and a capital “C” represents the Completive aspect of a verb. Finally, a lowered number on a gloss (e.g. estallar 2) indicates that there is more than one cognate set for that gloss.
*H on *CVh
Atepec 1 Villa Alta 1
Atepec Villa Alta
(i 3 )lla 1 sLa 1 amargo yi 1 yi 1 fuego ¢a 1 n4 a 1 lleno ri 3 u 1 o 1 temblor (re 3 )be 1( ni 3) ( )be 1 sentarse li 1 Li 1 ( a 4) derecho daa 1 za 1 grasa za 3 1 1 3 ¢ia eR ( e ) ir 1 kua 1 k a 1 masa yu 1 yo 1 tierra yu 13
*H on *CV
Atepec 1 Villa Alta 4
na 1 na 4 a4 mano ra 1 a a 4 arriba (i 3 ) di 1 zi R 4 agrio ¢a 1 za 4 día
4
*L on *CVh
Atepec 3 Villa Alta 3
ri 3 da 3 (H) za 3 (H) andar tha 1 (P) sa 3 (P) ro 3 ao 3( g e 3) comer (i 3 )tthi 3 (P) ( )si 3 (ordenar) exprimir ra 3bi 1 (H) e3b ( e 1) (H) tragar ga 1bi 3 (P)
*L on *CV
Atepec 3 Villa Alta 4
gu 1 lla 3 { La 4} aflojar be 3 be 4 aire ttu 3 to i 4 avergonzado ¢a 3 a 4 llenar ¢a 1 a 1 lleno gu u 3 { go o 4} meter lu u 3 (C) “ ku1 u 3 (P) “ ya 3 yag 4 árbol 1 3 4 i na { na } decir 1 bi 3¢a 3 bg i 4 sol u3 bi 3¢a 3 g bi 4 “ be 3¢i bi 4 sueño tu 3 to 4 uno
*Rising on *CVh
Atepec 43 Villa Alta 4
u 4a 3 oa 4 cuarenta tuu 43 do 4 cuerda ¢i 43 i 4 diez da 43 za 4 frijol gu 31 de 43 (C) de 4 (H) pasar tte 14 (P) te 1 (P) “ 3 43 4 4 (i n )te (na )da yo 1
*Rising on *CV
Atepec 4 Villa Alta 4
4 4 re e e abajo 3 4 4 ni ni aquí 2 4 4 ya e ye e excremento 2 to 4 dao 4 mar i 3 diu 4 g zio 4 rayo sop 4 op 4 seis 5
*Falling on *CVh
Atepec 13 Villa Alta 13 /14 /34
ta a 13 da a 14 petate
to 13 dao 13 espiga dao 34 “ laa 13 le 13 { la } nombre llu 13 Lo 13 raíz
*Falling on *CV
Atepec 13 Villa Alta 4 lo 13 lao 4 cara te 13 de 4 ceniza ( i )wi 13 ( 3) (ba 1 )g e 4( da 4 n) madurar
2.2 Tone sequences
Even a casual reading of Bickmore and Broadwell 1998 (for Atepec) and Pike and Mary Leal 1948 (for Villa Alta) impresses the reader with the extent of tone perturbation for both of these modern varieties of Zapotec. Besides the usual progressive and regressive tone perturbation (caused mainly by aspect prefixes and pronominal suffix clitics), there is also extensive root internal tone perturbation. This latter type of tone perturbation causes difficulty in accurately positing the probable tone sequences in PNZ.
The reconstruction of tone for Atepec cognates with a 3 1 tone pattern is especially difficult, as there are many Villa Alta correspondences for this pattern. I consider that tone “3” in Atepec reflects PNZ *Low, not *Rising (usually tone “4” in Atepec). Nevertheless, Bickmore and Broadwell’s rule of Tone Raising (1998:55) provides help. They note that in Atepec, bisyllabic verb roots with Low Mid tone patterns do not occur on the surface, and posit a tone raising rule that raises either an underlying Low or Mid tone to High following a preceding syllable with an underlying Low tone (1998:55). By extension, I posit that *Low tone on a high intensity penultimate syllable in Atepec became a rising tone, which then perturbed a following *Low or *Rising tone on an unstressed ultima to *High.
Another tone rule that Bickmore and Broadwell posit is Fall Simplification (1998:55). 6 According to this rule, a falling sequence (13 and 14) does not occur before either a Low or Mid tone, but is simplified to a High Mid or a High Low sequence. This rule is helpful in understanding why the only
6 As I mention above, Bickmore and Broadwell (1998) do not consider surface tone glides to be units, but rather sequences of register tones. They would likely re interpret my *High, *Low and *Rising tones as *High, *Mid and *Low. *Falling would probably be analyzed as a simplification of a three tone sequence: *High *Low *High. I believe that Bickmore and Broadwell’s analysis fails to explain why surface low tone triggers progressive tone perturbation (see Tone Raising, 1998:55). They apparently fail to see the lowest tone in the Atepec system as actually reflecting a true rising tone. What they analyze as a mid tone is the default tone in the system, since it is mapped onto tone less tone bearing units by a late rule. I believe that a better analysis is that surface mid tone is actually a low tone, in contrast with the rising tone which triggers progressive tone perturbation.
6 falling tone sequence in F M’s data for Atepec is a 13 3 sequence. *Falling tone probably became a *High tone if the following syllable carried an underlying tone. This implies that modern 13 3 tone sequences across two syllables reflects an original *Falling tone on a stressed penultima and no underlying tone on the ultima. The surface Low tone on the unstressed ultima was probably supplied by a late, default tone rule.
Finally, a tone sequence in Atepec often reflects just one underlying tone in PNZ, especially when the Villa Alta reflex is a single tone. In these cases, I posit that there was only one tone in PNZ, that it occurred on a stressed penultima, and spread onto an unstressed ultima in either Atepec or Villa Alta. Of course, if the final, unstressed vowel dropped out in Villa Alta (which is often the case), a tone sequence is not possible.
Having made the above disclaimers, I posit the following tone sequences for Proto Northern Zapotec. Note that I use the null symbol (Ø) to indicate no underlying tone:
*CVh *CV
Atepec Villa Alta Atepec Villa Alta
*High Ø (*High High?) 1 1 1 1 1 1 3, 1 4 (note added 4 Oct. ’04) *Ø High 3 1 1, 1 1 3 1 1, 1 1 *High Low 1 3 1 1 3 1 3, 1 4
*Low High/Rising 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 *Low Ø/Low 3 1 3, 3 3 3 3 4, 4 4 *Ø Ø/Low 3 3 3, 3 3 3 3 4, 4 4
*Rising Ø 4 4 3 4 4 4, 4 4 *Rising High/Low 4 1 4, 4 4 4 1 4, 4 4 *Rising Rising 3 1 1 3 3 1 1 4
*Falling Ø 13 3 13, 14 13 3 4 *Falling Low 1 3 3 1 3 4 *Falling Falling 3 3 1, 1 1 3 3 1, 1 1
These reconstructions of tone sequences form the following matrices (The symbol “ ” means “corresponds to”):
*CVh Ø *High *Low *Rising *Falling
Ø 3 3 3,3 3 3 1 1,1 1 3 3 3,3 3
*High 1 1 1 1 3 1 *Low 3 1 3,3 3 3 1 3 1 3 1 3,3 3 *Rising 4 4 3 4 1 4,4 4 4 1 4,4 4 3 1 1 3 *Falling 13 3 13,14 1 3 3 3 3 1,1 1
7
*CV Ø *High *Low *Rising *Falling
Ø 3 3 4,4 4 3 1 1,1 1 3 3 4,4 4 *High 1 1 1 3,1 4 1 3 1 3,1 4 *Low 3 3 4,4 4 3 3 4,4 4 *Rising 4 4 4,4 4 4 1 4,4 4 4 1 4,4 4 3 1 1 4 *Falling 13 3 4 1 3 4 3 3 1,1 1
Examples:
*High Ø on *CVh
Atepec 1 1 Villa Alta 1
ya 1lia 1 n yal 1 abierto to 1¢¢e 1 to 1 e 4 en 4 afilado gu 1tti 1 o1t e 3 (H) matar got 1 (P) bet 4 (C) i 1yya 1 yeR 1 piedra e 1ssa 1 yi R 1 red
*High Ø on *CV
Atepec 1 1 Villa Alta 1 3
ku 1bi 1 ko 1b 3 nuevo ti 1lla 1 ti 1ll 3 (P) pelear di 1lle 1 (H)
Atepec 1 1 Villa Alta 1 4
di 1ttu 1 zi 1t 4 lejos 1 1 1 4 be ya bi a mosca 2 ye 1tthu 1 ye 1s 4 olla be 1kku 1 be 1ko 4 perro
Ø High on *CVh and *CV (note that a subscript number (e.g., estallar 2) indicates the second set for a gloss in F M)
Atepec 3 1 Villa Alta 1
be 3tthia 1 bsia 1 águila i 3yu 1 yo o 1 cal 3 1 1 (gu )ti ¢¢a yi R estallar 2 u 3a 1 oa 1 maíz wi 3¢a 1 g iR 1 pasado mañana
8
Atepec 3 1 Villa Alta 1 1
(na 1) gu 3la 1 ( na a 3) go 1la 1 abuela e 3nne 1 be 1N 1 gente i 3¢¢i 1 yi 1 1 metate ga 3lia 1 gaL 1R 1 veinte la 3 we 1 bla 1 o 1 zapote negro
*High Low on *CVh
Atepec 1 3 Villa Alta 1
i 1kkia 3 yi 1R (e 3)7 cabeza 1 1 3 1 3 (ta ) e ni ( )ze n (e ) cazar 1 i 1¢¢i 3 (na 1) i 1 (a ) codo ye 1ttu 3 yit 1 chilacayote (calabaza) ta 3 a 1thi 3 ta 1s (e 3) dormir be 1lia 3 be 1LR estrella gu 1ttu 3 o1t (e 3) moler (ru 3) k e 1¢i 3 k e 1 (e 4 en 4) tocar instrumento de viento
*High Low on *CV
Atepec 1 3 Villa Alta 1 3
ru 1 a 3 o 1 a 3 boca 1 3 1 3 yo o yo o casa 2 i 1ni 3 i 1 i 3N (e 3) hijo ga 1da 3 ga 1z 3 plantar wa 1ga 3 g a 1g 3 rata wa 13 ga 3
Atepec 1 3 Villa Alta 1 4
1 3 1 4 ga tta ga t acostar 1 da 1 a 3 za 1 a 4 elote u1ppa 3 go 1p 4 húmedo (gu 1) la 1ppa 3 ga 1p 4 manipular g da 4p 4
Low High /Rising on *CVh or *CV
Atepec 3 1 Villa Alta 3 1
¢a 3 a 1 e 3 e 1 caliente ye 3¢¢e 1 ye 3 1 espina la 3ti 1 la 3tR 1 lugar (gu 1) i 3¢i 1 i 3 e 1 reír
7 The suffix (e 3) is very likely some type of pronominal clitic. 9
ga 3¢i 1 ga 3 1 siete ¢u 3nna 1 o 3N 1 tres oN 3 “
*Low Ø/Low on *CVh
Atepec 3 1 Villa Alta 3
(i 1) tha 3lia 1 sal 3R abrir (i 3) i 3ssi 1 zi 3 dulce yi 3ti 1 Reid 3 gallina niu 3la 1 bia 3 no ola 3 hembra la 3na 1 Lan 3 hollín 3 1 3 ¢e ni en humo 2 be 3gu 1 leg 3 jorobado lue 3¢i 1 lo 3 (e e 1) lengua se 3ni 1 en 3 saliva
Atepec 3 1 Villa Alta 3 3
3 1 3 3 ¢u mmi o m cesto 1 u 3pa 1 o 3p 3 dos da 3bi 1 za 3b 3 huérfano e 3lla 1 ye 3Le 3 mamey gu 3lia 1 (C) go 3lR 3 nacer ra 3lia 1 (H) ga 1lR 3 “ ga 1lia 1 (P) a1lR b 34 “ i 3na 1 in 3 e e 3 nariz ni 3lla 1 Ni 3L 3 nixtamal bi 3nni 1 byi 3N 3 pájaro 3 1 3 3 re ta (H) i d (e ) venir 2 bi 3ta 1 (C) “ i3ta 3 (P) “
*Ø Ø, *Ø Low on *CVh
Atepec 3 3 Villa Alta 3
lu 3 u 3 lo 3 ( e 1) barba le 3ya 3 Le ey ( e 3) bendecir 3 3 3 li ¢i li ( e ) casa 1 i 3ya 3 ya a 3 cerro su 3ppi 3 op 3 (H) chupar 1 3 3 3 3 (e ) ba ni ( e ) ban despertarse ¢i 3¢¢i 3 zi 3 fuerte be 3¢¢i 3 bi 3 ( e e 3) hermano (de hombre) ra 3ppi 3 ep 3 relampaguear ¢a 1ppi 3 1 3 3 3 (i ) lla a La a romper 1 lu 3bi 3 lo 3b soplar { lo 3b 3} ra 3kku 3 yak 3 vestirse 10
Atepec 3 3 Villa Alta 3 3
é3ssu 3 yi 3 3 aguacate ya 3 a 3 y e 3 3 bailar ya 3 a 3 ya 3 a3 crudo be 3da 3 be 3z 3 zorra
*Low Ø/Low, *Ø Ø and *Ø Low on *CV
Atepec 3 3 Villa Alta 4
lu 3 a 3 yo 4 acabar ri 3da 3 ez 4 ardilla ta 3ppa 3 tap 4 cuatro tu 3ppi 3 i 4b desplumar (gu) ti 3tthia 3 g dis 4 (C) distribuir yi 4s (H) “ ki 1tthia 3 (P?) “ 3 3 4 the ti se d enseñar 1 ye 3¢i 3 ye 4 fibra la 3 ni 3 lNi 4 fiesta ye 3da 3 yez 4 mazorca 3 3 4 ye la yel milpa 2 nu 3ppi 3 nop 4 pulque be 3 di 3na 3 bzin 4 ratón bi 3¢i 3 bi 4 seco e 3tta 3 yet 4 tortilla
Atepec 3 3 Villa Alta 4 4
3 3 4 4 ra tta a t acostado 1 3 3 4 4 gu yi e y arder 1 ye 3¢¢u 3 ye 4 o 4 grano be 3yi 3 be 4y 4 hielo la 3¢¢i 3 la 4 4 llano/llanura ru 3¢u 3 o 4z 4 podrir ra 3ttha 3 a 4 4 mascar ¢i 3nu 3 i 4no o 4 quince
*Rising Ø on *CVh
Atepec 4 4 Villa Alta 3
ga 4dia 4 a 3zR bañar lu 4ba 4 Loa 3 barrer la 4ya 4 Le 3y dientes
11
*Rising Ø on *CV
Atepec 4 4 Villa Alta 4
4 4 4 a na an abajo 1 ni 4ttha 4 nis 4 agua ye 4ru 4 ye 4 agujero si 4la 4 i 4l ala ra 4lla 4 aL 4 anochecer i4da 4 iz 4 año tha 4ya 4 seR 4 cerrar u 3 ba 4na 4 ba 4n cola be 4kkia 4 be R 4 cuervo be 4lla 4 beL 4 culebra yi 4na 4 yin 4 chile i 4yya 4 yeR 4 flor ti 4ttia 4 yitR 4 jugar be 4¢i 4 be 4 león gu 4tti 4 (C) got 4 (C) morir ra 1tti 4 (H) a 1te 3 (H) “ ga 1tti 1 (P) gat 1 (P) “ 4 4 4 ye la yel noche 2 (medianoche) ya 4na 4 yan 4 olote ti 4 a 4 di R 4 pagar i4¢¢i 4 yi 4 papel na 4ba 4 Na 4b pedir sa 4na 4 a 4n señor ¢i 4na 4 in 4 trabajo be 4tte 4 bet 4 zorrillo
Atepec 4 4 Villa Alta 4 4
ga 4yu 4 ge 4y 4 cinco gu 4ba 4 bg e 4 e 4y escoba g be 4 e 4y “ gu 4¢i 4 go 4 4 moco ti 4¢a 4 di 4 4 palabra/idioma tu 4bi 4 do 4b 4 pluma de 4te 4 ze 4d 4 sal
*Rising High/Low Rising on *CVh or *CV
Atepec 4 1 Villa Alta 4
ke 4ssu 1 ye 4 asar ya 4la 1 yal 4 copal 41 4 bee be liendres 2
12
Atepec 4 1 Villa Alta 4 4
be 4la 1 be 4l 4 carne be 4¢¢i 1 be 4 4 piojo gu 4la 1 go 4l 4 viejo
*Rising Rising on *CVh
Atepec 3 1 Villa Alta 1 3
gu 3 na 1 go 1 on 3 buey re 3 ne 1 e 1 3N tierno
*Rising Rising on *CV
Atepec 3 1 Villa Alta 1 4
(e 1) ¢e 3la 1 e 1le 4 encontrar
*Falling Ø on *CVh
Atepec 13 3 Villa Alta 13 yu 13 i 3 yo 13 arena be 13 ra 3 be R 13 ave doméstica ¢i 13 la 3 il 13 comal 13 3 13 ti la sil mañana 2 ye 13 ¢i 3 ye 13 mundo (pueblo)
Atepec 13 3 Villa Alta 14
yi 13 i 3 yi 14 hierba 13 3 14 ree la el noche 2
*Falling Ø on *CV
Atepec 13 3 Villa Alta 4 be 13 du 3 be 4z abeja be 1du 3 “ ne 13 da 3 nez 4 camino 13 3 4 ru ba b ob cesto 2 ya 13 ni 3 ye 4n cuello yi 13 ti 3 yid 4 piel re 13 ni 3 en 4 sangre
13
*Falling Low on *CVh
Atepec 1 3 Villa Alta 3
gu 1lla 3 goL 3 cantar (tocar instrumento) ye 1tthia 3 gasR 3 negro 3 1 3 3 (ri ) yi a (H) ya tejer 1 (gu 3) ti 1a3 (C) g dia 3 ki 1a3 (P?)
*Falling Low on *CV
Atepec 1 3 Villa Alta 4
di 1na 3 zin 4 palma
*Falling Falling on *CVh or *CV
Atepec 3 3 Villa Alta 1
e 3ni 3 en 1 amplio (gu 1) ki 3¢i 3 i 1 (e 4e4 n) apretar ye 3ttia 3 yetR 1 caña (i 1) the 3lla 3 se 1L (e 1) enviar (e 1) ¢i 3na 3 i 1n (e 1) llegar
Atepec 3 3 Villa Alta 1 1
i 3ssi 3 yi 1 1 bosque be 3yu 3 bi 1 o 1 pulga
3. References
Bickmore, Lee, and Aaron Broadwell. 1998. High tone docking in Sierra Juárez Zapotec. IJAL 64.1.37 63. Butler, Inez. En preparación. Diccionario del zapoteco de Yazachi el Bajo.
“ 1980. Gramatica zapoteca, zapoteco de Yatzachi el Bajo, Gramáticas de lenguas indígenas, 4. México, ILV.
Nellis, Neil y Jane Goodner de Nellis. 1983. Diccionario zapoteco de Juarez (Caa titsa qui ri u), Vocabularios y diccionarios “Mariano Silva y Aceves”, 27. México, ILV.
Pike, Eunice Victoria. 1948. Problems in Zapotec tone analysis. IJAL 14.3. 161 170.
1
IV. A reconstruction of Proto Zapotec tone (Joe Benton; first draft: September 11, 2001; latest update: Dec. 30, 2007; title changed on Oct. 1, 2010)
0. Introduction
This is my fourth and final reconstruction of Zapotec tone. As with the three preceding sub reconstructions (Proto Central, Proto Southern, and Proto Northern Zapotec), I use the 430 cognate sets representing seven varieties found in the reconstruction of Proto Zapotec (PZ) done by María Teresa Fernández (F M) in the 1960’s, but finally published by Piper and Bartholomew (1995).
Out of the 430 cognate sets found in F M’s reconstruction, I find only 142 clear tone cognates for both Proto Southern (PNZ) and Proto Central Zapotec (PCZ), and I find only 109 clear tone cognates between Proto Southern (PSZ) and Proto Northern Zapotec (PNZ). These figures are only 33% (PSZ PCZ) and 25% (PSZ PNZ) of the total number of cognate sets in F M. Though I provide 124 cognate sets in the appendix for Proto Zapotec (PZ), I can reconstruct tone for only 80 90 of these with any degree of confidence. The present and final reconstruction is therefore only a sketch of the individual tones and tone sequences that may have existed in Proto Zapotec (PZ).
My focus in this study is on tone reconstruction, as I mention in my preceding sub reconstructions. I do, however, necessarily discuss other suprasegmental features found in PZ. For example, F M reconstructs two types of laryngealization (*V V and *V ) for PZ. Taking tone into consideration, I consider that only *V is needed in PZ. See my discussion of laryngealization in section 1.2 for more details on this point.
Vowel length (*V:), which F M also reconstructs for PZ, is an additional contrast. Though the vowel length contrast is independent of laryngealization in F M’s as well as my reconstructions for PZ, it usually occurs only on plain (unlaryngealized) vowels (*Vh and *V), though it occurs once each on *V h and *V in my reconstructions. As I note in section 2.3 below, it appears that vowel length can at least be partially explained at the PZ level on the basis of tone and syllable type.
Finally, I reconstruct a contrast in syllable type for PZ, namely high intensity and low intensity. High intensity syllables in PZ (written as *CVh) very likely come from **CVh, as I mention in my sub reconstructions. Syllables without a post vocalic **h are the likely source of low intensity syllables. In PZ, * and vowel length can occur on both high intensity and low intensity syllables.
1. Summary of suprasegmental contrasts for Proto Zapotec
1.1 Tonal contrasts I reconstruct Proto Zapotec (PZ) as having five tones:
*High (hereafter *H, except in the appendix where it is *1), *Mid (hereafter *M, except in the appendix where it is *3), *Low (hereafter *L, except in the appendix where it is *4), *Falling (hereafter *Falling, except in the appendix where it is *14), *Rising (hereafter *Rising, except in the appendix where it is *41).
*Mid occurred only on monosyllabic roots with laryngealized vowels, while *L was probably the most common tone, and was probably also the default or unmarked tone, as in the preceding sub reconstructions. *H, *L, *Falling and *Rising occurred both individually and in sequences. However, sequences beginning with *Falling tone are very weakly attested, and it is likely that *Falling tone was itself an allotone of *Rising and *Low (see section 2.1.1. below for more details).
2
1.2 Laryngealization In Proto Northern Zapotec (PNZ), there is an apparent contrast between *V V and *V , almost exclusively between roots of the shape CV V and CV . At the PZ level, this apparent contrast can be resolved on the basis of tone and syllable type. Roots of the type *CV V in PNZ reconstruct with a tone sequence, in addition to having high intensity syllables. 1
1.3 High-intensity and low-intensity syllables As I mention above and also in my previous three sub reconstructions, I reconstruct a contrast between high intensity (*CVh) and low intensity (*CV) syllable types. Although this contrast does not constitute as significant a factor in tone conditioning at the PZ level as it does in the sub reconstructions, the contrast still helps to explain difficult sets of tone reflexes. For example, when PSZ has *L( *L) and PNZ has Ø (no underlying tone), PCZ sometimes has a *L *H sequence. In these cognate sets, all of the PCZ cognates have high intensity penultimate syllables. The problem can be resolved by positing that roots of the shape *CVh 4CV in PZ became CVh 4CV 1 In PCZ: 2
1 I have gleaned the following data from the preceding sub reconstructions. Note that in Proto Southern Zapotec (PSZ), all but two of the cognates for *CV V roots in PNZ have tone sequences. One of the PSZ cognate which lacks a tone sequence has a Proto Central Zapotec (PCZ) cognate which does have a tone sequence, while the other one has a cognate in PNZ which has a tone sequence. Also note that all but one PCZ cognate has a high intensity syllable:
gloss PNZ PSZ PCZ
caliente *dza (h) 4a1 or *dza (h) 4a41 * ¢ah 4 4 cántaro * re 1e4 *re: h 4 * re h 4 1 4 4 casa 2 * yo o * yo h crudo * ya ha( 4) * ya h 4 elote * za 1a4 * ze: 1 4 * ze h 4 41 4 excremento 2 * gi i * gi meter * go o 4 petate * da ha 14 * da: 4 4 * da h 4 4 4 1 romper 1 * La ha * La h * La h
2 The operation of this rule can be seen in Chichicapan, which is closely related to Mitla, one of the modern Zapotec varieties used to reconstruct Proto Central Zapotec. For example, the root for ‘sit’ is - ßzo 4ba 1. When ‘sit’ is conjugated in the first person singular (1sg.), hard glottalization occurs on the penultima and the high tone is lost on the ultima:
r zo 4ba 1 ‘sit’ (Habitual aspect) r zo 14 ba 4n ‘I habitually sit’
Because the 1sg. clitic suffix normally does not insert laryngealization before a lenis consonant, this alternation had previously been difficult for me to explain. Also, a High tone on an unstressed ultima normally deletes the laryngealization present in the 1sg clitic suffix, which has the underlying form of { a a 4n}:
r a 4bi 1 ‘swallow’ (Habitual aspect) r a 1bi 14 n ‘I habitually swallow’
The apparent difficulties can be resolved by positing { zoh 4ba} as the underlying form for ‘sit’, and positing a relatively late rule that changes roots of the shape { CVh 4CV} to { CV 4CV 1}. Elsewhere in Chichicapan, h occurs in roots of the shape CVhVn:
dah 4a1n ‘mountain, field’ ih 4i1n ‘black wax’ bi 1 dzih 4i1n ‘deer’
3
PSZ 4( 4) PCZ 4 1 PNZ Ø
Gloss (PSZ) (PCZ) (PNZ)
fibra (de ixtle) * ge:h 4dze * ge:h 4dze 1 * ge:dze huérfano * sa 4bi (Cu), * za 4bi (Co) * zah 4bi 1 * zahbi peine * beh 4gu * beh 4gu 1 4 4 1 romper 1 * La h * La h * La ha venado *bi dzih 4na 4 *bi 4 dzih 4na 1
2. Details of the reconstruction
2.1 Tone reconstructions
2.1.1 Individual tones Although the high intensity/low intensity syllable environment appears to be significant for at least *L and *Falling tone, tone at the PZ level most often appears to be conditioned by following tones within a root. 3
I have found the following reflexes for *H, *M, *L, *Falling and *Rising in PZ. 4 As can be seen, Proto Northern Zapotec (PNZ) appears to be the most conservative branch for preserving individual tones:
3 I have found the following restrictions for two tone sequences in PZ:
*H *H/R *L Ø *R *F *H X X *H/R X *L X X X *Ø X X X *R X *F X X X
Note that *Mid is not included in the above tone distribution, as my only clear evidence for this tone is on monosyllabic roots. From the above distribution of two tone sequences, the following tone rules may have applied in PZ:
Before (and only before) another *H, *H appears to have developed a high rising contour. After *Rising, *H and *L became *Rising. *Rising became *Falling before *H and *L, and after *Falling. *L *L may have occurred on low intensity roots, while *Falling *Falling (which may have come from either original *Falling Falling or *Falling *Rising) may have occurred on high intensity roots.
The author’s current belief (September, 2011) is that *Rising became *Falling only after *Falling. Since *Falling does not occur after *High, it may have become either *L or *Rising in this environment.
4 Note that *M occurs in only three cognate sets ( cuer d a, comp rar and hab l ar ), and then only on monosyllabic roots with laryngealization. My reconstruction of this tone at the Proto Zapotec level depends entirely on my reconstruction of it at the Proto Central Zapotec level. However, when comparing S. Ma. Coatlán with S. Ma. Lachixío (considered to be “Western Zapotec”, and a sister language to the now extinct Solteco variant), it appears that *Mid tone was quite common and had a wide distribution in PZ. Further research is needed to show what the distribution of *Mid tone was in PZ, and what its reflexes are in current Zapotec variants. 4
Proto Zapotec Proto Southern Zapotec Proto Central Zapotec Proto Northern Zapotec (PZ) (PSZ) (PCZ) (PNZ)
*H 1 Ø or 4( 4) 41 *Mid 1, 4 1, 4 41 3 41 *Falling 4 4( 4) 14 *Rising 4( 4) 4 4 41
The developments of *L, *L *L, and no underlying tone in PZ are more complex: (1) What was probably a *L Ø sequence on a * CV( )h 4CV root developed a Low H sequence in Proto Central Zapotec, (2) there does not appear to be a clear contrast in PZ between *L *L and *Falling *Falling sequences, and (3) for roots without any underlying tone, all three branches of Zapotec represented in this study have either low or no tones:
Proto Zapotec Proto Southern Zapotec Proto Central Zapotec Proto Northern Zapotec (PZ) (PSZ) (PCZ) (PNZ)
*L Ø 4( 4) 4 1 Ø (* CV( )hCV)
*L L 4( 4) 4 4 14 14 or *Falling *Falling (* CV( )hCV)
*Ø( Ø) 4( 4) Ø or 4( 4) Ø or 4( 4) (* CV( )hCV or * CV( )CV)
Cognate sets illustrating reconstructions of individual tones
The following cognate sets illustrate the developments of individual *H tones:
PSZ 1 PCZ 4/Ø PNZ 41
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ
1 1 41 noche 2 * ge h la (Cu), * re h la (Co) * ge hla * ge( e) la olote * ya h 1na * ya hna * ya( a) 41 na pagar * gi 1 a (Cu), * kih 1 a (Co) * gih 4 a 4 * di 41 a
PSZ 1 PCZ 4 4
cigarillo * ge 1sa * geh 4za 4 chayote * ya: 1pV (Cu), * ya:h 1pV (Co) * yah 4pV 4 espalda * eh 1¢V (Cu), * so h 1 (Co) * deh 4¢V 4 huarache * geh 1la ( * gi 4di 1) * ge 4la 4 ( gih 4di 4)
5
The following cognate sets illustrate the developments of individual *M tones:
PSZ 1 PCZ 3 PNZ 41
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ cuerda * do: h 1 * do h 3 * do h 41
PSZ 4 1/4 41 PCZ 3
comprar * zi h 4 41 * zi 3 hablar *Ni h 4 1 * Ni 3
The following cognate sets illustrate the developments of individual *L tone and also sequences of *L tones:
*Low Ø (with a high intensity penultima)
PSZ 4( 4) PCZ 4 1 PNZ Ø
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ fibra (de ixtle) * ge:h 4dze * ge:h 4dze 1 * ge:dze huérfano * sa 4bi (Cu), * za 4bi (Co) * zah 4bi 1 * zahbi peine * beh 4gu * beh 4gu 1 4 4 1 romper 1 * La h * La h * La ha venado *bi dzih 4na 4 *bi 4 dzih 4na 1
*Low Low (with a high intensity penultima)
PSZ 4( 4) PCZ 4 4 PNZ 14 14
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ amplio * e 4ni * e(h) 14 ni 14 apretar * ki(h) 14 ¢i 14 (A), * i(h) 14 ¢i 14 (VA) caña * nih 4ta 4 * ge(h) 14 ta 14 RV enviar * se h 4La 4 * seh 14 La 14 llegar * dzih 4na 4 * dzi(h) 14 na14 bosque * gi 4 i 4 * gi h 4 i 4 * gi (h) 14 i 14
The following cognate sets illustrate the developments of roots which probably had no underlying tone (*Ø( Ø)):
PSZ 4( 4) PCZ 4/Ø PNZ 4/Ø
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ
nariz * i:h 4 * i h 4 * ih( i) 4na aguacate * ye 4 u (Cu), * ne 4 u (Co) * yeh 4 u 4 * yeh u bendecir * Le 4ya * Le h 4ya 4 * La hya llanura * la 4¢i (Cu), * la 4 i (Co) * lah 4¢i 4 (M), * la 4¢i 4 (I) * la( )¢i 6
cerro * gi h 4ya * gi hya hermano * we 4¢i (Cu), * we 4 i (Co) * beh¢i hielo * ge h 4gi 4 * begi parado *zo: 4 *zuh 4 cerca * ga 4 a (Cu), * ga 4 a * gah 4 a 4 ciruela * ya 4dzi (Cu), * za 4 i (Co) * ya:h 4dzi 4 4 4 4 decir 2 * ga bi * rah bi delgado * lah 4si * lah 4si 4 hermana/o * sa 4na (Cu), * za 4na (Co) *bi 1 sah 4na 4 (M), bi 1 za 3na 4 (I) hoja * Laa h 4 * Lah 4ga 4 hueso * ¢ih 4ta (Cu), * ih 4ta (Co) * dzih 4ta 4 jícara * ii h 4 * ih 4ga 4 4 4 4 4 4 rodilla 1,2 * i bi * ih bi (M), * ih bi (I) 4 4 4 4 semilla 2 * be dzi (Cu), * be i (Co) * beh dzi h
The following cognate sets illustrate the developments of individual *Falling tones. Further cognate sets have been added from the 2011 PZ revision to clarify how *Falling became contrastive in PNZ. Because vowel length has been reconstructed for several of the sub reconstructions below, as well as its presence in the ultima of one of the Santa María Lachixío cognates (BEE/FLYING INSECT), it appears that the contrast between *Low and *Falling in PNZ developed as a result of vowel length, with *Falling occurring originally as an allotone on long vowels with high syllable intensity:
PSZ 4 PCZ 4( 4) PNZ 14
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ 2011 Revision
abeja * be h 4zu 4 * be 4zu 4 * be 14 zu *Low, CVh
254. BEE/FLYING INSECT *nikwæ so: *Low *CVh Ay 5 b µz; L 11 betsu:; Tex 32 bez; SJ 4 mæz; Co 23 mbes; Ch 3 behzu [bwe: zu]; CA 3 mbez (hard accent, ‘flying insect’, minimal pair w. 3 mbez ‘fox’); Am 3 3 mbaser; Lox 3 mbed 1 ser; Is 3 bizu; Cho bezo
arena * yu: 4 i * yu:h 4 i 4 * yu:h 14 I camino * ne 4za * neh 4za 4 * ne 14 za *Low, CVh
296. ROAD, PATH *nesa/n sa *Low *CVh Ch 3 neza; CA 13 n z; Lox ned [ne ]
cara * lawu 4 (Cu), * rawu 4 (Co) * loh 4 * la 14 wu *Low, CVh
228. FACE *lo *Low *CVh L 3 lu; Tex 32 lo; SJ 12 lo; Co 2 las; Ch 3 lo; CA 13 lo (hard accent); Am M C garlo; Lox 13 lo; Is 3 lu (encima)
comal * dzi: 4la (Cu), * i 4la (Co) * dzi:h 4la 4 * dzih 14 la *Low, CVh
125. CLAY GRIDDLE *ty lla *Low *CVh L 22 ilia; Tex 32 rily; Co 13 ttil; Ch 3 dy yi; CA 13 il; Lox 13 zyel; Cho 22 ila
hierba * gi 4 i * gih 4 i 4 * gih 14 i 7
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ 2011 Revision
miel * dzi 4na * dzih 4na 4 * dzi 14 na (VA) *Low, CVh
7. HONEY * na *Low *CVh Ay 12 in; L 11 iña; Tex 32(P) in; SJ 4 dzin; Ch 3 dy n; T in; CA 3 mi in (hard accent); Am 2 m in (same tone as “arrive”); Lox 2 mzin; Is 3 iña; Cho 2 b ing; Mitla 3 dz hn
mundo (* ge:dze ) La 4wu yu (* ge: 4dze 4 )* La 1wu 4 yuh 4 (* ge: 14dze ) * la 14 wu yu 1
The following cognate sets illustrate the developments of individual *Rising tones:
PSZ 4( 4) PCZ 4 4 PNZ 41
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ
4 4 4 4 4 41 abajo 1 * a na * ah na (M), * a na (I) * a na agua * ni 4sa 4 * nih 4sa 4 * ni 41 sa frijol * sa h 4 4 (Cu), * za 4 4 (Co) *bi sa h 4 * zah 41 miel * dzi 4na * dzih 4na 4 * dzi 41 na (A) sal, duro * zeh 4de * zeh 4de 4 * ze 41 de seis * so:h 4pa, * so:h 4ba yah 41 (Cu) * o h 4pa 4 * o 41 ( o)pa
2.1.2 Tone sequences I have found the following reflexes for tone sequences in PZ with initial *H, *Rising, and *L tones. As roots with no underlying tone can be in contrast with roots with an underlying *L tone, roots with *L Rising sequences are in contrast with roots with *Ø H and *Ø Rising tone patterns. I cannot find evidence for roots with *L H sequences, and these may have merged with roots with *L Rising patterns. Note that I consider a *Falling tone in Proto Central Zapotec (PCZ) to correspond primarily to a a *High *High, *High *Rising, or *Rising *Rising sequence in PZ. This is because *Falling in PCZ nearly always has 4 1 and 4 41 reflexes in PNZ and 41( 41) reflexes in PNZ. My hypothesis is further strengthened by the tone contour simplification rule for Atepec posited by Bickmore and Broadwell (1998:59). They note that a sequence of a High and Rising tone on the same syllable becomes a High Low sequence.
Proto Zapotec Proto Southern Zapotec Proto Central Zapotec Proto Northern Zapotec (PZ) (PSZ) (PCZ) (PNZ)
*H/Rising H 4 1 4 41, 14, 4 4 41
*H Rising 4 41 14, 4 41 Ø, 4
*Rising Rising 4 41 14 4, 4 14, 14 41, 41 41
*L Rising 4 41 4 4 41 or 4
*H L 1 4 4( 4) 1, 1 4, or 14
*L H 4 1 4 4 1 (added 1/29/03)
Tone sequences involving an initial null (Ø) or *Falling tone are tentative at best, since data is limited to one cognate set each for the following reconstructions. Recall that what could be reconstructed as a *Falling Falling sequence, I chose to reconstruct as an *L L sequence, though there is no clear contrast between *L *L and *Falling *Falling sequences:
8
Proto Zapotec Proto Southern Zapotec Proto Central Zapotec Proto Northern Zapotec (PZ) (PSZ) (PCZ) (PNZ)
*Ø H 4 1 4 1 Ø 1
*Ø Rising 4 41 4 41 Ø 1
*Falling H 1 14 1
*Falling L 4 1 14 14 4
Cognate sets illustrating reconstructions of tone sequences
The following cognate sets illustrate the developments of a *H/Rising H sequence:
PSZ 4 1 PCZ (1)4 4(1) PNZ 41
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ
pedir * Na h 4ba 1 * Na 4ba 41 * Na 41 ba flor * ge h 4 1 * gi 14 RV * ge( ) 41 RV moco, pus * gu h 4dzi 1 * gu h 14 dzi * gu( u) 41 dzi barrer * Loh 4pa 1 (Cu) * Lo h 4ba 4 * Loh 41 ba * Lo h 4ba 1 (Co) chile * gi h 4na 1 * gi h 4na 4 * gi (i) 41 na dormir * ya 4si 1 * gah 4si 4 (M), * rah 4si 4 (I) * tah 1si 4, * tah 41 si palabra * di h 4dza 1 * di hdza * di( i) 41 dza
The following cognate sets illustrate the developments of a *High Rising sequence:
PSZ 4 41 PCZ 4 41 or 14 4 PNZ 4/Ø
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ
abrir * a 4la 41 * a 4la 41 * sah 4la ardilla * i 4sa 41 (Cu), * ri 4sa 41 (Co) * riza gallina * gi: 4di 41 * gihdi (A), * gehdi Re 4 41 4 humo 2 * dzeh ni * dzeh ni quince * ¢i h 4n yah 41 * ¢i h 14 nu 4 * ¢i nu
The following cognate sets illustrate the developments of a *Rising Rising sequence:
PSZ 4 41 PCZ (1)4 (1)4 PNZ 41
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ
cinco * ga hy 4 yah 41 * ga h 14 yu 4 * ga 41 yu león, tigre * be: h 4dzi 41 * be h 14 dzi 4 * be( e) 41 dzi dientes * laya (Cu), *la 4ya 41 (Co) *Lah 4ya 14 *Lah 41 ya buey * go 4Na 41 * go h 41 na 41 rayo * zi 4yu 41 * zi 41 yu 9 señor * u wa h 4na 41 * a 41 na
The following cognate sets illustrate the developments of a *H L sequence:
PSZ 1 4 PCZ 4 PNZ 1, 1 4, or 14
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ
elote * ze: 1 4 * ze h 4 * za 1a4 fuego * gi: 1 4 * gi:h 4 * gi h 1 olla * ge 1su 4 * geh 4su 4 * ge 1su piedra * ge 1 4 RV * gih 4 RV * geh 1 RV pescado * be 1La 4 * beh 4La 4 pueblo * ge: 1dze 4 * ge:h 4dze 4 * ge:h 14 dze espiga * da 1wu 4 * dah 4wu 4 * dah 14 wu
The following cognate sets illustrate the developments of a *L Rising sequence:
PSZ 4 41 PCZ 4 4 PNZ 41 or 4
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ bañar * gah 4zV 41 * rah 4zV 4 (M), * gah 4ze 4 (I) * gah 41 zV jugar * gih 4tV 41 * gih 4tV 4 RV * gi 41 tV RV 4 41 4 41 4 4 4 casa 1 * lih dzi (Cu), * lih i (Co) * lih dzi * lih dzi
*Added 1/29/03: The following cognate sets illustrate the developments of a *L H sequence:
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ lleno * dza: h 4 1 *dzah 4 * ¢a h 1 nuevo * kuh 4bi 1 *na ku 4bi 4 (M), * ku 1bi * ku 41 bi 4 (I) masa * koh 4pa 1 (Cu), * koh 4ba 4 * koh 1ba( 1) * koh 4ba 1 (Co)
The following cognate set illustrates the developments of a *Ø H sequence:
PCZ 4 1 PCZ 4 1 PZN Ø 1
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ
metate * giih 4¢i 1 or giih 4¢i 41 *gih 4¢i 1 (M), * gi h 4¢i 1 (I) * gi (h)(i)¢i 1
The following cognate set illustrates the developments of a *Ø Rising sequence:
PCZ 4 41 PCZ 4 41 PNZ Ø 1
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ
maíz * dzo 4pa 41 (Co), * dzo 4ba 41 (Cu) * o 4ba 41 * ohba 1 10
The following cognate set illustrates the developments of a *Falling High sequence:
PSZ 1 PCZ 14 1
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ
luna *be h 1 (Cu, Co) * be h 14 wu 1
The following cognate set illustrates the developments of a *Falling Low sequence:
PSZ 4 1 PCZ 14 PNZ 14 4
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ
negro * gah 4sa 1 * ya 14 sa RV * ya h 14 sa 4 RV (A), * gah 14 sa 4 (VA)
2.2 High-intensity syllables One of the primary hypotheses underlying this as well as the preceding three sub reconstructions, has been that PZ had a contrast in syllable type which I have labeled “high intensity/low intensity”. 5 Another label could be
5 Some modern Zapotec varieties still manifest what appears to be an intensity contrast in syllable types. For example, Coatecas Altas (in the southern district of Ejutla) has a number of either minimal pairs or near minimal pairs which can be analyzed as reflecting a high intensity/low intensity syllable contrast. Note that I mark high intensity syllables with an accent over the vowel. Low tone is indicated by the raised number 4, High tone by 1 and Falling tone by 14 :
mb z 4 ‘flying insect’ yó 1 ‘bird nest’ mbëz 4 ‘fox yo 1 ‘will enter’ (Potential aspect)
lá 4 ‘country, home town’ gá 14 ‘will get wet’ (Potential aspect) la 4 ‘seed for planting’ ga 14 ‘seven’
High intensity syllables in Coatecas Altas Zapotec are characterized by higher frequency allotones (often 15 Hz or higher), greater loudness (which fades relatively rapidly), and relatively short vowels. Low intensity syllables are characterized by lower frequency allotones, lower accoustic energy which fades more slowly, and longer vowels.
A similar kind of contrast in syllable type may occur in Yalálag, in the northern district of Villa Alta. On pp. 13 14 of his phonology sketch of Yalálag Zapotec, Ron Newberg mentions five contrasting tones: High (1), High falling (13), Mid (2), Mid falling (23) and Low (3). High has a high level pitch, with a high rising allotone on words ending in /n/. High falling tone falls from high to low, and has a slight upglide before a pause. Mid tone has a phonetically low level pitch before a pause, and elsewhere it has a mid pitch. Mid falling falls from mid to low, though the down glide is reduced on words ending in /n/. Low tone has an up glide rising pitch which rises to mid before a pause, though in bisyllabic words it is realized as a High tone on the second syllable. On page 12, Newberg notes that hard glottalization only occurs on Mid or Mid falling tone, while light laryngealization occurs with High, High falling and Low tone.
The following chart can be constructed, describing the five contrastive tones in Yalálag as well as the two kinds of phonetic laryngealization in terms of high and low intensity syllables. Note that only three phonemic tones (High, 11
“ballistic/controlled”, and would better fit the way other Oto Manguean languages have been analyzed (i.e., Chinantec and Amuzgo). Until now, no Zapotecan language (Zapotec and Chatino) has been analyzed as having anything like a “high intensity/low intensity” syllable contrast. For at least the three sub reconstructions, I have not found any other plausible phonological environment to explain the tone changes I have encountered.
For the remainder of this sub section, I provide an explanation of the developments of high intensity syllables in Proto Southern, Proto Central, and Proto Northern Zapotec.
2.2.1 Monosyllabic roots I have found the following regular correspondences for high intensity syllables in unlaryngealized, monosyllabic roots. I can confidently reconstruct a high intensity syllable for Proto Zapotec when all three branches are in agreement, though it is likely that a high intensity syllable was present if two out of three branches are in agreement. It is possible that a *H L sequence (1 4) conditioned the loss of syllable intensity in Proto Southern Zapotec, and that a *Falling tone conditioned this loss in both Proto Southern and Proto Northern Zapotec:
*CVh PSZ PCZ PNZ Reconstructed tones
*Vh *Vh *Vh 41 14, 4 1 *V *Vh *Vh 1 4 *V( ) *Vh *V 14
The following examples illustrate these developments:
PSZ PCZ PNZ
*Vh *Vh *Vh nombre * le:h 41 4 * lah 4 * lah 14 *la:h 41 14 (M, I, A, VA) *le:h 41 14 (Cu, Co) con * noh 4 41 * neh 4 1 na (A), na (VA) * na( h) (A, VA) * neh 4 1 (M, I) * noh 4 1 (Cu, Co)
*V *Vh *Vh camote * go: 4 * go:h 4 *go:h 1/41 *go:h 1/41 4 grasa * ze: 4 * zah 4 * zah 1 *zah 1 4 (A,VA,M,I)
Low and Rising) are needed for this interpretation of tone and laryngealization for Yalálag Zapotec. Note also that the contrast between High and Rising tone is lost on high intensity syllables:
High intensity syllables Low intensity syllables
High [mid, level pitch; hard] [high, level/ rising pitch,] [checking ] [weak laryngealization ] Low [mid falling pitch; hard] [rising, then high falling ] [checking ] [pitch; light laryngealization] Rising [mid, level pitch; hard] [low rising pitch; light] [checking ] [laryngealization ] 12
*za:h 1 4 (Cu,Co) pueblo * ge: 1dze 4 * ge:h 4dze 4 * ge:h 14 dze * ge:h 1 4dze piedra * ge 1 4 RV * gih 4 RV * geh 1 RV * geh 1 RV 4 (A,VA,Co) * gih 1 RV 4 (M,I)
*V *Vh *V mundo (* ge:dze (* ge: 4dze 4 (* ge: 14 dze La 4wu) yu * La 1wu 4) yuh 4 la 14 wu) * yu 14 (* ge 14 dze La 14 wu) * yu 14 parado *zo: 4 *zuh 4 (*zo 14 ) * zo:(h) 14
For laryngealized monosyllabic roots, *Falling (14) and a *H L (1 4) sequence again appear to have conditioned the loss of high intensity syllables in Proto Southern and Proto Northern Zapotec, though this conditioning is sporadic. Beyond this broad generalization, the relationship between syllable intensity and tone in laryngealized monosyllabic roots is much more complex, and I make no further attempt at guessing what this relationship was. As before, when all three branches of Zapotec have high intensity syllables, a high intensity syllable in conjuction with laryngealization is quite likely, while a high intensity syllable when two branches are in agreement is probable.
*CV h PSZ PCZ PNZ Reconstructed tones
*V h *V h *V h 1, 3, 4, 1 4 *V h *V h *Vh 41, 1/41 1 *V h *Vh *V h 4 1, 1 4 *V h *V *V 1/41 1 *V: *V h *V hV 1 4, 4 1 *V: *Vh *V h 1 4 *V *V h *V hV 14
The following examples illustrate these developments:
PSZ PCZ PNZ
*V h *V h *V h cántaro *re: h 4 * re h 4 * re h 1e4 *re: h 1 4 cuerda * do: h 1 * do h * do h 41 * do: h 3 nariz * i:h 4 * i h 4 * ih( i) 4na * i h 4na 4 4 1 4 romper 1 * Le h * La h * La ha * La h (A,VA,M,I) * Le h 4 (Cu,Co)
*V h *V h *Vh diez * ¢i h 4 ( ya 4/1 ) * ¢i h 14 * ¢ih 41 * ¢i h 1/41 1 (M,I,Cu) * ¢i 41 (A,VA) frijol * sa h 4 4 (Cu), *bi sa h 4 * zah 41 * zah 41 (A, VA) * za 4 4 (Co) *(bi ) sa h 41 (M, Cu) * za h 41 (Co)
*V h *Vh *V h lleno * dza: h 4 1 *dzah 4 * ¢a h 1 * dza: h 4 1 (Cu,Co) 13
* dza:h 1 4 (M,I) * ¢a: h 1 4 (A,VA) cena * ¢e h 4 1 *¢eh 4 1 (M), e 1 (VA) *¢e h 4 1 (VA,Cu,Co) * eh 4 1 (I) *¢eh 4 1 (M) * eh 4 1 (I)
*V h *V *V flor * ge h 4 1 * gi 14 RV * ge( ) 41 RV * ge( ) 1 RV 1, * ge( ) 41 RV 1 mano * ya h 4 * na 14 1 * na 1 * na 1 4/14 1 (A,VA,M,I), * ya (Cu,Co)
*V: *V h *V hV elote * ze: 1 4 * ze h 4 * za h 1a4 * za h 1 4 (A, VA) tú (sg.) *lu: 4 4 * lu 4, *li h 4 (pron.) * lu h 4 1 * lu: 4 1 (A,M,I,Cu), * lo: 4 1 (I,Cu), * li 4 1 (pron.)
*V: *Vh *V h fuego * gi: 1 4 * gi:h 4 * gi h 1 * gi:h 1 4 (M, Cu, Co) * gi: h 1 4 (A, VA)
*V: *V h *V hV petate * da: 4 4 * da h 4 * da ha 14 * da (h) 14
2.2.2 Bisyllabic roots Bisyllabic roots represent a more complex environment for describing syllable type and tone. Because laryngealized bisyllabic roots with high intensity syllables are more numerous, I have done some statistics in describing the relationships between syllable type and tone for unlaryngealized, bisyllabic roots with likely or possible penultimate high intensity syllables. As on monosyllabic roots, *Falling (14) and a *H L sequence (1 4) may have conditioned a loss in syllable intensity in Proto Southern and Proto Northern Zapotec. More significantly, a *High–High, *Rising High, or especially a *High Rising sequence may have conditioned a gain in syllable intensity in all three sub areas:
*CVhCV
PSZ PCZ PNZ Reconstructed tones: 1 4 14 41 1 4 1/41 1 1 41 41 1 4 41 1
*Vh *Vh *Vh 2 3 4 8 *Vh *Vh *V 1 1 1 *V/Vh *Vh *V 1 1 *Vh *V *Vh 1 1 *V *Vh *Vh 1 4 1 *V *Vh *V 4 1 1 2 2
The following examples illustrate these developments:
14
PSZ PCZ PNZ
*Vh *Vh *Vh cabeza * gih 4k RV * geh 4kV 4 * gih 1kV RV 4 * gih 1k RV 4 * gih 1kV RV 4 (M, I) arena * yu: 4 i * yu:h 4 i 4 * yu:h 14 i * yu:h 14 i bañar * gah 4zV 41 * rah 4zV 4 (M), * gah 41 zV * gah 1zV 41 (Cu,Co,M,I) * gah 4ze 4 (I) * gah 1/41 zV 1 (A,VA)
4 41 4 4 4 1 41 casa 1 * lih dzi (Cu), * lih dzi * lihdzi * lih dzi (A,VA,M,I,Cu) * lih 4 i 41 (Co) * lih 1 i 41 (Co)
4 1 4 4 1/41 1 despertarse 2 * bah ni * bah ni * bahni * bah ni (M, I), 1 41 (despertarse 1) * bah ni (A,VA) * bah 1ni 41 (Cu, Co) dos * oh 4pa 1 ( yah 41 ) * o h 4pa 1 (M), * oh 4pa * oh 1/41 pa 1 (Cu,Co,M,I) * oh 4pa 1 (I) * oh 1pa 41 (A,VA) nacer * ga:h 4la 1 RV * ga:h 4la 1 RV * gah 4la RV * ga:h 1/41 la 1 RV (Cu,Co,M,I) * ga:h 1la 41 RV (A,VA) red * geh 4 a 41 * geh 4 a 4 Ru * geh 1 a Ru * geh 1 a 41 Ru (Cu,Co,M,I) * geh 1 a 4 Ru (A,VA) siete * gaah 4dzi ( yah 41 ) * gah 4dzi 1 * ga(h) 4dzi 1 * gah 4dzi 1, * gah 4ti 1
*V/Vh *Vh *V pagar * gi 1 a (Cu), * gih 4 a 4 * di 41 a * ki 1 a (A,Co) * kih 1 a (Co) * gi 1 a (VA,M,I,Cu), * di 1 a (A,VA,I)
*Vh *Vh *V cuello * yehN 4 4 * yeh 4ni 4 * ya 14 ni (A), * ya 14 ni (A) * ye 14 ni (VA) * ye 14 ni (VA) * yehN 14 (M, Cu, Co) fibra (de ixtle) * ge:h 4dze * ge:h 4dze 1 * ge:dze * ge:h 4dze jugar * gih 4tV 41 * gih 4tV 4 RV * gi 41 tV RV * gih 1/41 t RV 1
*Vh *V *Vh tres * ¢oh 41 na ya 1 * ¢o 14 Na 1 * ¢o(h) 4Na 1 * ¢o(h) 41 Na 1 4(Cu,Co,M,I,A,VA), or * ¢o(h) 4Na 41 * ¢o(h) 41 Na 1 (A,VA)
*V *Vh *Vh
15 espiga * da 1wu 4 * dah 4wu 4 * dah 14 wu * dah 1wu 4 estrella * be 1la * beh 4la 4 * beh 1la 4 Ru (A), * be(h) 1la4 Ru (A,M,I,Cu,Co) * beh 1La 4 Ru (VA) * be(h) 1La 4 Ru (VA) aguacate * ye 4 u (Cu), * yeh 4 u 4 * yeh u * yeh u * ne 4 u (Co)
comal * dzi: 4la (Cu), * dzi:h 4la 4 * dzih 14 la * dzi:(h) 14 la * i 4la (Co)
dormir * ya 4si 1 * gah 4si 4 (M), * tah 1si 4, * rah 1/41 si 1 (I) * rah 4si 4 (I) * tah 41 si * tah 1/41 si 1 (A, VA) * yah 1/41 si 1 (M, Cu, Co) pueblo * ge: 1dze 4 * ge:h 4dze 4 * ge:h 14 dze * ge:(h) 1dze 4
*V *Vh *V agua * ni 4sa 4 * nih 4sa 4 * ni 41 sa * ni 41 sa
árbol * ya: 4 1 * yah 4ga 4 * ya 4ga * ya 1/41 ga 1 * ya 1ga 41 camino * ne 4za * neh 4za 4 * ne 14 za * ne 14 za
cara * lawu 4 (Cu), * loh 4 * la 14 wu * la 14 wu * rawu 4 (Co) * ra 14 wu cuatro * ta 4pa 4 (Cu), * tah 4pa 4 * tapa * tapa ( yah 41 ) * ta 4pa 4 yah 41 (Co) mazorca * ni: 41 za 4 (Cu), * ni:h 4za 4 * geza * ni:za (M,I,Cu), * ni 41 sa 4 (Co) * nisa (Co), * geza (A,VA) palma * gi 4na * zih 4na 4 * zi 14 na 4 * zi 14 na (A,VA,M,I), * gina (Cu,Co) rata (*bi zi 4na) (* bi 4zih 4na 1) (*bi zina ) * wa 1ga 4 wa 4ga * wah 4ga 4 wa 1ga 4 seco * bi 4dzi 1 (Cu), * bih 4dzi 4 * bidzi * bi 1/41 dzi 1 (A,VA,M,I,Cu) * bi 4 i 1 (Co) * bi 1 i 41 (Co)
For laryngealized bisyllabic roots with likely or possible high intensity syllables, tone reconstruction is more complex. With roots of the shape * CV hCV, there seems to be a weak correllation with no underlying tone (Ø), *L, and *Rising. Roots of the shape * CVhCV , most often have no underlying tone or a *L *L sequence, while roots of the shape * CV hCV most often have a *High High or *High Rising tone sequence:
16
Note that in the sets of correspondences for bisyllabic roots of the shape * CV hCV, *CVhCV , and *CV hCV , the same cognate set may illustrate more than one type of root. For example, the cognate set for sei s has reconstructed roots of the shape * CV(h)CV and * CV (h)CV: seis * o:h 4pa, * o h 4pa 4 * o 41 ( o)pa * o (h) 41 pa (M,I), * o:h 4ba yah 41 (Cu) * o(h) 41 pa (A,VA,Cu,Co)
Likewise, the cognate set for l la nu ra has reconstructed roots that are of the shape * CVhCV and * CV hCV : llanura * la 4¢i (Cu), * lah 4¢i 4 (M), * la( )¢i * la(h)¢i (A,VA,I,Cu), * la 4 i (Co) * la 4¢i 4 (I) * la(h)¢i (M) * la (h)¢i (Co)
In other cases, a cognate set can have reconstructed roots which reconstruct as almost the full gamut of both unlaryngealized and laryngealized types of roots. For example, ped ir has roots which reconstruct as the types * CVCV, * CVhCV, *CVhCV and * CV hCV : pedir * Na h 4ba 1 (Cu) * Na 4ba 41 * Na 41 ba * Na 1/41 ba 1 (A,VA) * Nah 4ba 1 (Cu,Co) * Nah 1/41 ba 1 (Cu,Co) * Na 1/41 ba 1 (M,I) * Na h 1/41 ba 1 (Cu)
The following chart reflects the different types of laryngealized roots with high intensity syllables and the reconstructed tones which occur with each type of root. The same cognate set may have reconstructed roots which fit more than one category of laryngealized root:
*CV hCV PSZ PCZ PNZ Reconstructed tones: 1 4 Ø 14 41 1 4 1/41 1 1 41 41 1 4 41 1 Ø 1/41 *V( )h *V( )h *V( )h 2 1 1 *V( )h *V( ) *V( )h/*V 1 *V( ) *V( )h *V( )h 2 2 1 1 *V( ) *V( )h *V( ) 1 1 1 *V h *V *V 1 *Vh *V *V 1
*CVhCV PSZ PCZ PNZ Reconstructed tones: 1 4 Ø 14 41 1 4 1/41 1 1 41 41 1 4 41 1 41 41 *V( )h *V( )h *V( ) 4 1 2 1 *V( ) *V( )h *V( )h 2 1 2 *V h *V *V 1
*CV hCV PSZ PCZ PNZ Reconstructed tones: 1 4 Ø 14 41 1 4 1/41 1 1 41 41 1 4 41 1 14 14 4/Ø 41 *V( )h *V( )h *V( ) 1 4 1 2 *V( ) *V( )h *V( )h 1 2 *V h *V *V 1
17
The following examples illustrate these developments:
PSZ PCZ PNZ PZ
*V( )h *V( )h *V( )h barrer * Loh 4pa 1(Cu) * Lo h 4ba 4 * Loh 41 ba * Loh 1/41 ba 1 (A,VA,Co) * Lo h 4ba 1(Co) * Lo h 1/41 ba 1 (M,I) * Loh 1/41 pa 1 (Cu) cal * gi h 41 yu * gi h 4yu 41 * gi (h) 1yu 4 * gi h 41 yu (41)
masa * koh 4pa 1 (Cu), * koh 4ba 4 * koh 1ba( 1) *koh 1/41 ba 1 (M,I) * koh 4ba 1 (Co) *koh 1ba 4 (A,VA) *ko h 1/41 ba 1 (Co) *koh 1/41 pa 1 (Cu) metate * gi:h 4¢i 1 or gi:h 4¢i 41 *gih 4¢i 1 (M), * gi (h)(i)¢i 1 * gi: h i 1/41 (A,VA,I) * gi h 4¢i 1 (I) * gi:h i 1/41 (M,Cu,Co)
*V( )h *V( )h *V( ) león, tigre * be: h 4dzi 41 * be h 14 dzi 4 * be( e) 41 dzi * be (h) 1/41 dzi 1/41
1 41 1 noche 2 * ge h la (Cu), * ge hla * ge( e) la * ge (h) la, * re h 1la (Co) * re (he) 1la olote * ya h 1na * ya hna * ya( a) 41 na * ya (h) 1na seis * so:h 4pa, * o h 4pa 4 * o 41 ( o)pa * o (h) 41 pa (M,I), * so:h 4ba yah41 (Cu) * o(h) 41 pa (A,VA,Cu,Co) húmedo * goh 4pa 41 * goh 4pa 4 * go 1pa 4 * go 1pa 4 (A,VA), * goh 1/41 pa 41 (M,I,Cu,Co) mascar * gah 1sa (Cu), * gah 4sa 4 (M), * rasa * ra(h)sa (A,VA), * goh 1sa (Co) * ra 4sa 4 (I) * ra (h)sa (I) * ga(h) 1sa (M,Cu), * go(h) 1sa (Co) olla * ge 1su 4 * geh 4su 4 * ge 1su * ge 1su 4 sal, duro * zeh 4de * zeh 4de 4 * zede 41 * ze(h) 41 de cinco * ga hy 4 yah 41 * ga h 14 yu 4 * ga yu 41 * ga (h)yu 41 * ga hy 4 yah 41 (Cu, Co) chile * gi h 4na 1 * gi h 4na 4 * gi (i) 41 na * gi (h) 1/41 a 1 * gi (h) 41 na 1 llanura * la 4¢i (Cu), * lah 4¢i 4 (M), * la( )¢i * la(h)¢i (A,VA,I,Cu), 18
* la 4 i (Co) * la 4¢i 4 (I) * la(h)¢i (M) * la (h)¢i (Co) moco, pus * gu h 4dzi 1 * gu h 14 dzi 4 * gu( u)dzi 41 * gu (h) 1/41 dzi 1 palabra * di h 4dza 1 * di hdza * di( i)dza 41 * di (h) 1/41 dza 1 quince * ¢i h 4n yah 41 * ¢i h 14 nu 4 * ¢i nu * ¢i (h) 1 nu 41 (Cu,Co,M,I)
* ¢ih nu (A,VA)
*V h *V *V abeja * be h 4zu 4 * be 4zu 4 * be 14 zu * be 14 zu (A,VA,M,I) * be h 14 zu (Cu,Co) pedir * Na h 4ba 1 (Cu) * Na 4ba 41 * Na 41 ba * Na 1/41 ba 1 (A,VA) * Nah 4ba 1 (Cu,Co) * Nah 1/41 ba 1 (Cu,Co) * Na 1/41 ba 1 (M,I) * Na h 1/41 ba 1 (Cu)
*Vh *V *V nuevo * kuh 4bi 1 *na ku 4bi 4 (M), * ku 1bi * ku 1/41 bi 1 (Cu,Co,I) * ku 41 bi 4 (I) * ku 1bi 4 (A,VA) * ku bi (M)
*Vh *V *V h/*V negro * gah 4sa 1 * ya 14 sa 4 RV * ya h 14 sa 4 RV (A), * ya h 14 sa 4 RV (A,M,I) * gah 14 sa 4 (VA) * ga 14 sa 4 RV (VA,M,Cu,Co)
*V( ) *V( )h *V( )h bendecir * Le 4ya * Le h 4ya 4 * La hya * Le (h)ya, * La (h)ya (A,VA) hollín * la 4na 1 (Cu), * lah 4na 4 * Lahna * Lahna (A,VA) * ra 4na 1 (Co) * lahna (M,I) * La (h) 1/41 na 1 (Cu) * ra(h) 1/41 na 1 (Co) huérfano * sa 4bi (Cu), * zah 4bi 1 * zahbi * za(h) 4bi (A,VA,M,I) * za 4bi (Co) * za (h) 4bi (Co) nixtamal * Ni: 4la * Ni h 14 La 1 * Ni h 4La * Ni (h) 4La (A,VA) * Ni:1 4La (Cu,Co), * Ni h 14 la 1 (M,I) dientes * laya (Cu), *Lah 4ya 14 *Lah 41 ya *Lah 41 ya (A,VA) *la 4ya 41 (Co) *Lah 41 ya 41 (M,I) *Laya (Cu) 19
*la(h) 41 ya 41 (Co) gente * be 1Ne * beh 4Ne 1 * behNe 1 * be(h)Ne 1 (A,VA,M,I) * be 1Ne (Cu,Co) lengua * lu: 4dze 1 * lu:h 4dze 4 * lu:hdze * lu:hdze (A,VA,M,I) * lu: 1/41 dze 1 (Cu,Co) bosque * gi 4 i 4 * gi h 4 i 4 * gi (h) 14 i 14 * gi (h) 4 i 4, * gi (h) 14 i 14 carne * be 41 la * be h 4la 1 * be (h) 41 la 1 * be (h) 41 la 1 *V( ) *V( ) *V( )h abrir * a 4la 41 * a 4la 41 * sah 4la * sa 1la 41 maíz * dzo 4pa 41 (Co), * o 4ba 41 * ohba 1 * ohba 1 (A,VA) * dzo 4ba 41 (Cu) * oba 41 (M,I) * dzoba 41 (Cu) * dzopa 41 (Co)
*V( ) *V( )h *V( )
4 4 4 41 41 abajo 1 * a na * ah na (M), * a na * a na (A,VA,I,Cu,Co) * a 4na 4 (I) * ah 41 na (M) agujero * ge 4ru * gih 4de 1 (M), * ge( e) 41 ru * ge (h) 4ru 1 , *gi h 4de 1 (I) * ge (h) 4ru 41 culebra * be 4La 41 * be hLa * be 41 La * be (h) 41 La 41
lejos * zi 4tu (Co), * zih 4tu 4 * zi( ) 1tu * zi 4tu 4 (M,I,Cu), * si 4tu (Cu) * zi 1 tu 4 (A,VA)
2.3 Vowel length
On the basis of the vowel length contrast in Cuixtla and Coatlán (from which I reconstruct the tone system of Proto Southern Zapotec or PSZ), Fernández de Miranda reconstructs vowel length for Proto Zapotec (PZ). While long vowels in PSZ occur most frequently on high intensity syllables with with either an individual *Low tone or a final *Low tone in a sequence, they are not limited to these combinations. For example, vowel length in the Coatlán cognates for PSZ can occur with all six tones, and the distribution of vowel length in in PSZ and PZ was probably similar:
S.M. Coatlán occurrences occurrences percentage Likely PSZ tone and tone of long vowels syllable type
4 21 1 5% *High, *CV 1 50 4 8% “ *CVh
14 59 11 19% *Low, *CV 34 28 14 50% “ *CVh
41 21 3 14% *Rising, *CV 20
3 34 1 3% “ *CVh
Because vowel length in PSZ (and hence also in PZ) is apparently a phonologically independent feature, I agree with Fernández de Miranda that vowel length was a contrastive feature in PZ. For the remainder of this section, I present evidence that vowel length in PZ was not limited to roots with *Low tone (either as a single tone or the final tone in a sequence) on high intensity syllables. The first set of examples below illustrate vowel length on high intensity syllables in roots with *High tone and a *Low High tone sequence in PZ:
*CV:( )h
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ PZ cuer d a * do: h 1 * do h * do h 41 * do: h 3 l l eno * dza: h 4 1 *dzah 4 * ¢a h 1
*CV:( )hC(V)
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ PZ cha yot e * ya: 1pV (Cu) * yah 4pV 4 * ya:h 1pV RV * ya:h 1pV (Tex, Co) meta t e * gi:h 4¢i 1 or gi:h 4¢i 41 *gih 4¢i 1 (M), * gi (h)(i)¢i 1 * gi h 4¢i 1 (I) na ce r * ga:h 4la 1 RV * ga:h 4la 1 RV * gah 4la RV pi ñ a * i: h 4dzV 1
The second set of examples illustrates vowel length on low intensity syllables in PZ. Note the following: (1) all but one of the following examples are roots that were probably bisyllabic in PZ, (2) long vowels on low intensity syllables in PSZ often correspond to high intensity syllables in PCZ and PNZ, and (3) in the PSZ cognates below with tone sequences, most of the final tones are *High or *Rising:
*Low tone
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ PZ reí r * ri 4d i (Tex) * ih 4zi 1 * i(h) 4zi 1 * i: 4¢i (Cu) or * i(h) 4zi 41 * i 4zi (Co)
Final *Low tone in a sequence:
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ PZ pueb l o * ge: 1dze 4 * ge:h 4dze 4 * ge:h 14 dze
Other tone combinations:
Gloss PSZ PCZ PNZ PZ ga l l i n a * gi: 4di 41 * gihdi (A), 21
* gehdi Re ma zo r c a * ge:za (Tex) * ni:h 4za 4 * geza * ni: 41 za 1 (Cu) * ni 41 sa 1 (Co) t or t ug a * mbe: 1 41 zopi l ot e * La u, * ku hsV (Tex) * go: 41 LV 1 (Cu, Co)
3. Appendix
Bickmore, Lee, and Aaron Broadwell. 1998. High tone docking in Sierra Juárez Zapotec. IJAL 64.1.37 63.
Fernández de Miranda, María Teresa. 1995. El Protozapoteco, ed. by Piper, Michael J., and Doris A. Bartholomew. México: El Colegio de Mexico y Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH)