Language and Culture Archives Bartholomew Collection of Unpublished Materials SIL International - Mexico Branch © SIL International NOTICE This document is part of the archive of unpublished language data created by members of the Mexico Branch of SIL International. While it does not meet SIL standards for publication, it is shared “as is” under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- sa/4.0/) to make the content available to the language community and to researchers. SIL International claims copyright to the analysis and presentation of the data contained in this document, but not to the authorship of the original vernacular language content. AVISO Este documento forma parte del archivo de datos lingüísticos inéditos creados por miembros de la filial de SIL International en México. Aunque no cumple con las normas de publicación de SIL, se presenta aquí tal cual de acuerdo con la licencia "Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual" (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- sa/4.0/) para que esté accesible a la comunidad y a los investigadores. Los derechos reservados por SIL International abarcan el análisis y la presentación de los datos incluidos en este documento, pero no abarcan los derechos de autor del contenido original en la lengua indígena. 1 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 (*VЕV and *VЕ) 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 (*VЕ) 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: *VЕ. 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 (VЕV) are rare in Mitla. 6 I consider that apparent contrasts between laryngealized vowels (VޕV) and those with a hard glottal stop (VЕ) 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 4leЕ 1 *-᭯a 41 la(Е) *᭯alaЕ-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, *VЕh indicates reconstructed high-intensity syllables with laryngealization, while *Vh indicates reconstructed high-intensity syllables without laryngealization. Reconstructed low- intensity syllables (*VЕ 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 (VЕV), while Isthmus reflexes of laryngealized vowels on low- intensity syllables always have a single vowel with a weaker glottal stop in the coda position (VЕ). 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 (VЕ). 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 (VޕV), 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.