Unstressed Vowel Deletion in Colonial Valley Zapotec Michael Selvaggio, Swarthmore College1 May 2021 Abstract: Many modern Central Zapotec languages have deleted unstressed vowels. I investigate the historical steps that led to this change by analyzing texts written in Colonial Valley Zapotec, a historical form of Zapotec. I examine the comparative frequency of vowels appearing in certain words throughout the texts. I find that vowels tended to delete in the forms *xiteni and *xi- and did not appear to be deleting elsewhere consistently. Furthermore, I find that epenthetic vowels were occasionally being inserted word-finally in Spanish names and loanwords. From this analysis, combined with data from Isthmus Zapotec and Chichicapam Zapotec, I argue that the first step of vowel deletion in Zapotec was deletion of unstressed vowels after alveolar fricatives and potentially nasals, and that this process of deletion had begun by 1578. This analysis builds on the claims of Uchihara (2016) and helps illustrate the phonological development of the Central Zapotec languages. 1. Introduction 2 2. Corpus & Background 6 2.1 Colonial Valley Zapotec 7 2.2 Challenges using this Corpus 8 2.3 *xi- and *xiteni 9 3. Methods 11 4. Findings 12 4.1 *xiteni in the corpus 12 4.2 Other consonant clusters 16 4.3 Vowel Epenthesis 17 5. Analysis 20 5.1 Issues with Uchihara’s analysis 20 5.2 Isthmus Zapotec 21 5.3 Chichicapam Zapotec 22 5.4 Comparing deletion in Isthmus, Chichicapam and Colonial Valley Zapotec 23 6. Conclusion 25 1 I would like to thank Professor Brook Danielle Lillehaugen for her enthusiasm and encouragement; her feedback and guidance throughout was invaluable. I also thank Emily Drummond, whose work was the initial inspiration for this project. I thank Michael Zarafonetis for assistance in retrieving the necessary data from Ticha, and my peer reviewers, Anna Thompson and Patrick Osaseri for their thoughtful comments and feedback. I also thank Shaoni C. White and Ji Su Ahn for their emotional support and willingness to hear me ramble about vowels. 1. Introduction Many modern Zapotec languages have undergone a process of unstressed vowel deletion. Unlike most indigenous languages of the Americas, we are not restricted to only historical reconstruction to analyze the historical steps by which this process took place. There exists a rich corpus of texts dating back to the Mexican colonial era written in a historical form of Zapotec referred to as Colonial Valley Zapotec (CVZ). Analysis of these texts indicates that the process of unstressed vowel deletion had begun to occur by 1578. Through analyzing the comparative frequencies of vowels in certain words across the corpus of texts, I find that unstressed vowels were frequently deleted following <x>, representing the post-alveolar fricative, in the forms *xi- and *xiteni. Additionally, I identify a phenomenon of epenthetic vowels occasionally being inserted word-finally in Spanish names and loan words. In some modern languages, word-final vowels have been deleted; however, this data suggests that while this first step of deletion was occurring, words were still required to end in vowels. I identify Isthmus Zapotec and Chichicapam Zapotec as examples of languages that underwent unstressed vowel deletion following alveolar fricatives and potentially also nasals word-initially and word-medially. Chichicapam Zapotec also lost vowels after nasals word-finally and the vowel following the habitual prefix *ri-, while Isthmus Zapotec did not undergo any other deletion processes. From the CVZ data and analysis of the modern forms in these two languages, I argue that the first step of vowel deletion in Zapotec was deletion of unstressed vowels after alveolar fricatives. The Zapotec languages are spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico. They are part of the Otomanguean family, which is the largest and most diverse language family in Mesoamerica (Cambell 2017). Ethnologue reports there being 57 different Zapotec languages, although the exact number is debated (Lewis et al. 2013). This paper focuses on the Central Zapotec branch of Zapotec and adopts a classification based upon Smith Stark (2007b), with slight modifications,2 which is presented in Figure 1 below. 2 Broadwell (2015) argues that the innovation of the progressive aspect marker /*ka-/ is shared by all the Central Zapotec languages, classifying both Transyautepecan and Cisyautepecan as Central languages rather than Southern languages, as Smith Stark classified them. Smith Stark’s analysis used nasal features as a means of classifying languages into sub-branches, but Beam de Azcona (2017) identifies an “Eastern Zapotec” isogloss bundle that contradicts this grouping. CentralZapotec Antequera~~----- WesternValley Mitla (other branches) ExtendedOctopec Chichicapam WesternTlacolula Valley SanPablo Guila I SanDionisio Octopec IsthmusI Juchitan Zaachila Ocotlan SanJuan Guelavfa SanLucas Quivinf Teotitlandel Valle SanJeronimo Tlacochahuaya Figure 1. Smith Stark’s classification of Central Zapotec Figure 2 shows Oaxaca’s location in Mexico and Figure 3 shows some of the pueblos of Oaxaca where the Zapotec languages that are discussed here are spoken. The academic names of these languages are often equivalent to the names of pueblos they are spoken in, as each has its own distinct variety of Zapotec. For instance, the pueblos corresponding to various languages in Figure 1 can be identified, such as Ocotlán Zapotec in Ocotlán de Morelos, and Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec in the pueblo of the same name. These languages are often not mutually intelligible, despite their proximity. 0 Houston Gulf of .......-;:··- ....... Mexico : Mexico/ ···. ..· :···.· ·i:~::(//. ........ 'i' r-..·i.... J ·:.··Me·x~of~ l _. .,r ..\ Oaxaca Guatemala Figure 2: Oaxaca’s location in Mexico, Google Maps Villa de Etla Municipality Cerro Yatin J:§3 Cuajimoloyas Oaxaca ;--- Santa Maria JO del Tule Teotitlan epec Santa Cruz del Valle Xoxocotlan San Bartolo Tlacolula de Coyotepec Matamoros San Pablo Villa de Mitla Zimatlan Santiago de Alvarez Matatlan San Pablo Huixtepec San Dionisio El Carrizal Ocotlan de Ocotepec Morelos (§3 Yaxe Magdalena Ayoquezco San Jose del de Aldama Progreso San Figure 3. Various pueblos in the Valleys of Oaxaca, Google Maps Proto-Zapotec has been reconstructed to have had CV and CVCV roots, and CV affixes and clitics (Férnandaz de Miranda 1995). Many Western Valley Zapotec languages have undergone some form of unstressed vowel deletion. In Table 1 below, I present a conservative language of Zapotec that has not undergone vowel deletion, Isthmus Zapotec (also known as Juchitán Zapotec) against a more innovative language, San Lucas Quiaviní Zapotec (SLQZ), which has. In SLQZ, vowels at the end of roots, vowels in prefixes, and vowels in clitics have all undergone deletion, while they are preserved in Isthmus Zapotec. Table 1: Examples of deletion in Zapotec languages, chart from Drummond 2017 Isthmus San Lucas Quiaviní Gloss Type of deletion (Pickett et al. 2001) (Munroe et al. 2008) ‘word’ diidxa dizh root vowel ‘HAB- steal’ ri-ba’na r-ban prefix vowel ‘death’ guenda=guti gal=guty3 clitic vowel 3 SLQZ <y> is not a vowel; it is a glide. Uchihara (2016) puts forward an explanation for unstressed vowel deletion in multiple Central Zapotec languages working under the framework of Optimality Theory. Specifically, Uchihara discusses unstressed vowel deletion in the following language varieties: Isthmus Zapotec, San Baltazar Chichicapam Zapotec, Güilá Zapotec Ocotlán Zapotec, Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec, Mitla Zapotec, and San Lucas Quiaviní Zapotec. Uchihara’s description of this deletion in these languages is summarized as follows: ● Isthmus, CVZ: all vowels maintained ● Chichicapam: root final vowels after nasals deleted ● Güilá: root vowels and affixes and clitics with low tone deleted ● Ocotlán: pretonic vowels and low-tone posttonic vowels deleted ● Teotitlán, Mitla: root final vowels deleted, most TAM prefix markers preserved ● SLQZ: most unstressed vowels deleted, other than those that lead to *CCC Uchihara’s analysis is based upon comparing several modern Central Zapotec languages. We also have access to the Ticha project, which is an online corpus that contains texts written in Colonial Valley Zapotec. I use this corpus to investigate the historical steps by which unstressed vowel deletion took place in Zapotec languages and test Uchihara’s claims. In §2, I discuss the challenges of using this corpus and identify vowel deletion in *xiteni and *xi- as a step in the deletion process ideal to be investigated using the corpus. My method for conducting analysis over these texts to extract relevant information is elaborated upon in §3. I analyze the comparative frequency of whether vowels appear in particular words throughout the texts in order to determine whether there are any trends based on time, location or scribal practice that may help illustrate the steps involved in this innovation. I focus on examining deletion in the word *xiteni and epenthesis at the end of Spanish names and loanwords; my findings are presented in §4. The implications of these findings, combined with analysis of modern languages are found in §5. In §6, I present my concluding remarks. 2. Corpus & Background The Ticha project is a publicly accessible online database containing over 200 printed texts and manuscripts from Mexico’s colonial period (https://ticha.haverford.edu/, Lillehaugen et al. 2016). 119 of these texts are written in Colonial Valley Zapotec, a historical form of Zapotec attested