Copyright by Amador Teodocio Olivares 2009 Betaza Zapotec Phonology: Segmental and Suprasegmental Features by Amador Teodocio Olivares, B.A.; M.A. Report Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin August 2009 Betaza Zapotec Phonology: Segmental and Suprasegmental Features Approved by Supervising Committee: Megan Crowhurst Nora England Dedication To my parents, who encouraged me to speak Zapotec. To my wife, my daughter and my son for their support. Acknowledgements My thanks go to my readers, Megan Crowhurst and Nora England, for their suggestions and support. Their expertise has improved my research. I would also like to thank to Anthony C. Woodbury and Patience L. Epps for their support. A special thanks to Eric Campbell and Justin McIntosh, my cohorts in the Linguistics Department at the University of Texas at Austin, all of whom supported me and have helped me tremendously to make this report possible. Lastly, I extend special thanks to my IFP sponsor Blanca Ceballos, and my friend Afra Al-Mussawir for their assistance. Any errors in this document are my own. August 2009 v Abstract Betaza Zapotec Phonology: Segmental and Suprasegmental Features Amador Teodocio Olivares, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2009 Supervisor: Megan Crowhurst This report analyzes the phonology of Betaza Zapotec, a language within the linguistic family of the Otomanguean languages of Mesoamerica that is spoken in northern Oaxaca, Mexico. The first part of this report describes the consonants of the language; the second part focuses on the vowel system; and the third section describes the suprasegmentals; tone and stress. I support my claims about the phonological system in Betaza Zapotec using data collected during the Summer of 2008 in San Melchor, Betaza Villa Alta, Oaxaca. I analyze the phonetic properties of the consonants, vowels and tones using spectrograms obtained through Praat, software for phonetic analysis. I consider the fortis/lenis opposition inherent in the consonants rather than using the traditional classification of voiced/voiceless consonants. The tone system in Betaza Zapotec involves four contrastive tones: high, low, falling, and rising. In addition there is a phonetic mid-tone which is a toneme of the high tone. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements..................................................................................................v Abstract.................................................................................................................. vi Table of Contents.................................................................................................. vii List of Figures..........................................................................................................x Chapter 1: Introduction...........................................................................................1 1.1. Language background............................................................................6 1.2. Typological characterization of Betaza Zapotec....................................6 1.3. Previous linguistic research ...................................................................8 Chapter 2: Introduction to Betaza Zapotec phonology.........................................10 2.1. Orthography .........................................................................................10 2.1.1. The phonemic inventory of Betaza Zapotec ......................11 2.2. Fortis and lenis opposition...................................................................14 Chapter 3: Phonemes and their allophones...........................................................17 3.1. Plosives ................................................................................................17 3.1.1. Fortis Plosives....................................................................17 3.1.2. The glottal stop in Xhon Zapotec.......................................23 3.1.3. Lenis stops .........................................................................28 3.2. Affricates..............................................................................................41 3.2.1. Fortis affricates ..................................................................41 3.2.2. Lenis affricates...................................................................44 3.3. Fricatives..............................................................................................52 3.3.1. Fortis fricatives ..................................................................52 3.3.2. Lenis fricatives...................................................................57 3.4. Obstruents ............................................................................................64 3.4.1. Word final devoicing .........................................................65 3.4.2. Obstruent voicing neutralization........................................65 3.5. Sonorants..............................................................................................68 vii 3.5.1. Nasals.................................................................................68 3.5.2. Liquids ...............................................................................75 3.5.3. Rhotic.................................................................................79 3.5.4. Semivowels........................................................................82 Chapter 4: Vowels.................................................................................................88 4.1. Modal and non-modal vowels..............................................................88 4.1.1. Phonation type contrast......................................................90 4.2. Distribution of modal vowels and phonetic variations ......................92 4.3. Distribution of laryngealized vowels and phonetic variations...........106 4.4. Glottalized vowels distribution and phonetic variations....................112 Chapter 5: Vowels in morpho-phonological processes ......................................118 5.1. Vowel clusters....................................................................................118 5.2. Phonetic variance of e........................................................................122 5.3. Vowel hierarchy.................................................................................123 5.4. Vowels in loanwords..........................................................................126 Chapter 6: Syllable structure...............................................................................129 6.1. Nucleus ..............................................................................................131 6.2. Simple Onset......................................................................................132 6.3. Simple Coda.......................................................................................134 6.4. Onset consonant cluster .....................................................................135 6.4.1. Plosives in consonant clusters..........................................135 6.4.2. Affricates and fricatives in consonant clusters ................138 6.4.3. Sonorants in consonant clusters.......................................140 6.5. Consonant clusters in coda position...................................................143 Chapter 7: Tone...................................................................................................147 7.1. The tone system in Betaza Zapotec ...................................................147 7.2. Phonation types and distribution of the phonological tones ..............151 7.3. Tonal morphology..............................................................................160 7.3.1. Suffix tones in BZ............................................................161 7.3.2. Contour tone formation....................................................162 viii 7.3.3. The floating high tone and patterns of tone substitution..166 Chapter 8: Stress .................................................................................................175 8.1. Stress in native words ........................................................................175 8.2. Stress in loanwords ............................................................................180 Chapter 9: Conclusions.......................................................................................185 Appendix A: Abbreviations .................................................................................189 Appendix B: Map showing San Melchor Betaza.................................................191 Appendix C: BZ Linguistic family ......................................................................192 Appendix D: Xhon Zapotec.................................................................................193 Bibliography ........................................................................................................194 Vita .....................................................................................................................197 ix List of Figures Figure 1: Plosives release in word final position.............................................................. 27 Figure 2: Glottal stop release in word-final position ........................................................ 27 Figure 3: Spirantization of the labial plosive...................................................................