Texmelucan Zapotec


Texmelucan Zapotec is an Oto-Manguean language of the San Lorenzo Texmelucan Municipality in western Oaxaca, Mexico, El Ratón, El Suchil, Feliciano Martínez, La Calandria, Llano Verde, Llano Verde, Los Sabinos, Manantial de Agua, Naranjales, Piedra Blanca, Piedra de la Señora, Pueblo Nuevo, Rincón de Talea, Río Limar, Río Nube. It is a divergent Zapotec language, having only 10% intelligibility with its closest relative, Zaniza Zapotec. Both go by the name Papabuco.

Phonology

Texmelucan Zapotec has been analyzed with twenty-five consonants /p, b, t, d, k, ky, kw, g, gy, gw, č, ǰ, s, z, š, ž, f, m, n, ñ, ŋ, l, ly, r, h/ and five vowels /i, e, a, o, u/. Interpreted IPA values are given in square brackets. Vowels may be oral or nasal, and may be plain, laryngealized, or glottalized.
Syllables may begin with up to two consonants and closed by up to one consonant.
Texmelucan Zapotec has four phonemic tones: high, falling, mid and low. On non-modal vowels, the number of possible tones is reduced: only mid and low tones are found on laryngealized vowels and only high and low tones are found on glottalized syllables.

Semantics

The semantics of the verbs 'go', 'come' and 'arrive' in Texmelucan Zapotec, as in other Zapotecan languages, relies on the notion of a deictic base. Each one of these words may be translated by one of a pair of verbs in Texmelucan Zapotec that differ based on whether the motion is toward or away from a deictic base. The deictic base is "the place where the person in motion normally or expectedly returns", and when mentioned by Texmelucan Zapotec speakers, places like "my country", the town of San Lorenzo Texmelucan, and one's house are always treated as the deictic base. The table below summarizes the features of these six verbs. The cited forms are in the completive aspect and have a third-person masculine subject.
Verbmotion ___ location of speech actmotion ___ deictic base
go1byayfromtowards
go2gwayfromaway from
come1byeed yutowardstowards
come2biid yutowardsaway from
arrive1briytowards
arrive2bruʔnyayaway from