Sayula Popoluca

Sayula Popoluca, also called Sayultec, is a Mixe language spoken by around 5,000 indigenous people in and around the town of Sayula de Alemán in the southern part of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Almost all published research on the language has been the work of Lawrence E. Clark of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. More recent studies of Sayula Popoluca have been conducted by Dennis Holt (lexico-semantics) and Richard A. Rhodes (morphology and syntax), but few of their findings have been published.

Sayula Popoluca
Sayultec
Native toMexico
RegionVeracruz
Native speakers
4,800 (2020 census)[1]
Mixe–Zoque
Language codes
ISO 639-3pos
Glottologsayu1241
ELPSayula Popoluca

Etymology

Popoluca is the Castilian alteration of the Nahuatl word popoloca, meaning 'barbarians' or 'people speaking a foreign language'.[2] In Mexico, the name Popoluca is a traditional name for various Mixe-Zoquean languages, and the name Popoloca is a traditional name for a totally unrelated language belonging to the Oto-Manguean languages.

Natively it is known as yamay ajw 'local language' or tʉcmay-ajw 'language of the home'.[2]

Phonology

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosives voiceless p t k ʔ
voiced b d ɡ
Fricatives s ʃ h
Affricates ts tʃ
Nasals m n
Approximants w l, r j

/s/ is only found in Spanish loans.

Front Central Back
High i, , ɨ, ɨː, ɨʔ u, ,
Mid e, , o, ,
Low a, ,

Sayula vowels are short, long, and broken (i.e. glottalized, represented here as Vʔ).

There are two systems of orthography in the published literature.

  • Clark (1961, 1995) uses some Spanish orthographic principles. /h/ is spelled j. /j/ is spelled y. /ʔ/ is spelled . /ʃ/ is spelled . /tʃ/ is spelled ch. /k/ is spelled qu before /i/ and /e/, and c elsewhere. Similarly /g/ is spelled gu before /i/ and /e/, and g elsewhere. Syllable final /w/ is spelled u. /ɨ/ is spelled ʉ. Vowel length is indicated by an underline. Unassimilated Spanish loans are spelled as in Spanish.
  • Clark (1983) uses an orthography closer to IPA, but as in the other orthography /ɨ/ is spelled ʉ, and /ʔ/ is spelled . /s/ is š. /ts/ is spelled c. /tʃ/ is spelled č. Length is spelled .

The orthography of Clark (1983) is used here.

Morphology

Sayula Popoluca verbs are inflected for person and number of subject and object, for aspect, and for the difference between independent and dependent.

Intransitive independent
'walk' imperfective perfective future
yoꞌy -p -w -áh
1sg tʉ- tʉyóꞌyp tʉyóꞌyw tʉyòꞌyáh
2sg mi- miyóꞌyp miyóꞌyw miyòꞌyáh
3rd Ø yóꞌyp yóꞌyw yòꞌyáh
1 excl tʉ- -ga tʉyóꞌygap tʉyóꞌygaw tʉyòꞌygáh
1 incl na- -ga nayóꞌygap nayóꞌygaw nayòꞌygáh
2pl mi- -ga miyóꞌygap miyóꞌygaw miyòꞌygáh
3pl -ga yóꞌygap yóꞌygaw yòꞌygáh

Dependency is marked by the allomorphy of the aspect markers, as shown in the following paradigm.

Intransitive dependent
'walk' imperfective perfective future
yoꞌy -h -wáꞌn
1sg tʉ- tʉyóꞌy tʉyóꞌhy tʉyòꞌywáꞌn
2sg ꞌin- ꞌinyóꞌy ꞌinyóꞌhy ꞌinyòꞌywáꞌn
3rd ꞌi- ꞌiyóꞌy ꞌiyóꞌhy ꞌiyòꞌywáꞌn
1 excl tʉ- -ga tʉyóꞌyga tʉyóꞌygah tʉyòꞌywáꞌn
1 incl na- -ga nayóꞌyga nayóꞌygah nayòꞌygawáꞌn
2pl ꞌin- -ga ꞌinyóꞌyga ꞌinyóꞌygah ꞌinyòꞌygawáꞌn
3pl ꞌi- -ga ꞌiyóꞌyga ꞌiyóꞌygah ꞌiyòꞌygawáꞌn

Sayula Popoluca marks agreement in transitive clause in an inverse system (Tatsumi, 2013). Speech Act Participants (SAP) 1EXCL, 1INCL, and 2 outrank 3. There is a separate system in which a topical 3rd person (PROXIMATE) outranks a non-topical 3rd person (OBVIATIVE). The pattern of person marking is given in Table I (adapted from Tatsumi, 2013:88).

Independent Transitive person markers
Object SAP Non-SAP
Subject 1EXCL 1INCL 2 3PROX 3OBV
1EXCL = tʉn=
SAP 1INCL na=
2 ꞌiš= in=
Non-SAP 3PROX tʉ=š- na=š- ꞌi=š- ꞌi=
3OBV ꞌigi=

Table I

The inverse system is also reflected in the form of the plural marker. In the case in which a higher ranking singular acts on a lower ranking plural, the plural marker is -kʉš-, elsewhere the plural is as in the singular, -ka-. An example paradigm is given below:

Transitive independent
imperfective sg object pl object
yu꞉giy- 'cure' 1 2 3 1excl 1incl 2 3
sg

subj

1 yu꞉gip tʉnyu꞉gip yu꞉gigʉšp tʉnyu꞉gigʉšp
2 ꞌišyu꞉gip ꞌinyu꞉gip ꞌišyu꞉gigap ꞌinyu꞉gigʉšp
3 tʉšyu꞉gip ꞌišyu꞉gip ꞌiyu꞉gip tʉšyu꞉gigap našyu꞉gigap ꞌišyu꞉gigap ꞌiyu꞉gigʉšp
ꞌigiyu꞉gip ꞌigiyu꞉gigap

Inversion affects he allomorphy of both the person marking and the aspect marking (Clark (1961:195) with the result that the inverse forms have no distinct dependent form.

Transitive dependent
imperfective sg object pl object
yu꞉giy- 'cure' 1 2 3 1excl 1incl 2 3
sg

subj

1 yu꞉giy tʉšyu꞉giy yu꞉gigʉš tʉšyu꞉gigʉš
2 ꞌišyu꞉gip ꞌišyu꞉giy ꞌišyu꞉gigap ꞌišyu꞉gigʉš
3 tʉšyu꞉gip ꞌišyu꞉gip ꞌigiyu꞉giy tʉšyu꞉gigap našyu꞉gigap ꞌišyu꞉gigap ꞌigiyu꞉gigʉš
ꞌigiyu꞉gip ꞌigiyu꞉gigap

Notes

  1. Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020 INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.
  2. Sistema de Información Cultural (2007)

Bibliography

  • Clark, Lawrence E. 1959. "Phoneme classes in Sayula Popoluca." Studies in Linguistics 14:25-33.
  • Clark, Lawrence E. 1961. "Sayula Popoluca Texts, with Grammatical Outline". Linguistic Series, 6. Norman, Oklahoma: Summer Institute of Linguistics of the University of Oklahoma.
  • Clark, Lawrence E. 1962. "Sayula Popoluca Morpho-Syntax. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 28(3):183-198.
  • Clark, Lawrence E. 1977. "Linguistic Acculturation in Sayula Popoluca." ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 43(2):128-138.
  • Clark, Lawrence E. 1983. "Sayula Popoluca Verb Derivation". Amerindian Series, 8. Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  • Clark, Lawrence E. 1995. Vocabulario popoluca de Sayula: Veracruz, México. Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas "Mariano Silva y Aceves", 104. Tucson: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
  • Holt, Dennis. 1998. Review of Vocabulario popoluca de Sayula: Veracruz, México. By Lawrence E. Clark. Language 74.2:438-40.
  • Holt, Dennis. 2002. "Poemo Sayula Popoluca". The Third Page.
  • Sistema de Información Cultural, Government of Mexico. 26 January 2007. Mixe–popoluca de Oluta, Mixe–popoluca de Sayula
  • Tatsumi, Tomoko. 2013. Inversion in Sayula Popoluca. 言語研究(Gengo Kenkyu)144: 83–101.


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