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Mixe
Oaxacan Mixean Ayuujk
Geographic distribution	Oaxaca,Mexico
Ethnicity	Mixe people
Native speakers	140,000 (2020 census)[1]
Linguistic classification	Mixe–Zoque Mixean Mixe
Subdivisions	Totontepec Tlahuitoltepec Midland Isthmus Ulterior Mixe
Language codes
Glottolog	oaxa1241
The Mixe region within the state ofOaxaca in southern Mexico

TheMixe languages are languages of the Mixean branch of theMixe–Zoquean language family indigenous to southernMexico. According to a 1995 classification, there are seven of them (including one that is extinct). The four that are spoken inOaxaca are commonly called Mixe while their two relatives spoken inVeracruz are commonly called "Popoluca", but sometimes also Mixe (these are "Oluta Popoluca" or "Olutec Mixe" and "Sayula Popoluca" or "Sayultec Mixe"). This article is about the Oaxaca Mixe languages, which their speakers callAyöök,Ayuujk,Ayüük orAyuhk.^{[citation needed]}

140,000 people reported their language to be "Mixe" in the 2020 census.^[1]

Oaxaca Mixe languages are spoken in theSierra Mixe of easternOaxaca. These four languages are:North Highland Mixe, spoken aroundTotontepec (the most divergent);South Highland Mixe, spoken aroundSanta María Tlahuitoltepec,Ayutla andTamazulapan);Midland Mixe, spoken aroundJuquila andZacatepec; andLowland Mixe, spoken inSan Juan Guichicovi (this language is also known as "Isthmus Mixe").

The following classification is from Wichmann (1995:9).

Mixe (Oaxacan Mixean)

• North Highland Mixe (Totontepec)
• South Highland Mixe (Tlahuitoltepec)
  • Core (Tlahuitoltepec, Ayutla, Tamazulapan)
  • Fringe (Tepuxtepec, Tepantlali, Mixistlán)
• Midland Mixe
  • North Midland Mixe (Jaltepec, Puxmetacan, Matamoros, Cotzocón)
  • South Midland Mixe (Juquila, Cacalotepec)
• Lowland Mixe (Camotlán, San José El Paraíso / Coatlán, Mazatlán, Guichicovi)

Wichmann (2008) addsUlterior Mixe as an additional branch:

Mixe

• Totontepec Mixe
• Ulterior Mixe
• Lowland – Midland Mixe – South Highland
  • Tlahuitoltepec Mixe
  • Lowland–Midland Mixe
    • Midland Mixe
      • Juquila Mixe
      • North Central Mixe
    • Lowland Mixe
      • Coatlán Mixe
      • Isthmus Mixe (Guichicovi)
      • Mazatlán Mixe

Thephonology of Mixe languages is remarkable due to their complex system of vowel duration contrasts in addition to glottalization. There is apalatalized series of all consonant phonemes (as in Ukrainian, Polish or Irish) and possibly afortis/lenis distinction in the plosive series, the recognition of which however is obscured by a tendency towards allophonic voicing of consonants in voiced environments.

The tables below illustrate the phonemes for Ayöök (Totontepec) Mixe:[1]

Syllable nuclei vary in length and phonation. Most descriptions report three contrastivevowel lengths.^[2] The other types of phonation have been variously termedchecked vowels,creaky voice vowels andbreathy voice vowels.

Themorphosyntactic alignment of Mixe isergative and it also has anobviative system which serves to distinguish between verb participants in reference to itsdirect–inverse system.^{[citation needed]} The Mixeverb is complex and inflects for many categories and also shows a lot of derivationalmorphology. One of the parameters of verb inflection is whether a verb occurs in an independent or dependent clause; this distinction is marked by both differential affixation and stemablaut.^{[citation needed]} Unlike Sayultec Mixe^[3] (spoken in the neighboring state of Veracruz), Mixe languages of Oaxaca only mark one argument on the verb:^{[citation needed]} either the object or the subject of the verb depending on whether the verb is in the direct or inverse form. Mixe shows a wide variety of possibilities fornoun incorporation.

The Mixe noun does not normally inflect, except that human nouns inflect for plural.^{[citation needed]} Noun compounding is a very productive process, and the profuse derivational morphology allows for creation of new nouns both from verbs and from other nouns. To indicate the plural an enclitic, ëch, is added to the noun.^[4]

Mixe languages have SOV constituent order, prepositions and genitives precede the noun. But relative clauses follow the noun.^{[citation needed]}

This sample is from Lowland Mixe:^[5]

Mixe-language programming is carried by theCDI's radio stationXEGLO, based inGuelatao de Juárez, Oaxaca.

• Agustín Quintana

• Dieterman, Julia Irene, 1995, Participant reference in Isthmus Mixe Narrative Discourse, MA. Thesis in linguistics presented to the Faculty of the Graduate school of the University of Texas at Arlington.
• Hoogshagen, Searle & Hilda Halloran Hoogshagen, 1993, Diccionario Mixe de Coatlán, Serie de Vocabularios Indigénas "Mariano Silva y Aceves" Num. 32. SIL, Mexico, D.F.
• Kroeger, Paul R. 2005.Analyzing grammar: an introduction. Cambridge University Press.
• Schoenhals, Alvin & Louise Schoenhals, 1965, Vocabulario Mixe de Totontepec, Serie de Vocabularios Indigénas "Mariano Silva y Aceves" Num. 14. SIL, Mexico, D.F.
• Wichmann, Søren, 1995, The Relationship Among the Mixe–Zoquean Languages of Mexico. University of Utah Press. Salt Lake City.ISBN 0-87480-487-6
• JANY, C. (2013). Defining Nominal Comp as a P WORD-FORMATION PROCESS IN CHUXNABÁN MIXE.International Journal of American Linguistics,79(4), 533–553.

• Online resources for Mixe of Chuxnabán (Midlands) by Carmen Jany
• Bachillerato bilingüe Mixe de Tlahuitoltepec

• Indigenous languages of Mexico
• Mesoamerican languages
• Mixean languages

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