| Totontepec Mixe | |
| Nativename: | North Highland Mixe |
| States: | Mexico |
| Region: | Northeastern Oaxaca |
| Speakers: | 5,500 |
| Date: | 2000 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Mixe–Zoque |
| Fam2: | Mixean |
| Fam3: | Mixe |
| Iso3: | mto |
| Glotto: | toto1305 |
| Glottorefname: | Totontepec Mixe |
Totontepec Mixe, called North Highland Mixe in Wichmann (1995), is a Mixe language spoken in Mexico, in the town of Totontepec Villa de Morelos, Oaxaca.
Mixe has phonology is remarkable due to its complex system of vowel duration contrasts in addition to glottalization. There is a palatalized series of all consonant phonemes (as in Russian, or Irish) and possibly a fortis/lenis distinction in the plosive series, the recognition of which however is obscured by a tendency towards allophonic voicing of consonants in voiced environments.
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | |||
| Plosive | p /p/ | py /pʲ/ | t /t̪/ | ty /t̪ʲ/ | k /k/ | ky /kʲ/ | ||||||||
| Affricate | ts /ts/ | tsy /tsʲ/ | ||||||||||||
| Fricative | w /β/ | wy /βʲ/ | s /s/ | x /ʂ/ | xy /ʂʲ/ | j /h/ | jy /hʲ/ | |||||||
| Nasal | m /m/ | my /mʲ/ | n /n/ | ny /nʲ/ | ||||||||||
| Rhotic | r /r/ | |||||||||||||
| Lateral | l /l/ | |||||||||||||
| Approximant | (w) | (wʲ) | y /j/ | |||||||||||
Palatalized sounds /tsʲ, nʲ/ can also have allophones as [tʃ, ɲ] in free variation.
Sounds /p, t̪, k/ are heard as [β, d̪, ɡ] in intervocalic positions. https://realin.upnvirtual.edu.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44:ayoeok-mixe-de-totontepec&catid=10:fonologia-y-alfabetos&Itemid=187
Syllable nuclei vary in length and phonation. Most descriptions report three contrastive vowel lengths.[1] The other types of phonation have been variously termed checked vowels, creaky voice vowels and breathy voice vowels.
The table below illustrates the vowel phonemes for Ayöök, orthographic symbols on the left. https://realin.upnvirtual.edu.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44:ayoeok-mixe-de-totontepec&catid=10:fonologia-y-alfabetos&Itemid=187
| Short | Long | Overlong | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | ||
| Close (high) | Modal | i pronounced as /link/ | ï /ɨ/ | u pronounced as /link/ | ii pronounced as /link/ | ïï /ɨ/ | uu /uː/ | |||
| Glottalized | i’ /ḭ/ | ï’ /ɨ̰/ | u’ /ṵ/ | ii’ /ḭː/ | ïï’ /ɨ̰ː/ | uu’ /ṵː/ | i’i | ï’ï | u’u | |
| Close-mid | Modal | e /e/ | ë /ə/ | o /o/ | ee pronounced as /link/ | ëë /əː/ | oo /oː/ | |||
| Glottalized | e’ /ḛ/ | ë’ /ə̰/ | o’ /o̰/ | ee’ /ḛː/ | ëë’ /ə̰ː/ | oo’ /o̰ː/ | e’e | ë’ë | o’o | |
| Open-mid | Modal | ä /æ/ | ää /æː/ | |||||||
| Glottalized | ä’ /æ̰/ | ää’ /æ̰ː/ | ä’ä | |||||||
| Open (low) | Modal | a pronounced as /link/ | aa pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Glottalized | a’ /a̰/ | aa’ /a̰ː/ | a’a | |||||||