Isthmus Mixe

Isthmus Mixe, called Lowland Mixe in Wichmann (1995),^[2] is a Mixe language spoken in Mexico. It is spoken in the villages of Coatlán San José el Paraíso, Mazatlán, Guichicovi, and Camotlán, Oaxaca.

Isthmus Mixe
Lowland Mixe
Native to	Mexico
Region	Northeastern Oaxaca
Native speakers	(45,000 cited 1990–2000)[1]
Language family	Mixe–Zoque Mixean Mixe Isthmus Mixe
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: mco – Coatlán, Camotlán mir – Guichicovi mzl – Mazatlán
Glottolog	lowl1263
ELP	Lowland Mixe

Grammar

Isthmus Mixe is SOV word order.^[3] It contains prepositions and postpositions, genitives and demonstratives before noun heads, and relative clauses after the head.^[4] Isthmus Mixe is usually categorized as agglutinating.^[4]

Phonology

Consonants of Isthmus Mixe^[4]

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p	t		k	ʔ
Affricate		t͡s
Fricative			ʃ		h
Glide	w		j

Dieterman believes every consonant may be modified by the addition of secondary palatalization.^[4]

Vowels of Isthmus Mixe

	Front (unrounded)	Central (unrounded)	Back (rounded)
Close	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

See also

• Norman Nordell's Isthmus Mixe to Spanish dictionary (1990) published by SIL

References

1. Coatlán, Camotlán at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Guichicovi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Mazatlán at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Wichmann, Søren (1995). The relationship among the Mixe-Zoquean languages of Mexico. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. ISBN 9780874804874. OCLC 32589134.
3. Dieterman, Julia (2002-09-13). "Word order variation in Isthmus Mixe: voice and discourse considerations". SIL International. Retrieved 2019-02-06.
4. Dieterman, Julia (2008). "Secondary palatalization in Isthmus Mixe: a phonetic and phonological account". SIL International. Retrieved 2019-02-06.