Zaniza Zapotec

Zaniza Zapotec (Zapoteco de Santa María Zaniza) is an Oto-Manguean language of western Oaxaca, Mexico. It is one of several Zapotec languages called Papabuco. It has only 10% intelligibility with Texmelucan Zapotec, its closest important relative. (Speakers of the nearly extinct Elotepec Zapotec have 70% understanding of Zaniza, but it is not known if the reverse is true,[3] so this may be a question of familiarity.)

Zaniza Zapotec
(Santa María Zaniza)
Western Sola de Vega Zapotec Papabuco
Native to	Mexico
Region	Oaxaca
Native speakers	(770 cited 1990 census)[1]
Language family	Oto-Manguean Zapotecan Zapotec Papabuco Zaniza Zapotec
Language codes
ISO 639-3	zpw
Glottolog	zani1235
ELP	Papabuco (shared)[2]

The language is spoken in Santa María Zaniza, Oaxaca.[4] As of 2003, the language had about 400 fluent speakers.[5] It is also spoken in Santiago Textitlán.[1]

Phonology

Zaniza Zapotec Consonants[6]

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	fortis	p	t			k, k^w
	lenis	b	d			g, g^w
Affricate	fortis				ʧ
	lenis				ʤ
Fricative	fortis	f	s	ʂ	ʃ		h, h^w
	lenis		z	ʐ	ʒ
Tap			ɾ
Nasal		m	n		ɲ
Liquid			l		ʎ
Guide		w			j

Zaniza Zapotec has five vowels /i, e, a, o, u/, phonemic vowel nasalization, and a distinction between modal and laryngealized vowels.[6]

Tone

Zaniza Zapotec words contrast low, mid, and high tones on stressed syllables. Unstressed syllables, apart from a few pronominal enclitics, do not bear contrastive tone.

References

1. Zaniza Zapotec at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Endangered Languages Project data for Papabuco (shared).
3. Egland, Bartholomew, & Cruz Ramos. 1983 [1978]. La inteligibilidad interdialectal en México: Resultados de algunos sondeos.
4. Operstein, Natalie. "Spanish Loanwords and the Historical Phonology of Zaniza Zapotec" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-09-07. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
5. "Graduate Student Profile - Natalie Operstein (Indo-European Studies)". UCLA Graduate Division. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
6. Natalie, Operstein (2015). Zaniza Zapotec. Muenchen. ISBN 9783862886593. OCLC 928993315.

• Operstein, Natalie (2002). "Positional Verbs and Relational Nouns in Zaniza Zapotec" (PDF). Proceedings from the fourth Workshop on American Indigenous Languages, Santa Barbara Papers in Linguistics. 11. pp. 60–70. Retrieved 2013-09-07.

External links

• Kaufman, Terence. "Zaniza Zapotec". El Archivo de los lenguas indigenas de Latinoamerica. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
• "Zapotec, Zaniza language - Audio Bible stories and lessons". Global Recordings Network. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
• "Mexico - Keyboards - Zaniza Zapotec". Tavultesoft. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
• OLAC resources in and about the Zaniza Zapotec language