The documentation and analysis of Sahín Sau

Mixtec is an endangered language of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Its numerous dialects, along with the sister languages Cuicatec and Trique, constitute the Mixtecan language family. All members of this family are considered endangered.

Mixtecan is in turn one of the eight coordinate branches of Otomanguean, arguably the oldest identified language family in Mesoamerica. The project aims to create a comprehensive grammatical and lexical description of Chalcatongo Mixtec, Sahìn Sàu, which belongs to the dialect area of the South-Western Mixtec Highlands. Special attention will be paid to tone and intonation as a bridge between descriptive, theoretical, experimental and applied linguistics. At the same time the project will document and analyse culturally relevant expressions and terminology, as used for example in ceremonial discourse, narration, ritual, traditional technology and medicine.

Project Information

Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez

Researchers:
Prof. Dr. Maarten E.R.G.N. Jansen
E-mail: m.e.r.g.n.jansen@arch.leidenuniv.nl

Michael Swanton M.A.

Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez

Support:
NWO (Programmatic Research Endangered Languages)

Research Period:
2005-2010

MixtecoSahinSau.pdf