Mixe languages

The Mixe languages are languages of the Mixean branch of the Mixe–Zoquean language family indigenous to southern Mexico. According to a 1995 classification, there are seven of them (including one that is extinct). The four that are spoken in Oaxaca are commonly called Mixe while their two relatives spoken in Veracruz 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 call Ayöök, Ayuujk, Ayüük or Ayuhk.^{[citation needed]}

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

Oaxaca Mixe languages are spoken in the Sierra Mixe of eastern Oaxaca. These four languages are: North Highland Mixe, spoken around Totontepec (the most divergent); South Highland Mixe, spoken around Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, Ayutla and Tamazulapan); Midland Mixe, spoken around Juquila and Zacatepec; and Lowland Mixe, spoken in San Juan Guichicovi (this language is also known as "Isthmus Mixe").

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

Wichmann (2008) adds Ulterior Mixe as an additional branch:

The phonology of Mixe languages is remarkable due to their complex system of vowel duration contrasts in addition to glottalization. There is a palatalized series of all consonant phonemes (as in Ukrainian, Polish 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.

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

Syllable nuclei vary in length and phonation. Most descriptions report three contrastive vowel lengths. The other types of phonation have been variously termed checked vowels, creaky voice vowels and breathy voice vowels.