Sierra Popoluca

Sierra Popoluca, also known as Soteapanec, Soteapan Zoque, or Highland Popoluca, is a developing Mixe-Zoquean language of the Zoquean branch. It has 35,050 speakers (INALI, 2009) who live in the southern part of Veracruz, Mexico. Sierra Popoluca has two sister languages, Texistepec and Ayapanec, both of which are severely endangered.

The word popoluca means "gibberish” in Nahuatl, and the name Sierra Popoluca comes from the language being labelled as such at the time of conquest. To avoid the derogatory connotations of popoluca, some researchers have adopted the name Soteapanec for the language instead (named after the largest municipality it is spoken in). However, modern speakers do not seem to be concerned with the history of the word and simply see it as the name of their language. Natively, speakers refer to the language as Nuntajɨyi, which means "true word," and themselves as Nundajɨypappɨc.

Distribution

Sierra Popoluca is spoken in the following municipalities:

• Soteapan
• Tatahuicapan
• Hueyapan de Ocampo

Other communities where it is spoken include Catemaco, Piedra Labrada, and Santa Rosa Cintepec. Nahuatl and Spanish are also spoken in nearby areas, and have influenced Sierra Popoluca through language contact.

Writing system

Two Sierra Popoluca spellings have been developed, one by the SIL international and another by the Academia Veracruzana de las Lenguas Indígenas.

Sierra Popoluca alphabet (AVELI)

a

b

ch

d

dy

e

g

i

ɨ

j

k

l

m

n

ñ

ng

o

p

r

s

t

ts

ty

u

w

x

y

'

With the AVELI spelling, the long vowels are represented by doubling the letter, the glottal stop is represented by the apostrophe.

Sierra Popoluca alphabet (SIL)

a

b

c

ch

d

d́

e

i

ɨ

j

k

l

m

n

ñ

ŋ

o

p

q

r

s

t

t́

ts

u

w

x

y

z

With the spelling of SIL, long vowels are represented with a macron below the letter and the glottal stop is indicated with the acute accent on the vowel which precedes it, except when it is between two vowels or at the end of word.

Phonology

Vowels

Sierra Popoluca has twelve vowel phonemes: six distinct short vowels (front vowels /i/ and /ɛ/, central vowels /ɘ/ and /a/, and back vowels /u/ and /ɔ/) with a corresponding long vowel for each.

Vowel Phonemes

	Front	Central-Back	Back
High	Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
High-mid		Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
Mid	Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
Low		Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink

Consonants

Sierra Popoluca's consonant inventory consists of thirteen consonants.

Consonant Phonemes

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Plosive	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Affricate		Template:IPAlink
Fricative		Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink
Approximant	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Unspecified segment					H

Some words in Sierra Popoluca contain "an unspecified underlying segment, identified as the segment /H/. Depending on the environment it appears in, /H/ can alternate in three different ways, as described by the rules below:

/H/ Alternation Rules

(1)	H	→ː	/	V__C
(2)	H	→ːh	/	V__#
(3)	H	→Ø	/	V__wɘm

In addition to its main consonant inventory, Sierra Popoluca also has a restricted phoneme inventory consisting of eleven consonants. These consonants are considered "restricted" because the only words they appear in are either ideophones, Spanish borrowings, or stylistic alterations.

Restricted Phonemes

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Alveo-palatal	Palatal	Velar
Stop	b	d	tʲ, dʲ		g
Affricate			tʃ
Fricative			ʃ
Nasal				ɲ
Liquid		l
Flap		ɾ
Trill		r

Syllable structure

Sierra Popoluca's syllabic template is (C)CV(ː)(ʔ)(C)(C). Words containing examples of each syllable structure are given in the table below:

Syllables

Structure	Word	Translation
CV	[ku.'tʲuːm]	'alone'
CVː	['kɘː.piʰ]	'firewood'
CVC	['pakʰ]	'bone'
CVːC	['huːtʲʰ]	'where'
CVʔC	['kaʔn.puˀ]	'egg'
CVʔCC	[ʔa.'sɔʔps.paˀ]	'it tires me'
CCVC	['traj.tʲiˀ]	'kid, adolescent male'
CCVCC	['kruʔj.tʲiˀ]	'quail'

Sierra Popoluca has phonotactic restrictions on both onset and coda clusters. For onsets, only the clusters /tr/, /kr/, and /kw/ are allowed. For codas, all two consonant clusters must begin with one of /p, k, ʔ/, and three consonant clusters are restricted to only /ʔps/ and /ʔks/.

Stress

There are three degrees of stress in Sierra Popoluca: primary stress (which may fall on the penultimate or ultimate syllable), secondary stress (which is assigned to the leftmost syllable that is not a clitic), and tertiary stress (which falls on the heaviest syllable preceding primary stress). Words containing examples of each stress paradigm are given in the table below:

Stress Paradigms

Paradigm	Word	Translation
Primary	nümnéʔ	'He had said.'
Secondary	nǜmneʔyájpa	'They have said.'
Tertiary	nǜmmàʔyyajtáabam	'They are told.'

Morphology

Sierra Popoluca is an agglutinating, polysynthetic language whose morpheme inventory is primarily inflectional and consists of roughly an equal number of clitics and suffixes, with no prefixes. The morphological processes reduplication and compounding are also observed in Sierra Popoluca.

Sierra Popoluca has three major word classes: nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Suffixes

Sierra Popoluca has 28 suffixes, all of which can be categorized as either derivational, inflectional, or valency adjusting. Nouns only take derivational suffixes whereas verbs take suffixes from all three categories. Examples of each suffix type are given in the table below:

Suffix Examples

Suffix	Type	Function	Word	Gloss	Translation
-i	Derivational	Nominalizer	wiʔk-i	eat-NOM	'food'
-ü	Inflectional	Imperative	koony-ü	sit-IMP	'sit' (command)
-ʔüʔy	Derivational	Provisory	jawanh-ʔüʔy	fever-PROV	'have a fever'
-ʔiny	Inflectional	Optative	matonh-ʔiny	listen-OPT	'should listen'
-taH	Valency adjusting	Passive	suy-taH	lasso-PASS	'be lassoed'

Proclitics

There are 17 proclitics in Sierra Popoluca. Out of these, ten are used for person marking, three are used for valency adjusting, two are derivational, and the final two have other, unique functions. Verbs in Sierra Popoluca can take all proclitic types while nouns can take all but valency adjusting proclitics. Examples of various proclitics are given in the table below:

Proclitic Examples

Proclitic	Type	Function	Word	Gloss	Translation
ʔan+	Person marking	1st person possessive, exclusive	ʔan+ʔakʔanh	1POSS:EXCL+griddle	'my griddle'
ʔiga+	Other	Complementizer	ʔiga+Ø+teeny-W	COMP+3ABS+stand-CMP	'that [he] was standing up'
tan+	Person marking	1st person ergative, inclusive	tan+juy	1ERG:INCL+buy	'we buy'
ʔak+	Valency adjusting	Causative	ʔak+kuʔt	CAUS+eat	'feed'
ʔagi+	Other	Intensifier	ʔagi+wej	INTENS+cry	'cry a lot'

Enclitics

Sierra Popoluca has nine enclitics, six of which are adverbial, two of which are inflectional, and one of which is a relativizer. Nouns can take all three types of enclitic whereas verbs can only take adverbial enclitics. Examples of each enclitic type are given in the table below:

Enclitic Examples

Enclitic	Type	Function	Word	Gloss	Translation
+yaj	Inflectional	3rd/nonhuman plural	tzaʔ+yaj	rock+NHPL	'rocks'
+tyi	Adverbial	"just"	yüʔüm+tyi	here+just	'just over here'
+tam	Inflectional	1st/2nd human plural	yoomo+tam	woman+HPL	'women'
+püʔk	Relativizer	Relativizer	tum puktuuku yagatz+püʔk	one cloth large+REL	'a cloth that's large'
+nam	Adverbial	"still"	tzüüxi+nam	small+still	'still small'

Reduplication

Reduplication of the root (full reduplication) is observed with both nouns and verbs in Sierra Popoluca, and can be inflectional or derivational. Though generally used to convey intensity or frequency, reduplication can also express "a sense of wandering around repeating an action" when paired with the ambulative suffix -ʔoʔy. Various examples of reduplication are given in the table below:

Reduplication Examples

Function	Word	Gloss	Translation
Derivational	looko~looko	sound~REDUP	'shout'
Frequency, intensity	ʔaʔm~ʔaʔm	look~REDUP	'watch'
Ambulative	monh~monh-ʔoʔy	sleep~REDUP-AMBUL	'sleep from place to place'
Frequency, intensity	was~was	bite~REDUP	'bite repeatedly'
Intensity	ʔuk~ʔuk	drink~REDUP	'drink all'

Compounding

Compounding is observed in all word classes in Sierra Popoluca and is highly productive. Various examples of compound words are given in the table below:

Compounding Examples

Structure	Word	Gloss	Translation
N=N	mok=yooya	corn=pig	'peccary'
N=V	pooy=ʔix	moon=see	'menstruate'
N=N	tzuj-i=nüʔ	spit-NOM=water	'saliva'
ADJ=N	müj=pak	big=bone	'waist'
N=V	manük=wat	child=make	'impregnate'

Syntax

Sierra Popoluca is an ergative-absolutive, head-marking language. At minimum, the basic clause can consist of just a predicate, as shown below:Template:InterlinearAt maximum, it can include an inflected complex predicate and up to three modified arguments:Template:Interlinear

Basic word order

Word order in Sierra Popoluca is pragmatically determined for the most part. In transitive sentences, all six possible word orders are attested, as shown below:

    VSOTemplate:Interlinear     VOSTemplate:Interlinear     SVOTemplate:Interlinear     SOVTemplate:Interlinear     OVSTemplate:Interlinear     OSVTemplate:Interlinear

In intransitive sentences, both possible word orders are attested:

    SVTemplate:Interlinear    VSTemplate:InterlinearHowever, not all word orders are used with equal frequency; an analysis of over 4,000 clauses from various texts found the following distribution of word orders in transitive and intransitive sentences:

Distribution of Word Orders by Transitivity

Transitive

Order	Frequency
SVO	72.37%
VSO	5.26%
VOS	7.89%
OVS	6.58%
OSV	2.63%
SOV	5.26%

Intransitive

Order	Frequency
SV	34.86%
VS	65.14%

Relative word order

In terms of relative word order, Sierra Popoluca exhibits some structural features common to VO (verb initial) languages and some common to OV (verb final) languages. A few examples of these structures are given below:

• Possessor precedes possessum (common to OV languages)

• Auxiliary verb precedes main verb (common to VO languages)

• Complementizer precedes complement clause (common to VO languages)

Order of nominal modifiers

Nouns in Sierra Popoluca can be modified by determiners, adjectives, quantifiers, possessors, and relative clauses. Whether a modifier precedes or follows the noun it is modifying depends on the modifier, as illustrated below:

• Demonstratives precede the nouns they modify

• Adjectives precede the nouns they modify

• Relative clauses may either precede or follow the nouns they modify

Recordings

• Sierra Popoluca Collection of Lynda Boudreault from the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America. Contains 148 archival files, including audio recordings and transcripts from a wide range of genres.

Further reading

• OLAC resources in and about the Highland Popoluca language