Sayula Popoluca

Sayula Popoluca
Sayultec
Native to	Mexico
Region	Vera Cruz
Native speakers	3,400 (2007)
Language family	Mixe–Zoque Mixean Sayula Popoluca
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pos
Glottolog	sayu1241
ELP	Sayula Popoluca

Sayula Popoluca, also called Sayultec, is a Mixe language spoken by around 4,000 indigenous people in and around the town of Sayula de Alemán in the southern part of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Almost all published research on the language has been the work of Lawrence E. Clark of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. More recent studies of Sayula Popoluca have been conducted by Dennis Holt (lexico-semantics) and Richard Rhodes (morphology and syntax), but few of their findings have been published.

'Popoluca' is the Castilian alteration of the Nahuatl word popoloca, meaning 'barbarians' or 'people speaking a foreign language'. In Mexico, the name 'popoluca' is a traditional name for three different Mixe-Zoquean languages, and the name 'Sierra Popoloca' is a traditional name for a totally unrelated language belonging to the Oto-Manguean languages.

Natively it is known as yamay ajw 'local language' or tʉcmay-ajw 'language of the home'.

Phonology

		Bilabial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Plosives		b, p		d, t				ɡ, k		ʔ
Fricatives				s		ʃ				h
Affricates				ts, tʃ
Nasals		m		n
Approximants		w		l, r		j

s is only found in Spanish loans.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i, iː	ɨ, ɨː	u, uː
Mid	e, eː		o, oː
Low		a, aː

There are two systems of orthography in the published literature. Clark (1961, 1995) uses some Spanish orthographic principles. h is spelled j. j is spelled y. ʔ is spelled '. ʃ is spelled s̈. tʃ is spelled ch. k is spelled qu before i and e, and c elsewhere. g is spelled gu before i and e, and g elsewhere. Syllable final w is spelled u. ɨ is spelled ʉ. Vowel length is indicated by and underline. Clark (1983) uses an orthography closer to IPA. ɨ is still ʉ, and ʔ is still '. s is š. ts is spelled c. tʃ is spelled č. Length is spelled with a colon.

Morphology

Sayula Popoluca verbs are inflected for person and number of subject and object, for aspect, and for the difference between independent and dependent.

Intransitive independent
'walk'	imperfective	perfective	future
yoʔy	-p	-w	-áh
1sg tʉ-	tʉyóʔyp	tʉyóʔyw	tʉyóʔyáh
2sg mi-	miyóʔyp	miyóʔyw	miyóʔyáh
3rd Ø	yóʔyp	yóʔyw	yóʔyáh
1 excl tʉ- -ga	tʉyóʔygap	tʉyóʔygaw	tʉyòʔygáh
1 incl na- -ga	nayóʔygap	nayóʔygaw	nayòʔygáh
2pl mi- -ga	miyóʔygap	miyóʔygaw	miyòʔygáh
3pl -ga	yóʔygap	yóʔygaw	yòʔygáh

Intransitive dependent
'walk'	imperfective	perfective	future
yoʔy	-h	-Ø	-waʔn
1sg tʉ-	tʉyóʔy'h'	tʉyóʔy	tʉyòʔywáʔn
2sg ʔin-	ʔinyóʔhy	ʔinyóʔy	ʔinyòʔywáʔn
3rd ʔi-	ʔiyóʔhy	ʔiyóʔy	ʔiyòʔywáʔn
1 excl tʉ- -ga	tʉyóʔygah	tʉyóʔyga	tʉyòʔyáh
1 incl na- -ga	nayóʔygah	nayóʔyga	nayòʔygawáʔn
2pl ʔin- -ga	ʔinyóʔygah	ʔinyóʔyga	ʔinyòʔygawáʔn
3pl ʔi- -ga	ʔiyóʔygah	ʔiyóʔyga	ʔiyòʔygawáʔn

Bibliography

• Clark, Lawrence E. 1961. "Sayula Popoluca Texts, with Grammatical Outline". Linguistic Series, 6. Norman, Oklahoma: Summer Institute of Linguistics of the University of Oklahoma.
• Clark, Lawrence E. 1983. "Sayula Popoluca Verb Derivation". Amerindian Series, 8. Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
• Clark, Lawrence E. 1995. Vocabulario popoluca de Sayula: Veracruz, México. Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas "Mariano Silva y Aceves", 104. Tucson: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
• Holt, Dennis. 1998. Review of Vocabulario popoluca de Sayula: Veracruz, México. By Lawrence E. Clark. Language 74.2:438-40.
• Holt, Dennis. 2002. "Poemo Sayula Popoluca". The Third Page. [1]
• Sistema de Información Cultural, Government of Mexico. 26 January 2007. Mixe–popoluca de Oluta, Mixe–popoluca de Sayula