Phonemic Versus Phonetic Correlates of Vowel Length in Chuxnabán Mixe

0. Introduction This paper tests for a possible three-way phonemic vowel length distinction in Chuxnaban Mixe and examines the phonetic correlates of vowel length, in addition to describing this previously undocumented variety of Mixe. Chuxnaban Mixe is a Mixe-Zoque language spoken by about nine hundred people in one village in Oaxaca. The Mixe territory is located in the north-eastern part of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is composed of two hundred and ninety communities divided into nineteen municipalities (Torres Cisneros 1997). Each community speaks a different variety of Mixe, some of which are mutually unintelligible. In many cases it has yet to be determined whether a particular variety represents a distinct language or dialect, as the documentation of Mixe languages is limited. The Ethnologue lists ten different languages divided into three larger branches: Eastern Mixe with six languages and Veracruz Mixe and Western Mixe with two languages each (Gordon 2005). Chuxnaban Mixe has been identified by its speakers as Midland Mixe, and is assumed to correspond to Quetzaltepec Mixe in the Ethnologue entry. At present, there are only a few published grammars and dictionaries of the Mixe languages (De la Grasserie 1898; Hoogshagen 1997; Ruiz de Bravo Ahuja 1980; Schoenhals 1982; Van Haitsma 1976). The Mixe languages vary greatly in their vowel systems (Suslak 2003). For instance, while Totontepec Mixe has nine phonemic vowels (Schoenhals 1982), only six are reported for Coatlan Mixe (Hoogshagen 1959, 1997). All Mixe languages show a phonemic vowel length distinction and a phonemic phonation contrast between plain, aspirated, and glottalized vowels. The scarce documentation of these languages has led to a very limited number of studies concerned with these unique and typologically interesting vowel systems. While a distinction between short and long vowels is very common among the world’s languages, a three-way phonemic vowel length contrast is typologically rare (Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996). Such a contrast has been reported for Coatlan Mixe and San Jose El Paraiso Mixe (Hoogshagen 1959; Van Haitsma