Los tonos del amuzgo de San Pedro Amuzgos

Abstract

Amuzgo is an Otomanguean language spoken in the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca in Mexico, An analysis of the surface tones of the dialect of Amuzgo spoken in San Pedro Amuzgos, Oaxaca is proposed which recognizes eight contrasting tone patterns on syllable nuclei: 5, 53, 35, 34, 3, 31, 12, 1 (5 is the highest tone level ard 1 is the lowest). However, the distinction between ballistic and controlled syllables, so closely related to tone in the dialect of Amuzgo spoken in Xochistlahuaca, Guerrero, does not appear to be relevant. Three possible cases of tone in the syllable onset are also exemplified and discussed. Several observations concerning tone alterations and dist¡ibution are offered which might eventually contribute to a more systematic analysis, but such an analysis is not attempted. The morphological role of tone in marking person and number of subjects of verbs and posessors of nouns is briefly exemplified. Finally, the tones of the dialect of San Pedro Amuzgos are compared with those of the dialect of Xochistlahuaca. Some tentative correspondences are identified and a diachronic model accounting for the divergence of the two prosodic systems informally sketched.