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Comparison of the Mixtec spoken
in four towns near Tlaxiaco |
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To the northwest, Magdalena Peñasco borders on San Cristóbal Amoltepec, and to the southeast, it borders on San Agustín Tlacotepec. To the south, San Agustín borders on San Mateo Peñasco. (See the maps on the main page for Mixtec of Magdalena Peñasco.) Each one of these communities has its own customs, its own legends, and its own variant form of the language. Even though they all share many words and grammatical patterns and they can understand each other, there are many important differences. Here is a small sample of words that are different in these four communities.
| MEANING | MAGDALENA | SAN CRISTÓBAL | SAN AGUSTÍN | SAN MATEO |
| PRONOUNS | ||||
| he (adult) | de | de | te | de |
| it (wooden object) | tnu | nu | tnu | nu |
| I (informal) | ri | ri | rri | li |
| OTHER GRAMMATICAL MARKERS |
||||
| plural (future) | jin | ji | ku | ju |
| the (article) | ma | yuun | — | un |
| future tense (of some verbs) |
ko- | ku- | ku- | ku- |
| NOUNS | ||||
| dog | la ina | ti ina, tina | ina | ina |
| skunk | lañi'i | tiñi'i | chi'in | sorriyu |
| sheep | ndikachi | tikachi | tsikachi | lanchi |
| child (offspring) | sa'ya | se'e | sa'a | se'e |
| mouse | tniñi | leko | leko | linki |
| peach | nde'ya | nde'a | ndia'a | nde'e |
| feather | tnumi | tnuu | tnumi | tumi |
| tree morning glory | tnu ni'ma | tu ti'ma | tnu lotsi | tu tu'ma |
| VERBS | ||||
| count | ka'vi | ka'vi | ka'vi | ka'vi |
| read | ka'vi | kanuu | ka'vi | ka'vi |
| wash | ndakate | ndakete | ndakete | ndakete |
| be baptized | kuandute | kuandute | koso ndute | koso ndute |
| look | konde'ya | kunde'a | kundia'ya | kunde'e |
| OTHER WORDS | ||||
| thus | sukan | siukan | sukuan | sukan |
| evil | u'vi | u'u | u'u | u'u |
| all | ndaka | taka | taka | taka |
| how | naxe | nasa | naxi | nasa, ndexi |
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Given these variant forms, the sentence, “They are going to read the story about the mouse.” will have the following form in each of these four variants: |
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| MAGDALENA | Jin ka'vi de kuentu tniñi ma. | |
| SAN CRISTÓBAL | Ji kanuu de kuentu leko yuun. | |
| SAN AGUSTÍN | Ku ka'vi te kuentu leko. | |
| SAN MATEO | Ju ka'vi de kuentu linki un. | |
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