A popular presentation of the pronoun system of Magdalena Peñasco Mixtec, written in Spanish, highlighting a number of features different from Spanish, such as: familiar vs. honorific first-person pronouns, inclusive vs. exclusive, and a number of gender distinctions in third person (child, animal, sacred, wood, and liquid).  This was originally published in 2000 as a booklet, and the original files for the body and the cover  (PDF document - 58 KB)  are included here with a few slight revisions in the body.  (© 2000, Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, A.C., used by permission.)

A translation of a traditional song about the Mixteca region into the Mixtec of Magdalena Peñasco, prepared by two native speakers.  The original text of the song in Spanish is also included. 

Three analyzed texts in Magdalena Peñasco Mixtec, with literal and free Spanish translations, which relate how supernatural creatures called "bandoleras" deceive people.  English and Spanish abstracts are included at the end. 

An analyzed text in Magdalena Peñasco Mixtec, with literal and free Spanish translation, which tells how the rabbit helped a farmer and his family to escape the flood, and how God punished him by turning him into the moon. 

This paper describes the personal names and surnames used in the town of Magdalena Peñasco.  First names are largely adapted into Mixtec from traditional saint names in Spanish.  Surnames are based on common Spanish surnames, with phonological adaptations, and they are accompanied by a gender prefix.  When the full name of a person is given, the last name with its gender prefix comes first, and then the first name. 

This paper tracing the history of the first and second person respect pronouns in Mixtec, written in Spanish, was published in August 2003 in Cuadernos del Sur, a social science journal published in Oaxaca (año 9, núm. 19, pages 51–58).  It is included here with the permission of the editors in order to give it wider circulation.  The paper claims that the original pronoun system of Mixtec did not have honorific pronouns, and that they developed in the western part of the Mixteca Alta when a stratified social system arose.  Abstracts in English and Spanish are provided in a separate abstract file.  (PDF Document - 21 KB)

This paper, written in Spanish, was presented to the congress of the Ve’e Tu’un Savi ( Mixtec Language Academy ) in December 2002 to encourage its members both to preserve Mixtec as a living language by speaking it to their children, and to preserve aspects of it in written, audio, and video form. 

This squib proposes that native speakers often lack awareness of tone and other suprasegmentals, and discusses the ways that this affects the design of writing systems and the teaching of reading. 

Reflections on language structure and the challenges of language analysis, using the popular seventeen-syllable poetic form from Japan. 

Further reflections on language structure and the challenges of language analysis, using the popular seventeen-syllable poetic form from Japan. Japan . 

This grammar of Michoacán Aztec, based on over forty years of fieldwork by Bill Sischo, was written to accompany a dictionary of this language that is still in preparation.  This variety of Aztec should be of considerable interest to Aztec scholars because it has been geographically isolated from others for several centuries.  It should also be of interest to students of language contact because of the heavy influence from Spanish on its structure.   Three files containing verb paradigms accompany the grammar: Intransitive verbs (PDF Document - 178 KB), Transitive verbs (PDF Document - 237 KB), and Irregular verbs (PDF Document - 121 KB).  Bill and I wish to express our appreciation to Marilyn Valverde for reviewing the Spanish.