biroz.net - notes on the mazatec language

Home • Galleries • Projects • Commissions • Prints • About • Contact • Back Door

Contents • Introduction • Chiquihuitlan • Eloxochitlan • Numbers

The dialects of the villages of San Jeronimo and Eloxochitlan form a single mutually intelligible language which is interchangeably reffered to as Eloxochitlan Mazatec or San Jeronimo Mazatec. Curiously, the SIL Ethnologue refers to it as San Jeronimo Mazatec, but the SIL organisation in Mexico refers to it as Eloxochitlan Mazatec. In any case, it appears to be much the same language with only a few minor differences.

= PRONUNCIATION =

The pronunciation of San Jeronimo Mazatec is, like all Mazatec languages, very difficult for those who have experience only with European or Asian languages. The basic foundations of the language’s sounds are fundamentally different in every way to a language like English. English sounds are largely based on a contrast between voiced consonants (like b, v, d and g, where the voice box activates) and unvoiced consonants (like p, f, t and k where the voice box doesn’t activate), as well as nasal sounds (like m, n and ng, which go through the nose).

These fairly simple distinctions are fairly basic to most languages, but with San Jeronimo Mazatec, there are further, much more complex distinctions to consider. Therefore before we look at how the language is pronounced, we need to learn the fundamental ideas behind the sounds.

Consonants

In Mazatec, consonants don’t come in voiced and unvoiced varieties like English. Instead they come in normal and aspirated varieties. Aspirated refers to the expulsion of a large amount of breath as you say a sound, roughly the same as making a ‘hhhuh’ sound. Interestingly, in San Jeronimo Mazatec, each consonant can undergo pre-aspiration (the hhh comes before the consonant) or post–aspiration (the hhh follows the aspiration). This is important in distinguishing meaning between some words, and means that like Chiquihuitlan Mazatec, Eloxochitlan Mazatec is something of a divergent dialect.

Here are all the Mazatec consonants for the San Jeronimo dialect. Note that it is written differently from other dialects:

t ‘t’ without aspiration
tj ‘t’ with a little aspiration afterwards (t-hhh)
jt ‘t’ pre-aspirated (hhh-t)
ts ‘ts’ without aspiration
tsj ‘ts’ with a little aspiration afterwards (ts-hhh)
jts ‘ts’ pre-aspirated (hhh-ts)
ch ‘ch’ without aspiration
chj ‘ch’ with a little aspiration afterwards (ch-hhh)
jch ‘ch’ pre-aspirated (hhh-ch)
chr a retroflex 'ch' with no aspiration
k ‘k’ without aspiration
kj ‘k’ with a little aspiration afterwards (k-hhh)
jk ‘k’ pre-aspirated (hhh-k)
s ‘s’ without aspiration, retroflex
sj ‘s’ with aspiration afterwards (s-hhh)
js ‘s’ pre-aspirated (hhh-s)
x ‘sh’ without aspiration, slightly retroflex
xj ‘sh’ with aspiration afterwards (sh-hhh)
jx ‘sh’ pre-aspirated (hhh-sh)
m ‘m’
mj aspirated ‘m’
n ‘n’
nj aspirated ‘n’
nd semi nasal ‘t’ tending to ‘d’
nts semi nasal ‘ts’ tending to ‘dz’
nch semi nasal ‘ch’ tending to ‘j’
ng semi nasal ‘k’ tending to ‘g’
ngj semi nasal ‘k’ tending to ‘g’ post-aspirated (nk-hhh)
jng semi nasal ‘k’ tending to ‘g’ preaspirated (hhh-nk)
ň ‘ny’
ňj aspirated ‘ny’
p ‘p’ softened
pj ‘p’ soft and breathless
f ‘f’ softened
fj ‘f’ soft and breathless
y ‘y’ ~ ‘γ’ ~ ‘dž’
yj ‘y’ ~ ‘γ’ ~ ‘dž’ post-aspirated (y-hhh)
jy ‘y’ ~ ‘γ’ ~ ‘dž’ preaspirated (hhh-y)
r ‘r’ as a flap /ŗ/
rk ‘r’ is voiceless + ‘k’
‘ glottal stop (like the sound in ‘uh-oh’)

Vowels

Vowels are fairly complex in San Jeronimo Mazatec, but not quite as complex as Chiquihuitlan Mazatec. They come in three varieties: normal, breathy and nasal. As I haven’t been able to analyse nasal vowels, they’re not going to be covered here.

A normal vowel is like one pronounced in English ‘ah’ ‘eh’ ‘oh’ etc

A breathy vowel is a normal vowel accompanied by a puff of breath, such that the vowel becomes kind of whispered: ‘ahhh’ ‘ehhh’ ‘ohhh’ etc. This is a voiceless vowel. You whisper the vowel heavily with breath. In San Jeronimo Mazatec, a breathy vowel is marked by following it with the letter ‘j’ – aj, ej, oj.

i a very tight, fronted ‘ee’
ij voiceless, breathy ‘ee’
e a little like French ‘é’
ej voiceless, breathy ‘é’
æ a little like German ö
æj voiceless, breathy ‘ö’
a ‘ah’ sound
aj voiceless, breathy ‘ah’
o ‘o’ in ‘pot’, strongly rounded
oj voiceless, breathy ‘o’
u deep back ‘oo’ sound
uj voiceless, breathy ‘u’

Tones and Contours

A tone is a pitch of the voice spoken across the whole syllable, and in Mazatec, like in Chinese, a different pitch or tone of the voice can cause you to say a word of a different meaning:

chà (with mid-low tone) ‘man’
chá (with high tone) ‘dance’

There are four tones in Eloxochitlan Mazatec:

á high tone (marked with acute accent)
a mid tone (unmarked)
à low-mid tone (marked with grave accent)
a low tone (underlined)

Strictly speaking in Eloxochitlan Mazatec, there are no contours. More correctly, contours occur only on long vowels, and since in the writing system, each long vowel is written as two vowels – aa, ee, oo, etc – we can simply analyse contoured long vowels as two vowels, each with their own tone:

áa high to low contour – falling pitch-tone
aá mid to high contour – slightly rising tone
àa low-mid to low contour – slightly falling tone
àá low-mid to high contour – three quarter rising tone
aa mid to low contour – slightly falling tone
áà rising-falling contour

= GREETING PHRASES =

All languages have their own unique greetings which convey senses of friendship and welcome appropriate to the cultures in which they are spoken. In San Jeronimo & Eloxochitlan Mazatec, it is appropriate, not simply to greet someone, but to ask where they are going - or more accurately, if they are going somewhere. No clear reply is needed, as the standard "I'm just going" reply shows below.

The original conversation on which these greeting phrases are based can be found at the website of SIL Mexico organisation and is copyright both to that organisation and to the Instituto Linguistico Verano.

The intention behind these notes is to give a general impression of the language for those interested in Mazatec culture and to enrich their knowledge of the lives of the people who discovered and propagated the entheogens for which they are justly famous.

A saá tji’mi?	Are you just going? - (Are you going just now?)
Saá tífia	I'm just going - (I'm going just now)

Ta ‘koaá nda kjòn ni	I hope you are doing well - (Just this way, goodness to you)
Ta ‘koaá nda ni	I hope you're doing well too - (Just this goodness to you)

Ndaá chon itsé ‘ndi	The weather's nice today - (A little good is the environment)
Ndaá chon ni	Yes, the weather's nice - (Good is the environment)

Ndaá ‘sín ni mì ‘koa	It's turned out nice, hasn't it? - (Does it not well?)
Ndaá ‘sín ni	Yes, it's turned out nice - (It does well)

Ndaá maxá ná	One can work well - (Work is done well by us)
Machjeén ijye ní	All kinds of weather are useful (for work) - (It does well)
Machjeén tsje ní	Everything is useful - (All is useful)

Yii, ya skajién tsakoa	Well, we'll meet again, then - (Well, we'll meet there then)
Nda tjín tsakoa	OK, again - (It is good then)

= NUMBERS =

Here are the numbers in Eloxochitlan Mazatec from one through to one hundred. Notice how superficially similar some of them are, and hence the improtance of clear pronunciation of long or nasal vowels, and aspirated or semi-nasal consonants.

1	jngoò
2	jò
3	jàn
4	ñijòn
5	‘òn
6	jòn
7	itoò
8	jíìn
9	ñijàn
10	te
11	tejngoò
12	tejò
13	tejàn
14	teñijòn
15	chrj'oòn
16	chrj'oòn jngoò
17	chrj'oòn jò
18	chrj'oòn jàn
19	chrj'oòn ñijòn
20	kaàn
21	kaàn ko jngoò
22	kaàn ko jò
28	kaàn ko jíìn
30	kate
40	ichán
50	ichán te
60	jàn kaàn
65	jàn kaàn ko ‘òn
70	jàn kaàn ko te
75	jàn kaàn ko chrj'oòn
80	ñijòn kaàn
90	ñijòn kaàn ko te
100	jngoò sindo

= WORDLIST =

The following wordlist was compiled from a variety of sources, most notably the SIL Mexico Eloxochitlan Mazatec information and greetings web pages. Other sources have included a document on Mazatec numbers in the (as it was called) San Jeronimo dialect. The intention behind these notes is to give a general impression of the language for those interested in Mazatec culture and to enrich their knowledge of the lives of the people who discovered and propagated the entheogens for which they are justly famous.

a	‘yes/no question particle’
chá	‘man’
chà	‘dance’
chan	‘brown’
chaán	‘finally’
chjá	‘difficult’
chja	‘he speaks’
chon	‘environment, weather, conditions’
chrj'oòn	‘fifteen’
ichán	‘forty’
ijye	‘all kinds of things, many things’
Inaja	‘San Pedro Ocopetatillo village’
itoò	‘seven’
itsé	‘a little, a bit’
jàn	‘three’
jchá	‘old, elderly’
jchán	‘sober, angry’
jchan	‘orphan’
jíìn	‘eight’
jngoò	‘one’
jò	‘two’
jòn	‘six’
jtse	‘guava’
jtsé	‘boil, spot’
jts'é	‘rotten’
jts'én	‘sprout, young shoot’
kaàn	‘twenty’
kate	‘thirty’
kjòn	‘very, very much’
k o	‘with, and’
mì	‘not, is not’
machjeén	‘useful’
mangásòn	‘word’
maxá	‘work, work gets done’
Méxikò	‘ Mexico ’
ná	‘to us, by us’
naxindá	‘other, some other, also’
Naxitsje	‘Oaxaca state, Mexico ’
Na’xì	‘Santa Cruz Acatepec village’
nda	‘good, well’
ndaá	‘good, well’
Ndíixo	‘San Francisco Huehuetlan village’
ni	‘to you, by you’
ñijàn	‘nine’
ñijòn	‘four’
Nguixó	‘Eloxochitlan village’
saá	‘just now, round about now’
Salaka	‘San Jeronimo village’
sind o	‘hundred’
skajién	‘we will meet’
ta	‘just’
te	‘ten’
tejàn	‘thirteen’
tejngoò	‘eleven’
tejò	‘twelve’
teñijòn	‘fourteen’
tífia	‘I am going’
Tijo	‘Huautla town’
tji’mì	‘you are going’
tjín	‘it is, it exists’
tsakoa	‘then, at that time’
tse	‘big, large’
tsje	‘clean’
tsjè	‘hot’
tsje	‘guaje tree’
tsje	‘everything, all things’
tsjén	‘honey’
ya	‘there, in that place’
yii	‘well, well then’
‘chá	‘a load, something to carry’
‘Én	‘Mazatec people’
‘koa	‘so, in this way’
‘koaá	‘thus, in this way’
‘ndi	‘now, currently, right now’
‘òn	‘five’
‘sín	‘do’
‘tse	‘lazy’
‘tse	‘his, belonging to him’
‘tsen	‘violent’

Chiquihuitlan Mazatec

Numbers

Copyright (c) 2002-2008 Bruce Rimell : All images, artwork, writings, texts and other information on this site
are copyrighted to Bruce Rimell and may not be reproduced in any form unless stated otherwise.