The Interplay Between Phonology and Morphology in the First Language Acquisition of Totontepec Mixe

Download or read book The Interplay Between Phonology and Morphology in the First Language Acquisition of Totontepec Mixe written by Sofia Gottlieb Pierson and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report describes the phonological development of Totontepec Mixe among four children (ages 2;3, 3;9, 4;7, and 4;11) with particular attention to the morphological processes that interact with and complicate phonology. Totontepec Mixe, a Mixe-Zoque language, is spoken by approximately 5000 people in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico. For centuries, Mixe speakers have been powerfully resisting accelerating language shift to Spanish, yet with each generation fewer children learn Totontepec Mixe. This investigation adds to the growing body of work describing the acquisition of the world’s languages in the face of unprecedented global language shift driven by colonization and globalization. This work, however, also recognizes and honors the survivance (Vizenor 1994) of Totontepec Mixe by demonstrating its continued use among a new generation of child speakers. The present analysis takes as its point of departure the characterization of the order in which the consonants, vowel qualities, and vowel nucleus shapes of Totontepec Mixe are acquired. It further explores the ways in which children reckon with the complex interplay between phonology and morphology in three domains: the acquisition of single-segment morphological formatives, the realization of the consonant clusters that stem largely from concatenation of these single-segment formatives, and the acquisition of the elaborate morphological system of vowel quality and vowel nucleus shape alternation that works in tandem with concatenative morphology. The goal of this research is to think beyond the documentation of child language and towards Mixe language reclamation, particularly with regard to language teaching. Language reclamation centered on children has proven extraordinarily effective in promoting multilingualism, a sustainable model for the preservation and celebration of linguistic and cultural diversity