# Sierra Popoluca

Sierra Popoluca, also known as Soteapanec, Soteapan Zoque, or Highland Popoluca, is a developing Mixe-Zoquean language of the Zoquean branch. It has 35,050 speakers (INALI, 2009) who live in the southern part of Veracruz, Mexico. Sierra Popoluca has two sister languages, Texistepec and Ayapanec, both of which are severely endangered.
The word popoluca means "gibberish” in Nahuatl, and the name Sierra Popoluca comes from the language being labelled as such at the time of conquest. To avoid the derogatory connotations of popoluca, some researchers have adopted the name Soteapanec for the language instead (named after the largest municipality it is spoken in). However, modern speakers do not seem to be concerned with the history of the word and simply see it as the name of their language. Natively, speakers refer to the language as Nuntajɨyi, which means "true word," and themselves as Nundajɨypappɨc.

## Distribution

Sierra Popoluca is spoken in the following municipalities:
* Soteapan
* Tatahuicapan
* Hueyapan de Ocampo
Other communities where it is spoken include Catemaco, Piedra Labrada, and Santa Rosa Cintepec. Nahuatl and Spanish are also spoken in nearby areas, and have influenced Sierra Popoluca through language contact.

## Writing system

Two Sierra Popoluca spellings have been developed, one by the SIL international and another by the Academia Veracruzana de las Lenguas Indígenas.
Sierra Popoluca alphabet (AVELI) :
| a | b | ch | d | dy | e | g | i | ɨ | j | k | l | m | n |
| ñ | ng | o | p | r | s | t | ts | ty | u | w | x | y | ' |
With the AVELI spelling, the long vowels are represented by doubling the letter, the glottal stop is represented by the apostrophe.
Sierra Popoluca alphabet (SIL) :
| a | b | c | ch | d | d́ | e | i | ɨ | j | k | l | m | n | ñ |
| ŋ | o | p | q | r | s | t | t́ | ts | u | w | x | y | z |
With the spelling of SIL, long vowels are represented with a macron below the letter and the glottal stop is indicated with the acute accent on the vowel which precedes it, except when it is between two vowels or at the end of word.

## Phonology
### Vowels

Sierra Popoluca has twelve vowel phonemes: six distinct short vowels (front vowels /i/ and /ɛ/, central vowels /ɘ/ and /a/, and back vowels /u/ and /ɔ/) with a corresponding long vowel for each.
Vowel Phonemes :
| | Front | Central-Back | Back |
| High | i iː | | u uː |
| High-mid | | ɘ ɘː | |
| Mid | ɛ ɛː | | ɔ ɔː |
| Low | | a aː | |

### Consonants

Sierra Popoluca's consonant inventory consists of thirteen consonants.
Consonant Phonemes :
| | Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
| Nasal | m | n | | ŋ | |
| Plosive | p | t | | k | ʔ |
| Affricate | | ts | | | |
| Fricative | | s | | | h |
| Approximant | w | | j | | |
| Unspecified segment | | | | | H |
Some words in Sierra Popoluca contain "an unspecified underlying segment, identified as the segment /H/. Depending on the environment it appears in, /H/ can alternate in three different ways, as described by the rules below:
/H/ Alternation Rules :
| (1) | H | →ː | / | V__C |
| (2) | H | →ːh | / | V__# |
| (3) | H | →Ø | / | V__wɘm |
In addition to its main consonant inventory, Sierra Popoluca also has a restricted phoneme inventory consisting of eleven consonants. These consonants are considered "restricted" because the only words they appear in are either ideophones, Spanish borrowings, or stylistic alterations.
Restricted Phonemes :
| | Bilabial | Alveolar | Alveo-palatal | Palatal | Velar |
| Stop | b | d | tʲ, dʲ | | g |
| Affricate | | | tʃ | | |
| Fricative | | | ʃ | | |
| Nasal | | | | ɲ | |
| Liquid | | l | | | |
| Flap | | ɾ | | | |
| Trill | | r | | | |

### Syllable structure

Sierra Popoluca's syllabic template is (C)CV(ː)(ʔ)(C)(C). Words containing examples of each syllable structure are given in the table below:
Syllables :
| Structure | Word | Translation |
| CV | [ku.'tʲuːm] | 'alone' |
| CVː | ['kɘː.piʰ] | 'firewood' |
| CVC | ['pakʰ] | 'bone' |
| CVːC | ['huːtʲʰ] | 'where' |
| CVʔC | ['kaʔn.puˀ] | 'egg' |
| CVʔCC | [ʔa.'sɔʔps.paˀ] | 'it tires me' |
| CCVC | ['traj.tʲiˀ] | 'kid, adolescent male' |
| CCVCC | ['kruʔj.tʲiˀ] | 'quail' |
Sierra Popoluca has phonotactic restrictions on both onset and coda clusters. For onsets, only the clusters /tr/, /kr/, and /kw/ are allowed. For codas, all two consonant clusters must begin with one of /p, k, ʔ/, and three consonant clusters are restricted to only /ʔps/ and /ʔks/.

### Stress

There are three degrees of stress in Sierra Popoluca: primary stress (which may fall on the penultimate or ultimate syllable), secondary stress (which is assigned to the leftmost syllable that is not a clitic), and tertiary stress (which falls on the heaviest syllable preceding primary stress). Words containing examples of each stress paradigm are given in the table below:
Stress Paradigms :
| Paradigm | Word | Translation |
| Primary | nümnéʔ | 'He had said.' |
| Secondary | nǜmneʔyájpa | 'They have said.' |
| Tertiary | nǜmmàʔyyajtáabam | 'They are told.' |

## Morphology

Sierra Popoluca is an agglutinating, polysynthetic language whose morpheme inventory is primarily inflectional and consists of roughly an equal number of clitics and suffixes, with no prefixes. The morphological processes reduplication and compounding are also observed in Sierra Popoluca.
Sierra Popoluca has three major word classes: nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

### Suffixes

Sierra Popoluca has 28 suffixes, all of which can be categorized as either derivational, inflectional, or valency adjusting. Nouns only take derivational suffixes whereas verbs take suffixes from all three categories. Examples of each suffix type are given in the table below:
Suffix Examples :
| Suffix | Type | Function | Word | Gloss | Translation |
| -i | Derivational | Nominalizer | wiʔk-i | eat-NOM | 'food' |
| -ü | Inflectional | Imperative | koony-ü | sit-IMP | 'sit' (command) |
| -ʔüʔy | Derivational | Provisory | jawanh-ʔüʔy | fever-PROV | 'have a fever' |
| -ʔiny | Inflectional | Optative | matonh-ʔiny | listen-OPT | 'should listen' |
| -taH | Valency adjusting | Passive | suy-taH | lasso-PASS | 'be lassoed' |

### Proclitics

There are 17 proclitics in Sierra Popoluca. Out of these, ten are used for person marking, three are used for valency adjusting, two are derivational, and the final two have other, unique functions. Verbs in Sierra Popoluca can take all proclitic types while nouns can take all but valency adjusting proclitics. Examples of various proclitics are given in the table below:
Proclitic Examples :
| Proclitic | Type | Function | Word | Gloss | Translation |
| ʔan+ | Person marking | 1st person possessive, exclusive | ʔan+ʔakʔanh | 1POSS:EXCL+griddle | 'my griddle' |
| ʔiga+ | Other | Complementizer | ʔiga+Ø+teeny-W | COMP+3ABS+stand-CMP | 'that [he] was standing up' |
| tan+ | Person marking | 1st person ergative, inclusive | tan+juy | 1ERG:INCL+buy | 'we buy' |
| ʔak+ | Valency adjusting | Causative | ʔak+kuʔt | CAUS+eat | 'feed' |
| ʔagi+ | Other | Intensifier | ʔagi+wej | INTENS+cry | 'cry a lot' |

### Enclitics

Sierra Popoluca has nine enclitics, six of which are adverbial, two of which are inflectional, and one of which is a relativizer. Nouns can take all three types of enclitic whereas verbs can only take adverbial enclitics. Examples of each enclitic type are given in the table below:
Enclitic Examples :
| Enclitic | Type | Function | Word | Gloss | Translation |
| +yaj | Inflectional | 3rd/nonhuman plural | tzaʔ+yaj | rock+NHPL | 'rocks' |
| +tyi | Adverbial | "just" | yüʔüm+tyi | here+just | 'just over here' |
| +tam | Inflectional | 1st/2nd human plural | yoomo+tam | woman+HPL | 'women' |
| +püʔk | Relativizer | Relativizer | tum puktuuku yagatz+püʔk | one cloth large+REL | 'a cloth that's large' |
| +nam | Adverbial | "still" | tzüüxi+nam | small+still | 'still small' |

### Reduplication

Reduplication of the root (full reduplication) is observed with both nouns and verbs in Sierra Popoluca, and can be inflectional or derivational. Though generally used to convey intensity or frequency, reduplication can also express "a sense of wandering around repeating an action" when paired with the ambulative suffix -ʔoʔy. Various examples of reduplication are given in the table below:
Reduplication Examples :
| Function | Word | Gloss | Translation |
| Derivational | looko~looko | sound~REDUP | 'shout' |
| Frequency, intensity | ʔaʔm~ʔaʔm | look~REDUP | 'watch' |
| Ambulative | monh~monh-ʔoʔy | sleep~REDUP-AMBUL | 'sleep from place to place' |
| Frequency, intensity | was~was | bite~REDUP | 'bite repeatedly' |
| Intensity | ʔuk~ʔuk | drink~REDUP | 'drink all' |

### Compounding

Compounding is observed in all word classes in Sierra Popoluca and is highly productive. Various examples of compound words are given in the table below:
Compounding Examples :
| Structure | Word | Gloss | Translation |
| N=N | mok=yooya | corn=pig | 'peccary' |
| N=V | pooy=ʔix | moon=see | 'menstruate' |
| N=N | tzuj-i=nüʔ | spit-NOM=water | 'saliva' |
| ADJ=N | müj=pak | big=bone | 'waist' |
| N=V | manük=wat | child=make | 'impregnate' |

## Syntax

Sierra Popoluca is an ergative-absolutive, head-marking language. At minimum, the basic clause can consist of just a predicate, as shown below:
ʔa+seet-pa
1ABS:EXCL+return-INC
ʔa+seet-pa
1ABS:EXCL+return-INC
'I return.'
At maximum, it can include an inflected complex predicate and up to three modified arguments:
ʔan+jaatunh
1POSS:EXCL+father
ʔi+maʔy=chiʔ-W
3ERG+sell=give-COMPL
tunh.gak
one.another
püüxiny
man
jeʔm
that
ʔan+yooya
1POSS:EXCL+pig
ʔan+jaatunh ʔi+maʔy=chiʔ-W tunh.gak püüxiny jeʔm ʔan+yooya
1POSS:EXCL+father 3ERG+sell=give-COMPL one.another man that 1POSS:EXCL+pig
'My father sold another man my pig.'

### Basic word order

Word order in Sierra Popoluca is pragmatically determined for the most part. In transitive sentences, all six possible word orders are attested, as shown below:
VSO
ʔokmü
after
ʔi+ma?y-W
3ERG+sell-COMPL
ʔan+tüüwü
1POSS:EXCL+brother
jeʔm
that
potro
colt
ʔokmü ʔi+ma?y-W ʔan+tüüwü jeʔm potro
after 3ERG+sell-COMPL 1POSS:EXCL+brother that colt
'Afterward, my brother sold the mare.'
VOS
ʔi+ʔix-W
3ERG+see-COMPL
kaʔnpu
egg
jeʔm
that
choomo
grandmother
nüʔ-küʔ.mü
water-at/during
ʔi+ʔix-W kaʔnpu jeʔm choomo nüʔ-küʔ.mü
3ERG+see-COMPL egg that grandmother water-at/during
'The old woman saw the egg in the water.'
SVO
jeʔm
that
yoomo
woman
ʔagi+ʔi+ʔaʔm-W
INT+3ERG+look-COMPL
jeʔm
that
tzuʔukiny
worm
jeʔm yoomo ʔagi+ʔi+ʔaʔm-W jeʔm tzuʔukiny
that woman INT+3ERG+look-COMPL that worm
'The woman looked intensely at the worm.'
SOV
jay=tzüüx+tyam+yaj
boy=child+HPL+NHPL
woonyi+tyam
girls+HPL
ʔi+mük.ʔüʔy.ʔaʔy-yaj-pa
3ERG+lie.ANTIP.BEN-3PL-INC
jay=tzüüx+tyam+yaj woonyi+tyam ʔi+mük.ʔüʔy.ʔaʔy-yaj-pa
boy=child+HPL+NHPL girls+HPL 3ERG+lie.ANTIP.BEN-3PL-INC
'The boys cheat the girls.'
OVS
yüʔp
this
many=mok
young=corn
ʔi+na+miny-W+ʔam
3ERG+ASS+come-COMPL+IAM
ʔin+müʔüt
2ERG+son.in.law
yüʔp many=mok ʔi+na+miny-W+ʔam ʔin+müʔüt
this young=corn 3ERG+ASS+come-COMPL+IAM 2ERG+son.in.law
'Your son in law brought this corn.'
OSV
mich
2PRO
ʔin+choomo
2POSS+grandmother
dya
NEG
jeʔm+püʔk
that+REL
mi+toy-taʔm-pa
2ABS+love-1:2PL-INC
mich ʔin+choomo dya jeʔm+püʔk mi+toy-taʔm-pa
2PRO 2POSS+grandmother NEG that+REL 2ABS+love-1:2PL-INC
'Your grandmother doesn't love you.'
In intransitive sentences, both possible word orders are attested:
SV
jeʔm
the
toro
bull
tzaʔ-küʔüm
stone-at/during
Ø+nuʔk-pa
3ABS+arrive-INC
jeʔm toro tzaʔ-küʔüm Ø+nuʔk-pa
the bull stone-at/during 3ABS+arrive-INC
'The bull arrives at the rock.'
VS
Ø+nuʔk-W+ʔam
3ABS+arrive-COMPL-IAM
jeʔm
that
yoomo
woman
Ø+nuʔk-W+ʔam jeʔm yoomo
3ABS+arrive-COMPL-IAM that woman
'The woman arrives.'
However, not all word orders are used with equal frequency; an analysis of over 4,000 clauses from various texts found the following distribution of word orders in transitive and intransitive sentences:
Distribution of Word Orders by Transitivity
Transitive :
| Order | Frequency |
| SVO | 72.37% |
| VSO | 5.26% |
| VOS | 7.89% |
| OVS | 6.58% |
| OSV | 2.63% |
| SOV | 5.26% |
Intransitive :
| Order | Frequency |
| SV | 34.86% |
| VS | 65.14% |

### Relative word order

In terms of relative word order, Sierra Popoluca exhibits some structural features common to VO (verb initial) languages and some common to OV (verb final) languages. A few examples of these structures are given below:
* Possessor precedes possessum (common to OV languages)
diablo
devil
ʔi+jos
3POSS+hole
diablo ʔi+jos
devil 3POSS+hole
‘devil's hole (hell)’
* Auxiliary verb precedes main verb (common to VO languages)
püüxiny
man
moj-W
begin-COMPL
Ø+wej-i
3ABS+cry-DEP
püüxiny moj-W Ø+wej-i
man begin-COMPL 3ABS+cry-DEP
‘The man began to cry.’
* Complementizer precedes complement clause (common to VO languages)
ʔi+ʔix-W+tyi+ʔam
3ERG+see-COMPL+just+IAM
ʔiga+ʔüch
COMP+1PRO
dya
NEG
ʔan+joʔy-kaʔ-W
1ERG:EXCL+be.angry-INSTR-COMPL
ʔi+ʔix-W+tyi+ʔam ʔiga+ʔüch dya ʔan+joʔy-kaʔ-W
3ERG+see-COMPL+just+IAM COMP+1PRO NEG 1ERG:EXCL+be.angry-INSTR-COMPL
‘He saw that I wasn't angry.’

### Order of nominal modifiers

Nouns in Sierra Popoluca can be modified by determiners, adjectives, quantifiers, possessors, and relative clauses. Whether a modifier precedes or follows the noun it is modifying depends on the modifier, as illustrated below:
* Demonstratives precede the nouns they modify
ʔoy-taʔm-W
go.and.return-1:2PL-COMPL
yüʔp
this
kootzük
hill
ʔoy-taʔm-W yüʔp kootzük
go.and.return-1:2PL-COMPL this hill
‘We went to these hills.’
* Adjectives precede the nouns they modify
ʔi+na+miny-wü
3ERG+ASS+come-COMPL
puro
pure
muja
wet
kuy
tree
ʔi+na+miny-wü puro muja kuy
3ERG+ASS+come-COMPL pure wet tree
‘He brought pure wet wood.’
* Relative clauses may either precede or follow the nouns they modify
jeʔm
that
ʔi+na+ʔity-yaj-W
3ERG+ASS+be-3PL-COMPL
Ø+müjtam+püʔk
3ABS+big+REL
tük
house
jeʔm ʔi+na+ʔity-yaj-W Ø+müjtam+püʔk tük
that 3ERG+ASS+be-3PL-COMPL 3ABS+big+REL house
‘They have houses that are big.’
süʔüp
now
na+miny-ü
ASS+come-IMP
tuum
one
puktuuku
cloth
Ø+yagatz+püʔk
3ABS+long+REL
süʔüp na+miny-ü tuum puktuuku Ø+yagatz+püʔk
now ASS+come-IMP one cloth 3ABS+long+REL
‘Now, bring a cloth that's long.’

## Recordings

* Sierra Popoluca Collection of Lynda Boudreault from the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America. Contains 148 archival files, including audio recordings and transcripts from a wide range of genres.