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This paper presents a cross-linguistic investigation of a constraint on the use on intrinsic frames of reference proposed by Levelt (1984, 1996). This proposed constraint claims that use of intrinsic frames when the ground object is in non-canonical position is blocked due to conflict with gravitational-based reference frames. Regression models of the data from Arabic, K’iche’, Spanish, Yucatec, and Zapotec suggest that this constraint is valid across languages. However, the strength at which the constraint operates is predicted by the frequency of canonical intrinsic frames in the particular language. The ratio of the incidence of intrinsic usage with canonical vs. non-canonical orientation appears to be remarkably uniform across languages, which suggests the possibility of a strong cognitive universal.

The study of linguistic and cognitive strategies for spatial referencing has seen an increase in studies reported in the literature since the 1970s. This research has moved from formulating theorie...

En este trabajo se presenta un relato contemporáneo titulado Teria, escrito por Víctor Cata en diidxazá, lengua zapoteca de la planicie costera del sureste de Oaxaca. Teria es la narración de una práctica ritual mortuoria de los zapotecos del Istmo en la cual se aprecia la continuidad y la preocupación de los zapotecos por escribir y narrar en su propio idioma. A través de este texto contemporáneo se muestran algunos de los retos que enfrenta la implementación del Alfabeto Popular para la escritura del Zapoteco del Istmo que, a pesar de tener una tradición larga de uso desde 1956, sigue presentando desafíos para quienes lo escriben y enseñan. Dichos retos están relacionados con la definición mismade lo que constituye una palabra en diidxazá. Este trabajo considera algunos criterios que pudieran permitir la homologación de la constitución de la palabra ortográfica —es decir de la unidad escrita entre dos espacios— para efectos de facilitar la creación literaria contemporánea en diidxazá y la difusión de textos como Teria. Para este propósito, se define el concepto de palabra ortográfica enconjunto con los conceptos de palabra fonológica y palabra gramatical.

This study presents a comprehensive analysis of verb classes in Juchitan Zapotec, an Otomanguean language belonging to the Zapotec branch of Zapotecan, following the four-class system of verbal classification laid out in earlier work by Terrence Kaufman. Our analysis, based on a thorough review of over two thousand Juchitan Zapotec verbs, confirms the applicability of the four-class system to Juchitan Zapotec data, improving over previous analyses of verbal morphology in the language and adding to the evidence that this system can be applied throughout the Zapotecan family (including Chatino); further, our study stresses the relevance of data-driven rather than theory-driven linguistic analyses.

Language revitalization aims at reversing language shift. This chapter seeks to expand knowledge about ongoing efforts to sustain the use of languages by means of a study that goes beyond the relatively limited number of often cited case studies that have been reported in the relevant literature, and endeavors to document the diversity of efforts around the world for the purposes of comparative analysis. The authors report on the results of a pilot of the Global Survey of Language Revitalization Efforts carried out by Recovering Voices (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian) in collaboration with the Linguistics Department at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. This survey is, to their knowledge, the first attempt at analyzing revitalization comparatively across cultural and geographic contexts to shed light on correlations among variables that foster positive outcomes in language revitalization—and on correlations that may represent challenges.

We examine the extent to which practices of language use may be diffused through language contact and areally shared, using data on spatial reference frame use by speakers of eight indigenous languages from in and around the Mesoamerican linguistic area and three varieties of Spanish. Regression models show that the frequency of L2-Spanish use by speakers of the indigenous languages predicts the use of relative reference frames in the L1 even when literacy and education levels are accounted for. A significant difference in frame use between the Mesoamerican and non-Mesoamerican indigenous languages further supports the contact diffusion analysis.

San Lucas Quiavini is a community of Zapotec (Otomanguean) speakers in Oaxaca, Mexico. Since the 1970s, the community has seen large-scale migration to Los Angeles, California, where about half the community now resides. Participant observation and interviews conducted over nine years in both locales, with a focus on interactional patterns in the home domain, indicate that parental language ideologies concerning the relationship between language and place of birth, the nature of multilingual acquisition and impact belief—the belief that parents have as to the level of control they can exercise over their children’s language choices (De Houwer in Studies on language acquisition. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, 1999), taken together, disfavor the maintenance of the heritage language. In particular, a weak impact belief undermines parents’ ability to engage in language interventions in support of San Lucas Quiavini Zapotec. As a result, family-external language intervention factors that promote language shift, such as the school and peer groups, exert great influence. With a substantial number of San Lucas families living in California and their impact on language choices in the home community (Perez Baez in press), family language policy is of great relevance to the survival prospects of San Lucas Quiavini Zapotec not only in diaspora but also in the home community.

Up to now, the focus in the field of language documentation has been predominantly on North American and Australian languages. However, the greatest genetic diversity in languages is found in Latin America, home to over 100 distinct language families. This book gives the Latin American context the attention it requires by consolidating the work of field researchers experienced in the region into one volume for the first time.

This article analyzes language shift from San Lucas Quiavini Zapotec to Spanish among adults in Los Angeles, California, and a subsequent language shift reversal. These patterns correlate with schooling in San Lucas. Initially, established migrants assisted Zapotec-monolingual newcomers in learning Spanish by shifting to it in the home domain. This occurred between close relatives such as spouses, parents and their children, and siblings. As Spanish education became available in San Lucas, migrants were increasingly Zapotec-Spanish bilinguals, language shift in the home relaxed, and Zapotec was again favored in adult conversation. This highlights the relevance of plurilingualism in supporting linguistic diversity.

This article reports on spatial frames of reference (FoRs) preferences in Juchiteco (Zapotec, Otomanguean). The data show that speakers exhibit a strong preference for the absolute and object-centered FoRs, both observer-independent, and overall disfavor most other FoR types. Of particular interest is the limited use of the relative (observer-dependent) FoR. This is relevant in a language such as Juchiteco, which has a productive meronymic (part-naming) system, as it supports the hypothesis put forth by the Spatial Language and Cognition in Mesoamerica project that productive meronymy correlates with a bias against the use of the relative FoR.

This study centers on the impact of migration on the vitality of San Lucas Quiavini Zapotec (SLQZ) spoken in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico. The data show (a) that children in Los Angeles, whether US- or Mexican-born, are not growing up as active SLQZ speakers and (b) that given sustained travel between the two communities, language use in Los Angeles is replicated in San Lucas, thereby introducing Spanish and English into otherwise Zapotec-only domains such as the home. The case of SLQZ is one in which a language vitality assessment that considers the home community only, would lead to an incorrect evaluation. Signs of language endangerment become evident in a sociolinguistic analysis that crosses borders.