[3][4] Identifying how many Mixtec languages there are in this complex dialect continuum poses challenges at the level of linguistic theory.

Denominations in various modern Mixtec languages include tu'un savi [tũʔũ saβi], tu'un isasi [tũʔũ isasi] or isavi [isaβi], tu'un va'a [tũʔũ βaʔa], tnu'u ñuu savi [tnũʔũ nũʔũ saβi], tno'on dawi [tnõʔõ sawi], sasau [sasau], sahan sau [sãʔã sau], sahin sau [saʔin sau], sahan ntavi [sãʔã ndavi], tu'un dau [tũʔũ dau], dahan davi [ðãʔã ðaβi], dañudavi [daɲudaβi], dehen dau [ðẽʔẽ ðau], and dedavi [dedavi].

The traditional range of the Mixtec languages is the region known as La Mixteca, which is shared by the states of Oaxaca, Puebla and Guerrero.

Because of migration from this region, mostly as a result of extreme poverty, the Mixtec languages have expanded to Mexico's main urban areas, particularly the State of México and the Federal District, to certain agricultural areas such as the San Quintín valley in Baja California and parts of Morelos and Sonora, and into the United States.

However, the dialects do not actually follow the geographic areas, and the precise historical relationships between the different varieties have not been worked out.

The number of varieties of Mixtec depends in part on what the criteria are for grouping them, of course; at one extreme, government agencies once recognized no dialectal diversity.

Mutual intelligibility surveys and local literacy programs have led SIL International to identify more than 50 varieties which have been assigned distinct ISO codes.

[13] Attempts to carry out literacy programs in Mixtec which cross these dialect boundaries have not met with great success.

It does not have a high functional load generally, although in some languages tone is all that indicates different aspects and distinguishes affirmative from negative verbs.

In most varieties, it is clear that nasalization is limited to the right edge of a morpheme (such as a noun or verb root), and spreads leftward until it is blocked by an obstruent (plosive, affricate or fricative in the list of Mixtec consonants).

This situation is known to have been characteristic of Mixtec for at least the last 500 years since the earliest colonial documentation of the language shows the same distribution of consonants.

The Mixtecs, like many other Mesoamerican peoples, developed their own writing system, and their codices that have survived are one of the best sources for knowledge about the pre-Hispanic culture of the Oaxacan region prior to the arrival of the Spaniards.

With the defeat of the lordship of Tututepec in 1522, the Mixtecs were brought under Spanish colonial rule, and many of their relics were destroyed.

Few printed materials in Mixtec exist and, up to a few years ago, written literature in the language was practically non-existent.

There is little exposure of Mixtec in the media, other than on the CDI's indigenous radio system – XETLA and XEJAM in Oaxaca; XEZV-AM in Guerrero; and XEQIN-AM in Baja California – and a bilingual radio station based in the US in Los Angeles, California, where a significant Mixtec community can be found.

In addition, most speakers are unaware of the official orthography adopted by the SEP and the Mixtec Academy, and some even doubt that their language can lend itself to a written form.

To obtain the present of an irregular verb, the tone is modified in accordance with set of complicated prosodic rules.

There is no difference in future and present causative verbs, but the past tense is invariably indicated by adding the particle ni-.

For example, a noun's number can be implicit if the phrase uses a plural pronoun (first person inclusive only) or if one of various verb affixes that modify the meaning are used: -koo and -ngoo (suffixes) and ka- (prefix).

Teandmáásameyó-kúuwe-areñayuupersonyúkuwe-livendéup-tolugarplaceyá'athisTe máá yó-kúu ñayuu yúku ndé lugar yá'aand same we-are person we-live up-to place this"We are the ones who live in this place"TeAndsukúansokándo'oPL-sufferñayuupersonTe sukúan kándo'o ñayuuAnd so PL-suffer person"In that way people suffer"TeAndni-kekooPST-arrived-PLte̱emanúnheTe ni-kekoo te̱e únAnd PST-arrived-PL man he"The men arrived"Deictic adverbs are often used in a noun phrase as demonstrative adjectives.

[24] Some Mixtec languages distinguish two such demonstratives, others three (proximal, medial, distal), and some four (including one that indicates something out of sight).

An example is limun (in San Martin Duraznos Oaxaca), which is known as lemon (limón in Spanish), also referred to as tzikua Iya (sour orange).

Prior to the Spanish Conquest in the early 16th century, the native peoples of Mesoamerica maintained several literary genres.

Their compositions were transmitted orally, through institutions at which members of the elite would acquire knowledge of literature and other areas of intellectual activity.

Most of the codices used to record historical events or mythical understanding of the world were destroyed, and the few that remain were taken away from the peoples that created them.

The key to deciphering these codices was rediscovered only in the mid-20th century, largely through the efforts of Alfonso Caso, as the Mixtec people had lost the understanding of their ancient rules of reading and writing.

However, the early Spanish missionaries undertook the task of teaching indigenous peoples (the nobility in particular) to read and write using the Latin alphabet.

Through music or the way in which certain rituals are carried out, popular Mixtec literature has survived as it did for millennia: by means of oral transmission.

At the same time, the Nezahualcóyotl Prize for indigenous language literature was created, in order to promote writing in Native American tongues.

The former has produced such notable writers as Raúl Gatica, who published works by several Mixtec poets in the book Asalto a la palabra, and Juan de Dios Ortiz Cruz, who in addition to collecting the region's lyrical compositions has also produced notable pieces of his own, such as Yunu Yukuninu ("Tree, Hill of Yucuninu").