Mixtec language is largely spoken in the area of San Juan Mixtepec, district of Juxtlahuaca, state of Oaxaca.
[3] While tone in Mixtepec Mixtec is used to mark lexical distinctions, it can also be used to express morpho-syntactic, morpho-semantic, and adverbial functions.
*Taken from, 'A phonological Sketch of the Yucunany Dialect of Mixtepec Mixtec'* (The symbols encased within the parentheses are phonemes that are used very little in the language or, they only occur in loanwords.)
[4] The Mixtepec Mixtec language has monomorphemic couplets that exhibit a maximum of three tones (high, mid, and low).
*Taken from, 'A Phonological Sketch of the Yucunany Dialect of Mixtepec Mixtec'* A, CH, D, E, G, I, Ɨ, J, K, L, M, N, Nd, Ng, Ñ, O, P, R, S, T, Ts, U, V, X, Y [5] [6] [6] [6] The letters d, f, g, j, p, and rr are only used when they are taken or borrowed from Spanish.
[8] Mixtepec Mixtec English 'Siki so’o' 'Earrings' 'Kua’an' 'Go' 'Kuis nchua’ati tutu' 'The animal is carrying a lot of wood' 'Kuan’an skuela kutu’u nuu skuleru' 'Go to school to learn from a teacher' When a verb starts with /t/, /ts/, /k/, or /sk/, the past tense aspect is nì-, although it may vary because the completive aspect is not as marked but still sustains the L tone prefix.
[4] Mixtec Mixtepec English (Present Participle) ká’à yù ‘I am talking’ kíkuù ‘I am sewing’ (Past Tense) nìkà à yù ‘I talked’ nìkìkuù ‘I sewed’ When a verb starts with /k/ as shown in the example above, it is expressed as present participle, while the prefix nì- is the past tense of /k/.
[4] Mixtepec Mixtec English [4] (Present Participle) Tíiì ‘I am holding’ Tzí’iì ‘I am drinking’ (Past Tense) Ndìiì ‘I held’ Ndzì’iì ‘I drank’ When the verb begins with /t/ it is expressed in present participle, however the past tense prefix are n(d)i- and n(dz)ì- .
[4] (First person singular suffixes) Mixtepec Mixtec English Mixtepec Mixtec English nàmá ‘soap’ nàmáà ‘my soap’ tìinà ncháá ‘blue dog’ tìinà nchááà ‘my blue dog’ sòkò ‘shoulder’ sòkò yù ‘my shoulder’ ve’e nchá’ì ‘black house’ ve’e nchá’ì yù ‘my black house’ The suffix in first person singular are marked in the form -yù when they are final L tone, therefore when it is not unmarked it shown to have a repetitive vowel with accent above the vowel <à, ì, ù>.
[10] (Third person singular) [10] Mixtepec Mixtec English Mixtepec Mixtec English sàmá ‘clothing’ sàmíì ‘his clothing vàá’a ‘bad’ vàá’ì ‘it is bad’ sì’ i ‘leg’ sì’aà ‘his leg’ kachìí ‘cotton’ kachìáà ‘she is dying’ The suffix in a pronoun that ends with à become -ì when it is third person singular, and for /i/ it is suffixed with -à.