Mazatecan phonology

Like many other Oto-Manguean languages, Mazatecan languages have complex phonologies characterized by complex tone systems and several uncommon phonation phenomena such as creaky voice, breathy voice and ballistic syllables. The following review of a Mazatecan phoneme inventory will be based on the description of the Jalapa de Díaz variety published by Silverman, Blankenship et al. (1995).

Comparative Mazatec phonology
The Mazatecan variety with the most thoroughly described phonology is that of Jalapa de Díaz which has been described in two publications by Silverman, Blankenship, Kirk and Ladefoged (1994 and 1995). This description is based on acoustic analysis and contemporary forms of phonological analysis. To give an overview of the phonological variety among Mazatecan languages, it is presented here and compared to the earlier description of Chiquihuitlán Mazatec published by the SIL linguist A. R. Jamieson, in 1977. This description is not based on modern acoustic analysis and relies on a much more dated phonological theory, so it should be regarded as a tentative account. One fundamental distinction between the analyses is that where Silverman et al. analyze distinctions between aspirated and nasalized consonants, Jamieson analyzes these as sequences of two or more phonemes, arriving therefore at a much smaller number of consonants.

Vowels
There is considerable differences in the number of vowels in different Mazatec varieties. Huautla de Jímenez Mazatec has only four contrasting vowel qualities /i e a o/, whereas Chiquihuitlán has six.

Jalapa Mazatec has a basic five vowel system contrasting back and front vowels and closed and open vowel height, with an additional mid high back vowel. Additional vowels distinguish, oral, nasal, breathy and creaky phonation types. There is some evidence that there are also ballistic syllables contrasting with non-ballistic ones.

Chiquihuitlán Mazatec on the other hand is described as having 6 vowels and a nasal distinction. Jamieson does not describe a creaky/breathy phonation distinction but instead describes vowels interrupted by glottal stop or aspiration corresponding to creakiness and breathiness respectively.

Tone
Tone systems differ markedly between varieties. Jalapa Mazatec has three level tones (high, mid, low) and at least 6 contour tones (high-mid, low-mid, mid-low, mid-high, low-high, high-low-high). Chiquihuitlán Mazatec has a more complex tone system with four level tones (high, midhigh, midlow, low) and 13 different contour tones (high-low, midhigh-low, midlow-low, high-high (longer than a single high), midhigh-high, midlow-high, low-high, high-high-low, midhigh-high-low, midlow-high-low, low-high-low, low-midhigh-low, low-midhigh).

Mazatec of Huautla de Jimenez´ has distinctive tones on every syllable, and the same seems to be the case in Chiquihuitlán. Mazatec only distinguishes tone on certain syllables. But Huautla Mazatec has no system of tonal sandhi, whereas the Soyaltepec and Chiquihuitlán varieties have complex sandhi rules.

Consonants
Jalapa Mazatec has a three-way contrast between aspirated/voiceless, voiced, and nasalized articulation for all plosives, nasals and approximants. The lateral occurs only in loanwords, and the tap  occurs in only one morpheme, the clitic a "probably". The bilabial aspirated and plain stops are also marginal phonemes.