A phonological sketch of the Santo Domingo de Morelos variety of Miahuatec Zapotec

The phonology of the Santo Domingo de Morelos Miahuatec exhibits the typical features of Southern Zapotec languages: (1) it is a tonal language with two-level tones (high, low), and two contour tones (falling, rising), (2) it has non-modal phonation (laryngealization) (3) it shows an iambic (light-heavy) stress pattern, and (4) the fortis-lenis distinction covers both the segmental phonology and the moraic structure. Miahuatec Zapotec also displays some innovative features: (1) the constricted glottis feature is linked on the sec- ond mora of stressed syllables, (2) the fortis-lenis contrast is present only on non-sonorant consonants, (3) there are four contrastive tones and a surface extra high tone in the clitic group, (4) it exhibits a rare pattern of consonant clusters based on the fortis-lenis contrast, and (5) the acoustic correlates of stress are the duration of the rhyme instead of vowel duration or intensity, as has been proposed for other Zapotec languages.