Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-44mx8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-11T02:58:31.346Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Shifting voices with participant roles: Voice qualities and speech registers in Mesoamerica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2010

Mark A. Sicoli
Mark A. Sicoli
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Postbus 310 6500 AH Nijmegen, The [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although an increasing number of sociolinguistic researchers consider functions of voice qualities as stylistic features, few studies consider cases where voice qualities serve as the primary signs of speech registers. This article addresses this gap through the presentation of a case study of Lachixío Zapotec speech registers indexed though falsetto, breathy, creaky, modal, and whispered voice qualities. I describe the system of contrastive speech registers in Lachixío Zapotec and then track a speaker on a single evening where she switches between three of these registers. Analyzing line-by-line conversational structure I show both obligatory and creative shifts between registers that co-occur with shifts in the participant structures of the situated social interactions. I then examine similar uses of voice qualities in other Zapotec languages and in the two unrelated language families Nahuatl and Mayan to suggest the possibility that such voice registers are a feature of the Mesoamerican culture area. (Voice quality, register, performance, metapragmatics, Mesoamerica, Zapotecan, Mayan, Nahuatl)*

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , September 2010 , pp. 521 - 553
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Agha, Asif (1998). Stereotypes and registers of honorific language. Language in Society 27:151–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agha, Asif (2004). Registers of language. In Duranti, Alessandro (ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology, 23–45. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Agha, Asif (2005). Voice, footing, enregisterment. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 15(1):38–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agha, Asif (2007). Language and social relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Atkinson, Dwight, & Biber, Douglas (1994). Register: A review of empirical research. In Biber, Douglas & Finegan, Edward (eds.), Sociolinguistic perspectives on register, 351–85. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biber, Douglas, & Hared, Mohamed (1994). Linguistic correlates of the transition to literacy in Somali: Language adaptation in six press registers. In Biber, Douglas & Finegan, Edward (eds.), Sociolinguistic perspectives on register, 182–216. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1991). Language and symbolic power. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Brody, Jill (1986). Repetition as a rhetorical and conversational device in Tojolabal (Mayan). International Journal of American Linguistics 52(3):255–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brody, Jill (1994). Multiple repetitions in Tojolobal conversation. In Johnstone, Barbara (ed.), Repetition in discourse: Interdisciplinary perspectives, vol. 2, 3–14. New York: Ablex.Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope, & Levinson, Stephen C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Penelope; Le Guen, Olivier; & Sicoli, Mark A. (2009). Dialogic repetition in Tzeltal, Yucatec, and Zapotec conversation. Paper presented at the summer meeting of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, Berkeley, California.Google Scholar
Brown, Roger, & Gilman, Albert (1960). The pronouns of power and solidarity. In Sebeok, Thomas A. (ed.), Style in language, 253–76. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, Lyle; Kaufman, Terrence; & Smith-Stark, Thomas C. (1986). Meso-America as a linguistic area. Language 62:530–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Catford, J. C. (1964). Phonation types: The classification of some laryngeal components of speech production. In Abercrombie, David, Fry, D. B., MacCarthy, P. A. D., Scott, N. C., & Trim, J. L. M (eds.), In honour of Daniel Jones, 26–37. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Caton, Steven C. (1986). Salaam tahiiyah: Greetings from the highlands of Yemen. American Ethnologist 13:290–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elisabeth (2003). Intonation and discourse: Current views from within. In Schiffrin, Deborah, Tannen, Deborah, & Hamilton, Heidi E. (eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope, & McConnell-Ginet, Sally (2003). Language and gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Errington, Joseph (1988). Structure and style in Javanese: A semiotic view of linguistic etiquette. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, Charles (1978). Introduction. In Greenberg, Joseph (ed.), Universals of human language, vol. 3: Word structure, 1–6. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Furbee, Louanna (1976). The correct language, Tojolabal: A grammar with ethnographic notes. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Furbee, Louanna (1988). To ask one holy thing: Petition as a Tojolabal speech genre. In Brody, Jill & Thomas, John S. (eds.), The Tojolabal Maya: Ethnographic and linguistic approaches, 39–53. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University.Google Scholar
Gaudio, Rudolf P. (1994). Properties in the speech of gay and straight men. American Speech 69:30–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving (1981). Footing. In Goffman, Erving, Forms of talk, 124–59. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, Matthew, & Ladefoged, Peter (2001). Phonation types: A cross-linguistic overview. Journal of Phonetics 29:383–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graddol, David, & Swann, Joan (1989). Gender voices. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gumperz, John J. (1992). Contextualization and understanding. In Duranti, Alessandro & Goodwin, Charles (eds.), Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon, 229–52. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos. (1999). Discreteness and gradience in intonational contrasts. Language and Speech 42 (2–3):283–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos (2002). Why question intonations rise and why they sometimes fall. In Hoey, Michael & Scott, N. (eds.), Questions: Multiple perspectives on a common phenomenon. Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press.Google Scholar
Hall, Kira (1995). Lip service on the fantasy line. In Hall, Kira & Bucholtz, Mary (eds.), Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self, 183–216. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Haviland, John B. (1990). We want to borrow your mouth: Tzotzil marital squabbles. Anthropological Linguistics 30 (3–4):395–447.Google Scholar
Hay, Jennifer, & Drager, Katie (2007). Sociophonetics. Annual Review of Anthropology 36:89–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Jane H. (1995). The voices of Don Gabriel: Responsibility and moral grounds in a modern Mexicano narrative. In Tedlock, Dennis & Mannheim, Bruce (eds.), The dialogic emergence of culture, 97–147. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Hill, Jane H (2007). Discussion: Phonation, voice, and style. Paper presented at the 106th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Hill, Jane H.,, & Hill, Kenneth C. (1986). Speaking Mexicano. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Hymes, Dell (1974). Ways of speaking. In Bauman, Richard & Sherzer, Joel (eds.), Explorations in the ethnography of speaking, 433–51. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hymes, Dell (1983). Sapir, competence, voices. In Fillmore, Charles, Kempler, Daniel, & Wang, William S.-Y. (eds.), Individual differences in language ability and language behavior, 33–45. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith T. (1974). Strategies of status manipulation in Wolof greetings. In Bauman, Richard & Sherzer, Joel (eds.), Explorations in the ethnography of speaking, 167–91. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith T (1990). Registering affect: Heteroglossia in the linguistic expression of emotion. In Lutz, Catherine. A. & Abu-Lughod, Lila (eds.), Language and the politics of emotion, 121–61. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith T (1998). Ideologies of honorific language. In Schieffelin, Bambi B., Woolard, Kathryn A., & Kroskrity, Paul V. (eds.), Language ideologies: Practice and theory, 51–67. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Yong-Jin, & Biber, Douglas (1994). A corpus-based analysis of register variation in Korean. In Biber, Douglas & Finegan, Edward (eds.), Sociolinguistic perspectives on register, 157–81. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirchhoff, Paul (1952). Mesoamerica. In Tax, Sol (ed.), Heritage of conquest, 17–30. Glencoe: Free Press.Google Scholar
Ladd, D. Robert. (2008). Intonational phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, Robin (1975). Language and woman's place. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Laughlin, Robert M. (1975). Great Tzotzil dictionary of San Lorenzo Zinacantán. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Laver, John (1968). Voice quality and indexical information. British Journal of Disorders of Communication 3:43–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laver, John (1980). The phonetic description of voice quality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Laver, John (1991). The gift of speech: Papers in the analysis of speech and voice. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Lefkowitz, Daniel, & Sicoli, Mark (2007). Creaky voice: Constructions of gender and authority in American English conversation. Paper presented at the 106th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Mandelbaum, David G. (ed.) (1949). Selected writings of Edward Sapir in language, culture, and personality. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mannheim, Bruce (2001). Iconicity. In Duranti, Alessandro (ed.), Key terms in language and culture, 102–5. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
McLemore, Cynthia (1991). The pragmatic interpretation of English intonation: Sorority speech. Austin: University of Texas, Austin dissertation.Google Scholar
Mendoza-Denton, Norma (1997). Chicana/Mexicana identity and linguistic variation: An ethnographic and sociolinguistic study of gang affiliation in an urban high school. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University dissertation.Google Scholar
Mendoza-Denton, Norma (1999). Turn-initial no: Collaborative opposition among Latina adolescents. In Bucholtz, Mary, Liang, A. C., & Sutton, Laurel A. (eds.), Reinventing identities, 273–92. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendoza-Denton, Norma (2008) Homegirls: Language and cultural practice among Latina youth gangs. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ochs, Elinor, & Schieffelin, Bambi (1984). Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories and their implications. In Shweder, Richard & LeVine, Robert (eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion, 276–320. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ohala, John (1994). The frequency code underlies the sound symbolic use of voice pitch. In Hinton, Leanne, Nichols, Johanna, & Ohala, John J. (eds.), Sound symbolism, 325–47. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Paulston, Christina B. (1976). Pronouns of address in Swedish: Social class semantics and a changing system. Language in Society 5:359–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peirce, Charles Sanders ([1902] 1955) Logic as semiotic. In Buchler, Justus (ed.), Philosophical writings of Peirce, 98–115. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Persons, Janet A. (1997). High pitch as a mark of respect in Lachixío Zapotec. Working papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics 41:59–60.Google Scholar
Podesva, Robert J. (2006). Phonetic detail in sociolinguistic variation: Its linguistic significance and role in the construction of social meaning. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University dissertation.Google Scholar
Podesva, Robert J (2007). Phonation type as a stylistic variable: The use of falsetto in constructing a persona. Journal of Sociolinguistics 11(4):478–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pye, Clifton (1980). The acquisition of grammatical morphemes in Quiché Mayan. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh dissertation.Google Scholar
Pye, Clifton (1986). Quiché Mayan speech to children. Journal of Child Language 13:85–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sapir, Edward (1927). Speech as a personality trait. American Journal of Sociology 32:892–905. Reprinted in David G. Mandelbaum (ed.), Selected writings of Edward Sapir in language, culture, and personality, 533–43. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searle, John R. (1976). A classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society 5:1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senft, Gunter (1997). Magical conversation on the Trobriand Islands. Anthropos 92:369–91.Google Scholar
Sicoli, Mark A. (2007). Tono: A linguistic ethnography of tone and voice in a Zapotec region. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan dissertation.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael (1981). The limits of awareness. Sociolinguistic Working Papers 84:1–10. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.Google Scholar
Starr, Rebecca L. (2007). Sweet voice: The role of voice quality in a Japanese feminine style. Paper presented at the 106th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Tannen, Deborah (1989). Talking voices. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tannen, Deborah (1993). Framing in discourse. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tannen, Deborah (2010). Abduction, dialogicality and prior text: The taking on of voices in conversational discourse. Plenary address presented at the 84th annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Baltimore, MD.Google Scholar
Tedlock, Dennis (1983). The spoken word and the work of interpretation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomason, Sarah G. (2001). Language contact: An introduction. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Wolf, Eric R. (1957). Closed corporate peasant communities in Mesoamerica and Central Java. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 13(1):1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar