A Mixtec Sound Change Database

Abstract

We present an interlinked, expandable database of segmental sound changes among a large sample of Mixtec languages of Mexico. The database provides an up-to-date repository for scholars working on Mixtec and related languages. It serves the wider historical linguistics community by providing a model for managing large data sets in a way that streamlines traditional historical linguistic analysis at the same time as preparing the data for computational and quantitative analysis. We build upon previous studies but also introduce a novel annotation scheme for analyzing sound change in large and complex language groups or families. The database is hosted on GitHub (https://github.com/SAuderset/MixteCaSo) so that it can be improved and expanded on in the future. Publication versions such as this one are archived on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10630996).

Keywords

• sound change
• comparative method
• mixtec languages
• subgrouping