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

TLDR

Voice qualities are increasingly studied as stylistic features, yet few studies examine them as primary indicators of speech registers. The study presents a case of Lachixío Zapotec voice‑registers and compares them across Zapotec, Nahuatl, and Mayan to assess whether such registers characterize Mesoamerica. The author describes the register system and tracks a speaker’s real‑time register switches, analyzing conversational structure to link register shifts with participant roles. Register shifts align with participant roles in conversation, and comparable patterns in Zapotec, Nahuatl, and Mayan support the hypothesis that voice registers are a Mesoamerican cultural feature. Keywords: voice quality, register, performance, metapragmatics, Mesoamerica, Zapotecan, Mayan, Nahuatl.

Abstract

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)*