"Hey, David, what about the 'x' in muxe'? Where did that come from? And what IS a muxe', anyway?"

Glad you asked!

Sit back, mi gente. Time to get our X on.

MEXICAN X, PART XIII: THE MUXE' AND THE SPANISH SIBILANT SHIFT

1/

One of the great things about our having a house in Oaxaca (on the coast, not far from Mazunte) is that the southern Mexican state is not just rich in flora, fauna, and unique culture ... it has also kept alive indigenous queer identity like nowhere else in Mexico.

2/

Best known in the community of Juchitán de Zaragoza, the muxe' is an individual belonging to a 3rd gender. Typically assigned male at birth, a muxe' takes on clothing, gender roles, & attitudes associated with women.

They embrace a duality that doesn't fit our categories.

3/

As one muxe' has put it, "I was born with the strength of a man and the sensibility of a woman, but I am neither. Or both."

It's easy to try to pigeon-hole the muxe' community as trans or gay, but as with the xochihuah identity I've discussed before, it's not reducible.

4/

The muxe' community, their families, their allies (most of whom are members of or have roots in indigenous Zapotec society) tell us that this third gender was a part of their culture long before the Spanish Conquest.

There's solid evidence for this affirmation.

5/

Now, like "Mayan," "Zapotec" is actually a family of many interrelated (but often mutually unintelligible) languages. One of their marked differences from other indigenous Mesoamerican tongues is that they tend to be tonal, like Chinese languages.

Let's look at gender names. 6/

The word for "male" is something like nguiùu’ (specifically from San Lucas Quiaviní Zapotec). In that language, female is mnnààa’.

Bùuny nguiùu’ (male person) is what’s used for "man." Bùuny mnnààa’ would be female person or "woman."

(Zapotec linguists, correct errors.) 7/

Now, an anonymous 16th century text titled "Vocabulario castellano zapoteco" included a few other words, glossed in grossly homophobic Spanish, that indicate there was indeed a third gender in that region.

The transliteration system used by the would-be linguist is wonky.

8/

But they mention the following (I'm tweaking the glosses a bit in English):

nacalachicica bennigoona (feminine man)
benigonaaguielachi (masculine woman),
beniricaalezaaniguio (gay man)
benibiraaxe or benibixegonaa (gay man who acts like a woman)

9/

That last term appears to be bùuny birax ... meaning "a birax person."

Birax is a term used in Teotitlán del Valle, close to Oaxaca de Juárez (the capital city). Also known as a biza'ah, a birax is essentially of the same third gender as a muxe'.

Which raises a question.

10/

If "birax" is the term used in the 16th century, why do third gender individuals in Oaxaca now use muxe' instead?

Where did that word come from?

First, note the pronunciation.

/muʃeʔ/

The "x" is a "sh" sound. The apostrophe is a glottal stop, a hitch in the throat.

11/

MOO sheh'. Roughly.

It's not an indigenous word.

It's 16th century Spanish.

Mujer.

If you've been reading these Mexican X threads, you'll remember that colonial "x" was pronounced "sh." But what about the "j"?

How does "mujer" become "muxe'"?

Let's talk sibilants.

12/

Sibilants are hissing consonants like "s" and "sh." In the 15th century, Medieval Spanish had SEVEN OF THEM.

Now there are just two (or three, depending on what country you live in).

The reduction of these sibilants was happening right as the Conquest happened.

13/

The 7

/ʒ/ written j or g
/z̪/ "z"
/t͡ʃ/ "ch"
/t͡s̪/ "c" before e/i; "ç" before a, o, u
/z̺/ written s between vowels
/s̺/ "s" at end/beginning of syllables; "ss" between vowels
/ʒ/ "g" before e/i; "j" elsewhere

and our famous
/ʃ/ written "X" (sh)

14/

(If you were ever wondering about the bizarre orthographic system imposed on Nahuatl and Mayan languages, this is part of that puzzle. Modern Spanish sound system is RADICALLY different now than 500 years ago).

First thing that happened was devoicing of voiced sibilants.

15/

This had tons of repercussions, but I won't bore you with them all.

Let's focus on the one that is relevant.

/ʒ/ –> /ʃ/

So "mujer," which thru the 15th century had been pronounced /muʒer/ (with a sound like English "azure"), became /muʃer/ in the 1500s (moo SHEHR).

16/

Many words containing 'j' (which was now pronounced as if it were a 'x') would be misspelled by the barely literate Spanish soldiers & indigenous people they were colonizing.

It is not at all surprising that, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the word "mujer" became "muxer." 17/

And it's no wonder to me that birax folx would take ownership of the epithets hurled at them in Spanish, turning "muxer" into a badge of honor, infusing it with native tonality, replacing its 'r' with the glottal stop, wholly remaking the word into a self-affirming label.

18/

The beautiful, vital muxe', embraced by their families, valued members of their community ... celebrated each November with a 3-day festival: Vela de las Intrepidas (Vigil of the Intrepids)--floats, street dancing & a coronation in which local muxes show off their dresses. 19/19

Compiled and expanded as a Medium article: https://medium.com/@davidbowles/mexican-x-part-xiii-the-muxe-and-the-spanish-sibilant-shift-fc7ecf88279?source=friends_link&sk=6e86cae054467359754f0b8558186373