Learn about tones in Santiago Laxopa Zapotec!

In Santiago Laxopa Zapotec, words have different melodies. For instance, in some words, the pitch will start high and end low, and in others, the pitch will stay low through the whole word.

On this page, you can play our "Game of Tones", where Maestra Fe Silva-Robles will teach you some Santiago Laxopa Zapotec words, and you can practice listening to their melodies.

To start, see if you can hear the difference between the two words below: beku' "dog" and beye' "snow". Click on the blue boxes to hear Maestra Fe say the words. Listen to their melodies!

beku'

beye'

Can you hear how beku' starts high and falls, and beye' stays very flat? These are two of the melodies that words can have in Santiago Laxopa Zapotec.

Below, we'll give you some more words, and you can see if you can figure out which words have which melodies.