Musicolinguistic documentation: Tone & tune in Tlahuapa Tù'un Sàví songs

This study introduces a new methodology for integrating musical and linguistic data in language documentation, using ABC notation and open-source tools like ELAN and MuseScore. Designed for portability and exportability, and to facilitate both linguistic analysis and community-oriented material development, this methodology is used here to explore the link between linguistic tone and musical tune in Tlahuapa Tù'un Sàví, a Mixtec language of Guerrero, Mexico. Through a multimodal analysis of three Tlahuapa Tù'un Sàví songs, this study illuminates several interactions between tone and tune, including a strong preference for melodic lines to move in parallel with the tone melody of the lyrics and associations between musical ornamentation and specific tonemes. The results of this study not only increase our understanding of the tonal system of Tlahuapa Tù'un Sàví and its interaction with musical style but also help illustrate the rich potential of musical data in linguistic research and documentation. More than simply language data with a melody, the combination of music and language in song offers a unique opportunity for analysis not otherwise possible, and the methodologies demonstrated here aim to make this combination as accessible as possible for researchers, archivers, and community members alike.