The Mesoamerican linguistic area is typified by an extremely rich and varied set of prosodic systems.
From the complex tonal systems found in Oto-Manguean languages to the accentual and, in some cases,
incipient tonal systems found in Mayan languages, the diversity of word-level prosody in Mesoamerica
reflects the extreme time-depth and complex history of the language stocks spoken there. This chapter
examines this diversity and provides an overview of research undertaken in this area. Topics include
the areal proliferation of tonal complexity; the interaction between stress, tone, and segmental contrasts;
the phonetics of tone and phonation type; metrical structure; and higher-level tonal/accentual phenomena.
Individual case studies from different languages also highlight the elaborate interactions between
morphological and word-prosodic structure. Together, these topics underscore the importance of research
on Mesoamerican languages to current topics in both phonological theory and linguistic typology.