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Totonac languages
Totonac is a Totonacan language cluster of Mexico, spoken across a number of central Mexican states by the Totonac people. It is a Mesoamerican language and shows many of the traits which define the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. Along with some 62 other indigenous languages, it is recognised as an official language of Mexico, though as a single language.[2] HistoryThe Totonac people are an indigenous group native to Totonacapan along the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico stretches from the Texan border to the Yucatán Peninsula. It includes the greatest topographic diversity in the country and contains a great variety of ecozones as well as microhabitats. The Totonac people share their territory with the Nahua, Otomí, and Tepehua (not to be confused with the Tepehuano language), all of which have communities within the region. Totonacapan is located in east central Mexico between present day Puebla and Veracruz. The people of Totonac have migrated to various cities such as Veracruz, Puebla, and Mexico City. Totonac populations are also found in colonized regions of Uxpanapa in southern Veracruz and the state of Quintana Roo in the eastern part of the Yucatán Peninsula. The Totonac inhabit two different types of environments: cool and rainy mesas of high altitude and warm and humid coastal lowlands.[3] NameThere are some sources that claim that the term Totonac, as explained by residents, means "people that come from where the sun rises." Other explanations of the term consist of derogatory meanings that indicate little capacity or ability to understand. However, there are other interpretations of the term which state that Totonac consist of the explanation that toto translates to "three" while naco translates to "corazón" for the overall meaning of totonaco becoming "three hearts".[3] ClassificationThe most recent proposal for the classification of the Totonac languages separates Misantla from a core Central group, and further divides that group into Northern and Lowland–Sierra families.[4][5]
PhonologyThe following is the Totonac phonology from Huehuetla, Sierra Norte de Puebla. Consonants
Distribution of the phonemes/p/ bilabial stop Two allophones: [p] voiceless bilabial stop [b] voiced bilabial stop, in free variation after a nasal consonant /t/ alveolar stop Two allophones: [t] voiceless alveolar stop [d] voiced alveolar stop, in free variation after a nasal consonant /k/ velar stop Two allophones: [k] voiceless velar stop [ɡ] voiced velar stop, in free variation after a nasal consonant /q/ stop uvular Three allophones: [q] voiceless uvular stop [ɢ] voiced uvular stop, in free variation after a nasal consonant [χ] voiceless uvular fricative, in free variation after a fricative and in final position after the vowel /i/ /ʔ/ glottal stop This phoneme appears only in final position after a vowel and tends to disappear in speech. /l/ lateral sonorant [l] lateral alveolar sonorant [ɾ] alveolar flap, in free variation before /a/ /n/ alveolar nasal Three allophones: [n] alveolar nasal [ŋ] velar nasal, occurs before a velar stop [ɴ] uvular nasal, occurs before a uvular stop /j/ voiced palatal sonorant [j] voiced palatal sonorant [j̊] voiceless palatal sonorant, in free variation in syllable-final position /w/ voiced labiovelar sonorant [w] voiced labiovelar sonorant [w̥] voiceless labiovelar sonorant, in free variation in syllable-final position ObservationThe phoneme /ʔ/ presents a widely observed frequency within the Totonac languages spoken in the areas of Papantla and Xicotepec de Juarez (Ashmann, 1973 y Reid & Bishop, 1974). Crescencio García Ramos, in his work about the phonology of the Totonac of El Tajin, notes the mechanical character of the glottal closure and at the same time he points at the “operative importance” in certain positions (García Ramos, 1979: 153). He also presents a series of occlusive glottalized consonants: /pʔ/, /tʔ/, /kʔ/, /qʔ/, /tsʔ/, /tʃʔ/, /tɬʔ/.[6] In the variant that is studied here, there is an observed tendency to the disappearance of the phoneme /ʔ/; this notion is also mentioned by McQuown in the Coatepec dialect: “the phoneme /ʔ/ disappears under various circumstances” (McQuown, 1990: 85–86).[6] Vowels
/i/ front, high, closed, unrounded Five allophones: [i], [ĩ], [ɛ], [ɛ̃], [i̥] /iː/ front, high, closed, unrounded, long Three allophones: [iː], [ɛː], [iɛ] /a/ central, low, open, unrounded Three allophones: [a], [ã], [ḁ] /aː/ central, low, open, unrounded, long Two allophones: [aː], [ãː] /u/ back, high, closed, rounded Five allophones: [u], [ũ], [ɔ], [ɔ̃], [u̥] /uː/ back, high, closed, rounded, long Two allophones: [uː], [ũː] Morphology in Filomeno Mata TotonacMorphology in Filomeno Mata Totonac includes inflection, derivation, and compounding. Adjectives in this language have reduplication, which can also be seen throughout the use of this language. Speakers prefer to use verbal expressions more generally throughout their everyday way of speaking such as using words like "'instead of ‘visitors’, tiintamimáana ‘those who are coming’; instead of ‘seamstresses’, tiintsapananáh ‘those who sew’."Filomeno Mata Totonac is a verb-centric language and includes non-verbal elements as well. Filomeno Mata Totonac marks subject and object on the verb. Nouns in this language have a variety of structures of morphology. Regarding pronouns, there are no gender distinctions within this language. "Only one set of personal pronouns exists which may be used for subjects or objects."[7] The speakers of this language switch between the first person pronoun using either i-, a-, or e-. There is a contradiction between the language speakers of this language regarding the third person pronouns either using 'uu' or 'tsamá' because it can be used in different ways in a sentence. Independent pronouns
Examples showing personal pronouns
Possession in Filomeno Mata TotonacRegarding possession in Filomeno Mata Totonac, nouns can be inflected for possession however adjectives cannot be. With Kinship terms it always has possessive markers. It states that, " Body part nouns and nouns referring to items of clothing are also almost always possessed."[7] The possessive prefixes are kin- for first person, min- for second person, and š- for third person. kan- is used when it is suffixed to the noun and this happens when a plural possessor is involved. This can be shown in the following table:
It is common in this language that possessive affixation does not affect stress except in the noun 'house' which is ĉikị in Filomeno Mata Totonac. What happens with this particular word is that it the stress will shift into the prefix if it is 1st or 2nd person singular or take the plural suffix which will always carry the stress and it will look like "kinĉikkán ‘our house’, or minĉikkán for ‘your house’."When the noun referring to the possessor appears with the possessed noun, the order is POSSESSED-POSSESSOR, with the first noun affixed with possessive marker(s)."[7] This is consistent with the word order being VSO but can change to rule out adjective-noun word order in this case. When plural nouns are possessed, the possessive affixes occur outside of the plural morphemes. This is shown in the following table to give examples of this being portrayed.[7]
Clitics in Filomeno Mata TotonacClitics are a morpheme of a word that also has syntactic characteristics. Clitics are used in different categories of negation/negative polarity items, aspectual adverbials and other adverbials as well. The aspectual enclitics contain =ts’ḁ meaning ‘already’ and =kú’ụ meaning 'just;still’. Proclitics and enclitics attach to word classes in this language. For negative intensifiers, tuu=, tii=, łaa= and čii= can attach to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs and numbers. There are other clitics that are proclitics such as maya meaning 'nothing but' and laa meaning 'like' that attach to only nouns.[7] Examples of proclitics on how they are used in some sentences are shown in the following table.[7]
Numerical system in Filomeno Mata TotonacFilomeno Mata Totonac has a very interesting way of describing numbers and writing them out. It states that "the number roots from 11–19 are composed roughly of a ‘ten’ prefix and the numerals from 1–9. The numerals up to twenty prefixed by the general numeral classifier ’aq-, also used for spherical objects." The table below will only show the numbers from 1–20.[7]
Derivational morphology in Filomeno Mata TotonacThe non-verbal derivation that is used in Filomeno Totonac contains around "1500 nouns, adjectives and adverbs."[7] Most of the words are derived from verbs. Almost all non-verbal elements is achieved in verbs, both prefixation and suffixation. Reduplication is an exception to this in certain subsets. The derivational verbal morphology has a huge variety of verbal morphemes. It has "valence-changing affixes; negation and negative polarity items; distributive, desiderative, iterative, ambulative, totalitive and deictic affixes; and other more idiosyncratic ones".[7] Because Filomeno Mata Totonac is a language that has not been written down until recently, speakers differ on how to construct written words. Most of the derivational affixes occur only once on a verb however because of recursion, it can occur more than once. Examples of these morphemes are "–nii, causative maa-, and the instrumental applicatives lii- and puu-."[7] Derivation is achieves through affixation. Relating to inflectional affixes, derivational affixes happen when it is both preceding and following the verb stem. An example of a derivational morpheme is as follows the associative prefix maq- which indicates the action of a verb that is performed with others.The associative does not affect the valence of the verb. The verb maqtayaa (ASS.+stand) will then be translated into 'help someone'.[7]
Upper Necaxa Totonac syntaxUpper Necaxa Totonac (UNT) is an indigenous language from the area of Puebla, Mexico.[8] Simple sentencesUNT sentences are elastic and there is every combination of word order. The only exception to that rule is the sentence which has predicate initial structure where the verb is followed by the NP, as shown in the following example:
There is no firm order for SO or OS but when there are two NPs (noun phrases) people commonly use VSO order. A sentence such as “túksli Pedro Juan” is more likely to be understood as “Pedro hit Juan,” and less likely to be taken as “Juan hit Pedro.” Verbs normally appear at the beginning of the sentence but a focused subject may appear at the beginning followed by a verb as in the following sentences:
The previous examples are often encountered in narratives and discourse and may set the topic. In the sentence “Those animals you were bringing eat people.” I'm talking about those animals that you are bringing. When I want to tell you exactly what I'm talking about I give the topic first, which is the “those animals.” The use of personal pronouns is rare but usually found at the beginning of the sentence in discourse:
We may also note that in interrogative sentences the question word is at the beginning of the sentence. It appears that UNT is more concerned with giving you the most pertinent information first and not worried so much about having a rigid sentence order. More research needs to be done but this is how the language appears to work.[8] Copular clauseA copular predicate is necessary for use with nominal and adjectival predicates. The predicate connects noun and adjective and a nominal predicate compliments both. When using present tense the copula is zero, past and future tenses have their distinct copula. We can see how this works in the following sentences:
In the following example we can see how the verb “wan” (meaning “be”) is what the copula is based on. Through the morphological derivation the copula joins with the desiderative suffix “-kutun” giving us the meaning of “wanting to X,” as seen below:
Predicate nominals follow a word order with the subject at the beginning and verb at the end so that the copula is between them. Adjectival predicates follow the same style, as in the following:
When a copular sentence contains adjectival predicates and pronominal subjects the subject will be at the beginning of the sentence: Other than the perfect aspects, other copular aspects may be constructed as in the following:
NegationUNT negation employs the negative particle “xa” before the verb in a sentence:
Basically other than inserting “xa” before the verb to form the negative there is no other morphological changes in the sentence. Moreover, “xa” can be combined with animate and inanimate pronouns in order to achieve the equivalents of the words “no one” and “nothing” in English, as seen here:
The particle “le” is also used in combination with “xa” to express inability, as in the following example:
QuestionsInterrogative pronouns in UNT are used to ask questions, are focused, and appear at the beginning of a sentence to ask “Who? What? How? Where? When?”:
Because of the locative interrogative relative pronoun “xa” sound alike, most questions asking about location use the particle “tʃu” in order to avoid misinterpretation:
In order to ask the equivalent of English questions such as “which” and “what kind,” we can add the particle “ya” to “ti” (who) and “tu” as demonstrated in the following questions:
Asking “yes/no” questions in UNT is the same as when you are making a statement with the exception of the rising intonation at the end of the sentence indicating the need for a yes/no response: Complex sentencesCoordinationIn UNT the common coordinating conjunctions are “ʔe” (and) and “ʔo” (or) and are suspected to have been borrowed from the Spanish “y” and “o” and are used in much the same way as their Spanish and English counterparts, as seen here:
No evidence of coordination of other kinds of words or phrases has been found to date, but there are the conjunctions “ʔo” (or) and “pal” (if) are equal to “either...or”:
UNT also employs the adverb "na," roughly equivalent to the English "both" and "also."
These two coordinating conjunctions are rare. SubordinationUNT has a uniform pattern for building finite subordinate clauses. First, we have a relative pronoun or complementizer which is followed by an ordinary finite verb. Relative clausesRelative clauses are formed around a verb preceded by “ti” or “tu.” “Ti” is used for humans, supernatural beings and certain animals after the noun being modified.
Similarly to how we used it with questions, we add the particle “ya” to distinguish between “what” and “which one.” Inanimates and animals considered of low status take the form “tu” rather than “ti.”
Complement clausesSemantically, we can sort these clauses into two groups, the first type being the one referred to as a “headless relative clause,” that is referred to in arguing the embedded clause. The other is “sentential complement clause” that refer to an event or state of affairs. Here are some examples of “headless relatives.”
It's interesting to note the expression some older people use to refer to one's wife, “ti ma wí” which literally translates to “the one that feeds him” in English.
Although they sometimes occur, headless relatives with the pronoun “tu” are less common.
Another type of complement clause is the non-argument that is formed with other relative pronouns as seen in the following:
With the exception of the relative pronoun, ordinary matrix and embedded clauses are the same. Sentential clauses are usually formed by using the conjunction “paɬ” (if).
Adverbial clausesThese are subordinate clauses that are used to express time, location, manner, motive, purpose, condition and are preceded by one of two complementizers used to build clauses that are time-related. These are “akʃní” ‘when’ and “li waná”(Pt.)/“li wán” (Ch.), ‘while.’ The former is the more commonly used and the latter rarely.
An adverbial clause referring to a place will be preceded by “xa” (where).
This example demonstrates how clauses can serve as a complement instead of a verb modifier:
Another subordinating conjunction in UNT is “tʃu nú” (because):
Less often, the conjunction “tʃi” is used, as in the following:
It is far more common for speakers to use the prefix “li”:
The Spanish language has donated “porque” (because) as seen in these examples:
UNT has the purpose modifier “ki nú,” although purpose isn't commonly expressed:
The conjunctions “xá ʃku” and “lÍ wa” (Ch.)/”li kwá” also form subordinate clauses of purpose:
“Pal” (if) and “pa lá” (if not) will commonly precede a conditional clause, as seen here:
“Su” and “pentú” are two other complementizers that are negative:
These two are not seen very often and the former is believed to be of foreign origin. In addition to borrowing the Spanish “porque,” UNT has also borrowed the modifier “ásta” (until), as seen below:
“Asta” has a double meaning in UNT and can be used as a marker for time when it's combined with another modifier such as “xa,” but can also be used in the adverbial sense. Translations
See also
References
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