The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

21) Examples of human-referring nouns in #a-
qawáac%a& ‘boy’ s%aqawáac%a& ‘male (pigs or dogs of any
! ,+!
age)’
qoolú’u& 'old man' s%aqoolú’u& ‘male (other animals of
any age)’
sqata& ‘baby’ s%asqáta& ‘fresh, young one’
tsi’iti& ‘(any) female’ s%atsí’iti& ‘female (other animals)’
tsumuxáati& ‘girl’ s%atsumuxáati& ‘female (pigs or dogs)’
The terms #aqawáa$! ‘the son’ and #atéko ‘the father’, #atsumuxáati" ‘the girl’ and #anáana’!
‘the mother’ are also employed to distinguish a parent and child of the same name.
3.3.6.2 #a- and nouns < adjectives. To use an adjective as a noun of the form ‘the X one(s)’, it
is prefixed with #a-. This process is available to all adjectives.
22) Examples of deadjectival nouns
maqán ‘old’ s%amaqán ‘the old man’
tsée ‘good’ s%atsée ‘the good one, the best’
sáasti& ‘new’ s%asáasti& ‘the new one’
tsutsóqo& ‘red’ s%atsutsóqo& ‘the red one’
spupónqo& ‘blue’ s%aspupónqo& ‘the blue one’
snapápa& ‘white’ s%alaksnapápa& ‘the white ones’
Because FM Totonac is a zero-copula language, a phrase of the form ADJ-NOUN, such as
tsitséeqe n kintamáqnu may be interpreted as ‘my shirt is black’ or ‘my black shirt’. To ensure
the attributive reading, the #a- prefixed adjective is used: #atsitséeqe n kintamáqnu ‘my black
shirt’ (‘my shirt the black one’).
3.3.7 ‘Companion’ derivation. A few nouns allow the derivation of a possessed form meaning
‘X’s companion or fellow kind’ with the prefix taa-. This affix is etymologically related to
comitative taa- (see §5.4.2.1). It is almost always found referring to second or third persons:
23) Companion derivation examples
lakc%ic%íin ‘dogs’ s%-taa-lakc%ic%íin ‘his fellow dogs’
s%tíilan ‘hen’ s%-taa-s%tíilan ‘her companion hens’
lakpuskáan ‘women’ min-taa-lakpuskáan ‘your companion women’
laqawaac%án ‘boys’ s%-taa-laqawaac%án ‘his fellow boys’
lakc%is%kuwíin ‘men’ min-taa-lakc%is%kuwíin ‘your fellow men’