The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

55) takúk’a& 56) taqás"’i&
/ta-kuka/ /ta-qas"i/
PURP-carry PURP-punch
‘load’ ‘punch’
3.3.12 Nouns and reduplication. The final morphological operation to be noted relating to
nouns is full reduplication, which is very rare in the language, otherwise found only with
ideophonic sound and manner of motions adverbials. It is possible only with a handful of time
expressions, and derives adverbs from nouns, such as kaat-kaat ‘annually’ from kaat ‘year’, and
$aali-$aali ‘daily’ from $aali ‘tomorrow’.
3.4 Adjectival morphology. In previous sections of this chapter, adjectives have been shown to
undergo some of the same constructions as nouns: the inflectional process of pluralization
(§3.3.1.6); derivation with Body Part Prefixes (§3.3.3.2); and cliticization with the
negative/negative polarity proclitics (§3.3.9.1) and both aspectual enclitics (§3.3.9.2). In §3.3.6.2
the derivation of nouns from adjectives was covered.
In addition, two processes exist which apply only to adjectives, both involving the clitic =w&a". I
analyze =w&a & & as an enclitic because it takes as host words of various classes and is unstressable.
It causes aspiration of a preceding vowel like the enclitics =ts’! and =kú’u" (§2.6.4.3). Finally,
adjectives show evidence of partial reduplication.
3.4.1 Approximate =w"!. The basic color terms and a few other adjectives are given an
‘approximate’ meaning when cliticized with =w"!.
3.4.1.1 Color adjectives and =w"!. The clitic = w"a", with semantics similar to English –ish,
attaches to any basic color term to give an approximation of that color. This suffix determines
stress on the final stem syllable, and causes aspiration of a preceding vowel.
Table 3.20 Color adjectives in =w"!
laas"ás"w&a& < láas"us" ‘orange’ ‘orange-ish’
spuponqóhw&a&