The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

"ku ‘burn’ qa"i ‘have, wait’
"tata ‘sleep’ skux ‘work’
mas ‘rot’ sput ‘run out, be finished’
min ‘come’ s%kulu ‘smoke’
moqos ‘fall’ s"lit ‘slip’
muksun ‘smell good’ tant"i ‘dance’
mus"tu ‘drown’ tasa ‘cry’
nii ‘die’ tlaawan ‘walk’
paati ‘suffer’ was % ‘dig’
paastak ‘think’
4.3.3 Transitive verbs. Transitive verbs can be divided into two sub-groups, transitives and
ditransitives. There are only a handful of verbs in the latter subclass. Again, no formal marking
differentiates the inherently transitive verbs from the statives or intransitives, but they are always
understood to include a direct object in their core meaning. Ditransitives include a direct and
indirect object. The only inherent ditransitives found in my sample are shown in 16); other
researchers note an equally small number in other varieties of Totonac.
15) Examples of transitives
c%an ‘sow it’ skin ‘request it’
c%eqee ‘wash it’ staa ‘sell it’
c%ii ‘tie it’ s"ama ‘touch it’
kaa ‘cut it’ s"ka ‘bite it’
laaqtsin ‘see it’ tamaawa ‘buy it’
maqtaqa" ‘take care of it’ tlaq ‘play (an instrument)’
puutleqe ‘count it’ tsuuk ‘kiss it’
qa"a ‘steal it’ waa ‘eat it’
rentarli ‘rent it’ 4 wan ‘say it’
16) Examples of ditransitives
maq"ti ‘take it away/receive it from him/her/it’
mis"ki ‘give it to him/her’
4 This is one of two verbal borrowings from Spanish (used by my youngest consultant only),
both transitive verbs. The other is konfesarli, ‘confess someone/.
! """!