The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

4.8.1 Subject inflection. The subject agreement affixes are shown in Table 4.6, along with the
glottalization process which marks second person singular in certain aspects.
Table 4.6 Subject inflection
1 k-
Singular Plural
2 -[cg] IMPERFECTIVE/PERFECT
-ti& PERFECTIVE/PROGRESSIVE
3 " ta-
! "#*!
(k-). . .-wa&
exclusive
inclusive
4.8.1.1 First person subject. The prefix k- has the semantic content of ‘first person subject
exclusive’. When it appears without a plural marker, it indicates a first person singular subject.
Although consonant degemination is sometimes found in the phonology (see §2.6.2.2.2), k-k
sequences that result from first person subject inflection on a stem beginning with a k do not
usually simplify’ although sometimes the k- prefix is replaced by aspiration.
60) ks%aamá
/k-s"ama-aa/
1SUB-touch-IMPF
‘I touch it’
61) s%akki"wama
/s"-k-ki#-wan-maa/
PAST-1SUB-MOUTH-say-PROG
‘I was saying’
The first person plural marker is the suffix –w!, which marks 1 st plural subjects OR objects.
First person plural exclusive subject is indicated by k- plus –w!, while –w! alone indicates 1 st
plural subject inclusive. In the presence of the second person object suffix –ni, –w! does not
occur since they occupy the same suffix position (see example 66). –w!, like all the suffixal
–titi&
–wa&