The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

comprises three languages, Huehuetla, Pisaflores, and Tlachichilco Tepehua. The Totonac
branch has been posited to comprise four languages: Misantla, Papantla, Sierra and Northern.
However, with the possible exception of Misantla, these divisions are more likely to be subbranches,
each made up of various languages and dialects. The relevance of the Sierra-Northern
division to the highlands varieties is unclear, since some highland varieties (e.g., Filomeno Mata)
seem to have elements of both branches. More research is needed to determine the genetic
affiliations of the dialects in this region and the larger groupings.
Filomeno Mata Totonac is a distinctive highlands variety that exhibits characteristics of both
Sierra and Northern. The speakers refer to it as liisantutumínku 1 , approximately ‘the speech of
Santo Domingo’, employing the older historical name for the village. The impression of most
Totonac-Tepehua scholars (as expressed at a meeting convened by the Mexican Instituto
Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas in September 2006), based on the information available, is that
FM Totonac differs significantly from other surrounding varieties of Totonac, and it is
informally considered by students of Totonac to be likely to be a separate language. Filomeno
Mata-Coahuitlán Totonac is listed by Ethnologue as a separate language
(www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=tlp); however the Coahuitlán variety differs
enough from that spoken in Filomeno Mata to make this categorization questionable. Whether
FM Totonac is a dialect or a language, and which branch it belongs in, are questions to be
answered by further comparative research, to which this dissertation will contribute. I will not try
to answer the question here, and will alternate between the neutral term ‘variety’ and the
unproven term ‘language’ to refer to FM Totonac.
1.3 Sociolinguistic sketch. Filomeno Mata is a mountainside village in the state of Veracruz,
Mexico that gives its name to the variety of Totonac spoken there. It lies on the border with the
state of Puebla, at the end of the road that winds up to the top of the mountain. Filomeno Mata
has been quite isolated until recently; it was only about 23 years ago that it was linked to the
outside world by a rough dirt road and electrical and phone lines. When I began my fieldwork in
2003, it still appeared cut off from the surrounding majority society. Of the 10-14 thousand
inhabitants (per the State of Veracruz government website), approximately a third are
monolingual in Totonac, another third are Totonac speakers with limited Spanish skills, and most
of the final third of the population are bilingual in Spanish and Totonac (these figures are based
on my informal poll and personal observations). Virtually all children learn the language at
home. Most men and women wear traditional dress and engage in traditional occupations. On my
last visit in 2008, a paved road had finally been completed, and signs of change were suddenly
evident everywhere: crates of produce from California and Chile, courtesy of the globalized
market; Internet cafes along the main street; and much more Western clothing. In spite of the
present robustness of the language community, a tipping point will probably be reached fairly
1 Throughout this dissertation I will transcribe Totonac words with the Americanist version of
the IPA, which differs from the latter in the symbols # instead of #; $ for t#; and the apostrophe ’
rather than $. Except when specifically marked within square brackets ([ ]; for narrow phonetic
transcriptions) or within slash marks (/ /; for phonemic transcriptions), my renderings will show
an intermediate level of phonetic representation. See §2.1.1 for further detail on notation
conventions.
! #!