The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

For other speakers, vowel harmony continues to be a much more productive process, with most
roots taking the harmonic form of the indefinite object.
The indefinite object suffix with its ‘habitual’ semantics appears to be the origin of the agentive
suffix, -nV’V, in deverbal nouns (tlaq-nán ‘s/he plays (an instrument) habitually/for a living’ and
tlaq-ná’a ‘musician’). The agentive usually takes the form –na’a", and shows vowel harmony
with the same set of verbs as the indefinite object suffix, in other words, the same lexicalization
seems to be at work.
109) Examples of vowel harmony in –na’a
staa-ná’a& tsoq-nú’u& ’aq-siit-ní’i&
‘seller’ ‘writer’ ‘barber’
Finally, a single lexicalized form exists in which a prefix, the causative maa-, shows vowel
harmony with the root xuu ‘in vertically’: kmuuxúu k"toxóx ‘I put it in the backpack’.
2.6.4.3 Pre-clitic aspiration. Preceding clitics and bound roots, stem-final vowels become
aspirated. More specifically, aspiration is inserted after a short vowel, and with long vowels, the
second mora of the vowel is devoiced and is heard as h. The clitics involved are =ku’u" STILL,
=ts’! YA, and =w"! ADJECTIVIZER, and the bound root is –tsuu ‘short’.
110) /tsinks-maa-ts’a&/ 111) /la-maa-kuu& k-mayakti&/
hungry-PROG-ALREADY live-PROG-STILL LOC-Mecatlán
[ktsinksmáhts’] [lamahkúu kmayákti&]
‘he is hungry already’ ‘she still lives in Mecatlán’
112)/c"uta-w&a&/ 113) /paa-tsuu/
flex-ADJ belly-short
[c"utáhw&a&] [pahtsú’u&]
‘flexible’ ‘closely planted rows’
2.6.4.4 Final suffix simplification. When verbal suffixes appear word-finally, most of them are
simplified phonologically. The suffixes involved are the imperfective and perfect aspect markers
–aa and –niit! in S12; all suffixes with final latent vowels; all suffixes that end in long vowels;
all n final suffixes; and iterative –pa!a.
! ("!