The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

165) /ta-akta-aa-c"a’a&/
MV-descend-IMPF-THERE
[ta’aktayaanc"á’a&]/[ta’aktayaac"á’a&]
‘he lands over there’
2.6.5.3 Glottal feature epenthesis at prosodic boundaries. Plain consonants are prohibited at
the right edge of a phrasal boundary in FM Totonac. In §2.3.1.5, the lexical process of glottal
stop epenthesis at the left edge of words, preceding vowel-initial roots and prefixes, was
discussed. In addition, FM Totonaco has a postlexical process of glottal feature epenthesis at the
right edge of words preceding a pause.
Since laryngeal consonants are common epenthetic segments at prosodic boundaries (Hyman
1989; Blevins 2008), an analysis of these glottal features as epenthetic features demarcating
domains seems well-motivated and explains their unusual distribution. Except for a handful of
lexical items (see example 11), glottal stops and spread or constricted glottis features attached to
consonants are limited to prosodic boundaries in FM Totonac, either at the left edge (preceding
vowel-initial roots or prefixes) or at the right edge (prepausally). This can be stated as a
constraint against glottalization word-internally after the root onset (see §2.6.4.1 for a description
of y rather than $ as the epenthetic consonant within this domain).
This limited distribution of glottals is particular to FM Totonac, but is not unusual for a Totonaco
language. MacKay (1999:42) remarks on the distribution of $ in Misantla Totonac as differing
from that of all other consonants, in that it appears either as a epenthetic segment syllableinitially,
or else word-finally on nominals only, and never in consonant clusters. Troiani
(2004:33), writing about Huehuetla Puebla Totonac, notes that the glottal stop occurs only in
absolute final position following a vowel, and tends to disappear in connected speech. Levy
(1987:60-61) mentions glottal stop as an optional demarcative feature preceding a vowel-initial
root or prefix in Papantla Totonac, and as a marker of end of utterance word-finally following a
short vowel.
Even segments that are morphologically glottalized have phonetically realized constricted glottis
features only when the prosodic domain marking function is also active. There are two
constructions in which glottalization serves a morphological or morphosyntactic function in FM
Totonac. First, the second person singular subject is marked in two aspects by glottal features
attached to the final consonant of the verb, as in tantlíy’! ‘you dance’ (see §4.8.1.2). Second,
certain deverbal nominalizations without suffixes are marked in the same way, for example,
takúk’! ‘load’ (see §3.3.11.7). In many cases the constraint against word internal glottalization
results in morphological neutralization, particularly with 2SUB.sg marking, where the glottal
feature is often all that distinguishes second person from third. It seems that FM Totonac may be
near the end of a historical process that has relegated glottal stops primarily to a prosodic
boundary-marking role.
! (-!