The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

The treatment of initial b in borrowed words in FM Totonac is not uniform; it may be borrowed as
p, b, or w, as shown in the final three examples of 210). It is possibly relevant that Spanish stops
are spiranticized unless preceded by a pause or a stop, so word-initial stops may have two
allophones depending on their context. With the labial stop, it is unclear how the allophones, b and
ß affect the outcome. It is possible that for some words, the most frequent phrasal context may
explain the difference. While Totonac does not have a voicing contrast in any segment, stops do
occasionally become at least partially voiced intervocalically, and this fact may also influence the
outcome.
2.9.1.2 Fricatives. The analysis of the fricatives is complicated by the fact that the Spanish
sibilants were undergoing a readjustment precisely during the period in question here, the first half
of the 16th (Penny 2002:101). The conquistadores may have had a dento-alveolar s", an alveolar s
and a prepalatal #, however, the first two merged and the prepalatal became velar x around 1650.
Spanish s, which was probably apical in the 16 th century dialect, was borrowed into Totonac
almost as often as s as it was as #. It is possible that Totonac listeners may have perceived the
apical s as randomly varying between the two sibilants, but since a Spanish s in similar contexts
could be borrowed as either phoneme (e.g. karastiánu < Sp. cristiano ‘person’, but ka#tíla < Sp.
castellano ‘Spanish’), more analysis is needed.
211) Examples of loan words with sibilants
sáapatu& < Sp. sábado ‘Saturday’
s%inúula < Sp. señora ‘lady’ ‘non-indigenous woman’
kapunésus < Sp. japoneses ‘Japanese’ ‘tangerine’
’áawas" < Sp. habas ‘lima bean’
Words with the Spanish phoneme that was changing from # to x at this time were borrowed with #
as in ká#a < Sp. caja ‘box’ and ’áa#u# < Sp. ajos ‘garlic’. Spanish f generally becomes p in
loanwords, as in kapé < Sp. café ‘coffee’. With both Spanish f and x, there are cases where they
are replaced by k, e.g. #akwers < Sp. a fuerzas ’by force’ (#a- is the adjectivizing prefix) and
kapunésus < Sp. japoneses ‘Japanese’ (but meaning ‘tangerine’). A relevant fact may be the
strong aspiration of syllable-final stops in FM Totonac, and particularly the release of syllablefinal
uvular stops into the africate q ( . Listener misperception could lead to an analysis of Spanish
fricatives as the release burst of a stop.
2.9.1.3 Liquids. FM Totonac usually replaces all the Spanish laterals and rhotics with l or
syllable-finally with ". There are some cases, however, of the tap or trill rhotic, or even l, being
borrowed as a tap. In the single case of kawáyu < caballo (with a palatal l) ‘horse’, the lateral is
borrowed as y.
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