The phonology and morphology of Filomeno Mata Totonac

predicted of the Meso-American linguistic area (Campbell, Kaufmann, Smith-Stark 1986):
POSS-NOUN1 NOUN2.
3.3.2.1 Possessive morphemes. The possessive prefixes are kin- 1 st person, min- 2 nd person, and
#- 3 rd person. When a plural possessor is involved, –kan is suffixed to the noun. The final nasal in
the first and second person possessive morphemes deletes preceding a continuant, yielding
allomorphs ki- and mi-. When the third person possessive prefix, #- would create a geminate at a
morpheme border, the possessive #- alternates with k-. (This also holds true of the homophonous
past tense prefix #-, but not of the final - # of body part prefixes pi#- ‘neck’ and qaapi#- ‘thigh’,
which optionally but infrequently degeminate through deletion). Most false geminates are
tolerated in FM Totonac, although a few other affixes undergo either obligatory or optional
simplification when their initial or final consonants are found adjacent to a like phoneme (see
§2.6.2.2 for details on degemination).
Table 3.6 Possessive paradigms: túmin ‘money’
Singular Plural
kin-túmin ‘my money’ kin-tumin-kán ‘our money'
min-túmin ‘your money' min-tumin-kán ‘your money'
s%-túmin ‘his/her/its money' s%-tumin-kán ‘their money'
#tíilan ‘hen’
ki-s%tíilan ‘my hen’ ki-s%tíilan-kán ‘our hen'
mi-s%tíilan ‘your hen' mi-s%tíilan-kán ‘your hen'
k-s%tíilan ‘his/her/its hen' k-s%tíilan-kán ‘their hen'
Normally possessive affixation does not affect word stress. The one exception is the noun $iki"
‘house’. When it has a first or second person singular possessor, stress shifts to the prefix: kín$iki"
‘my house’; ‘mín$iki" ‘your house’; the other possessed forms of $iki" are either monosyllabic
(#$iki" ‘his/her house’) or take the plural suffix (kin$ikkán ‘our house’, min$ikkán ‘your house’)
which always carries the stress.
3.3.2.2 Possessed word order. When the noun referring to the possessor appears with the
possessed noun, the order is POSSESSED-POSSESSOR, with the first noun affixed with
possessive marker(s). This possessive structure is typical of the Meso-American linguistic area.
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